Synthetic Equity: Ushering in a new era of incentives

Synthetic equity refers to a collection of strategies and instruments used to provide employees with financial advantages of share ownership without actual shares changing hands. It is a potent instrument that practically all advanced investment organisations may utilise to attract, retain and reward competent employees.

The favourable economic qualities of equity are embedded into synthetic equity plans, also known as equity alternatives, without the financial obligations coming from purchasing shares from the initial owner. Instead, synthetic equity programmes often develop into cash payments to the employee and a corresponding deduction for the employer. Since it represents compensation, synthetic equity may be easily adjusted to handle almost any scenario.

The following scenarios exemplify the situations in which synthetic equity is an optimal solution:

• An employee desires ownership-like benefits but is unable or unwilling to assume the financial risk of purchasing and paying for company equity.
• An employee aspires to ownership but lacks the credentials or licenses required for a role of a full equity partner in the company.
• Employees feel uncomfortable providing personal guarantees or accepting responsibility for credit lines, office leases, payroll-related expenditures, or the commitments made under buy-sell or continuity agreements.
• A company owner wants to share the economic worth of equity rather than the actual equity. This includes owners not interested in supporting this transaction with seller financing.
• A company owner wishes to motivate an employee to work on increasing the company’s value but also wants to discourage them from leaving and creating competition for the business, engaging in client solicitation, or performing other actions that might harm the company.
• An owner planning to leave the company in the following 5-year period wishes to reward one or more critical workers at the time of the sale without requiring them to purchase and pay for equity.

Tokenisation of business and individual performance
The above method has been known for decades. The critical challenge in the modern business world is ensuring that innovation and productivity are rewarded equitably across an organisation. At the same time, executives must be compensated for creating these conditions.

However, rewarding innovation and equitably delivering executive-level incentives and rewards across the organisation from the top to the shop floor is the alternative made possible only by deploying smart contracts and blockchain technology – tokenising business and individual performance.

The tokenisation of business elements such as performance and innovation is one of the newest ways to drive planned outcomes. The process is about moving your business to blockchain.

Although it may seem complicated and challenging to implement, almost any entrepreneur can tokenise the building blocks of their business. Tokenisation is simply transforming a company’s value into a digitised resource in the form of tokens.

Tokens represent a value within the organisation in a transparent and auditable way. They can be cashed in upon completion of the vesting period if both company and individual targets have been met.

What makes Synthetic Equity on the chain unique is its transparency, auditability of incentives, and most notably, equitable distribution of tokens corresponding to each employee’s job size.

Conclusion
In the hands of a forward-thinking business leader, synthetic equity is a potent instrument. It may be utilised to solve the difficulty of attracting, rewarding, and maintaining top talent to create a great practice or viable business without the challenges of selling and paying for an actual ownership stake.

Like full stock, synthetic equity may refocus the employee’s attention and motivate them to contribute to a flourishing and profitable company.