The first component of my support program will be a program to train all new employees on the plan, and to provide them with information to help them take the greatest advantage of it. We expect to spend a number of hours educating our staff about equity compensation concepts, ensuring that they understand the principles that the plan is based on. I'm particularly concerned that I work to change what many people see here in Seattle as a 'lottery' mentality associated with equity compensation. I've never seen anything quite as comprehensive that helps employees clearly understand how their participation in the plan can grow and strengthen over time. It's pretty clear to me that we'll have to invest in a much less ambitious, but nonetheless complete, version of EON for our own intranet.
All small companies suffer from a focus on production rather than management.
In some ways, we're no different. Reviews in our companies are done but not as consistently, or with the kind of careful analysis that an equity compensation plan will require. I can imagine the problems we might have with a team member who doesn't agree with the review that dictates their option grant for the year. The upside of this greater concern will likely be the team's support of the work associated with more in-depth reviews. All of the above is a pretty clear indication that I'll need to grow our staff support team somewhat to provide time to get these parts of the program working.