During the dot com era, everyone involved in a startup company was after stock options as employee incentives …with good reason. With the easy accessibility to venture capital, the public’s ravenous appetite for IPOs, and the opportunity to go from startup to exit in a year or two, stock options became the way to cash in on the gold rush.
However, times have obviously changed. Post-bubble, there are fewer IPOs, capital of all kinds is harder to come by, and the time from startup to exit has been returned to a more traditional pace. Therefore, if stock options aren’t what they used to be, how do you provide incentive for employees to burn the midnight oil and put in the extra effort that it undoubtedly takes to achieve success? There are ways to do it. While the promise of financial riches has value, there’s a variety of appealing alternative employee incentives that have more do with a quality of life that comes with working in an entrepreneurial business startup.
Create unique employee benefits
Make the notion of working for your startup business better than working at any alternative by offering other employee incentives, such as health care packages with broad coverage, a company car or even a membership to the local health club. These subtle benefits, while not directly monetary, have a big impact on the depth of commitment and appreciation expressed by employees.
Promote a team environment
Perhaps the least obvious, but most powerful, employee incentive ...
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