At ESOP Builders, we know there is value in doing things face to face, however certain circumstances require conducting business virtually. And why not conduct more and more business virtually? It’s almost more challenging to not conduct work virtually since there is motivation to do so in the form of COVID restricting in person contact, and ease or convenience to do it in the form of user-friendly technology.
As our previous ESOP clients will know, a key step in our implementation process is to have a Town Hall with employees to describe and explain the program, as well as educate and answer questions. Recently, however clients in the middle of the implementation process in March 2020 were suddenly thrown a completely unexpected curve-ball. One client moved forward with their ESOP, although delayed, and conducted our first ever virtual Town Hall. This client had moved all company meetings to virtual and said that overall it went well, but they found the need to significantly reduce meeting durations because people just can’t pay attention on a screen for that long. We worked with them to cut down the content from a 1-2 hour session to 30 minutes (including time for questions). However, the management team also did informal communication to ensure everyone understood the program, pushing to get everyone to ask questions, which was key when having such a short minute meeting for something that does require more. Also a key part of the Town Hall was having a detailed and straight forward employee info package for employees to review and contemplate 
after hearing about the plan during the Town Hall. This is something we always provide, but it is particularly useful when dealing in a virtual environment.
This particular client experienced a 60% and 70% participation rate (they implemented ESOPs in two different companies) which is excellent given the norm is 60-75%. Under the circumstances we revised our expectations to around 50% participation, therefore we are very pleased with the result and commend the company for making it happen!
Fortunately, technology made it easy to adapt and work through a different way of doing things.
By Joanna Phillips, CHRL, CVB, Vice President
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