Monday, April 25, 2016
Unique ESOP Strategy Places Comfort Supply in Forbes
Labels: Comfort Supply, Comfort Supply HVAC, employee ownership, employee stock ownership plan, ESOP, Forbes, HVAC 0 comments
Many companies choose to give their employees
a claim to the business. Usually this comes in the form of employee stock
ownership plans (ESOP). However, this approach doesn’t guarantee that the
employee is invested or feels ownership. At Comfort Supply, we have taken a
unique ESOP approach to engage our employees. In fact, it caught the eye of Forbes this past December.
Probably the most compelling feature of our ESOP program is our valuation approach. Instead of taking the usual route of one annual stock valuation, we created a powerful formula that allows for the valuation to be updated each month. These current valuation figured play a crucial role in our weekly staff meetings as we make projections for the coming months. These meetings and projections allow our entire team to see what our goals are and how each employee plays a part in reaching those goals.
Our ESOP plan allocates stock and cash to
participating employee accounts. And for employees 55 or older, they can
diversify a portion of their ESOP account. Another great feature of the program
is that the value of an employee’s ESOP account is not taxable until they leave
or retire.
At Comfort Supply, we believe that to
succeed, everyone must think and act like an owner. That’s why we help our team
members understand the unique role they play here and how they can contribute
to the success of our company and our customers.
As a result, our employees better understand
how profitability is driven, assets are used and cash is generated. We are
proud that our ESOP program not only brings our team together, but also rewards
them for their hard work.
