Homestead’s Short-Term Incentive and Retention Program for Employees is designed for cooperatives looking for a way to bolster their recruiting, retention and reward programs. Competition for talent remains elevated across job positions and in many cases wage hikes have not been enough to retain valuable employees. The costs to re-hire and re-train employees have been difficult to manage, particularly amidst high inflation, supply chain shortages and other economic challenges.
Stand Out in a Crowded Labor Market
People are at the heart of every cooperative and want to be part of an organization that values their hard work. This new program can help your cooperative stand out in a crowded labor market and retain employees across job roles and compensation levels, including in-demand positions like lineworkers. The program allows cooperatives (i) to offer structured incentive bonuses that have the potential to grow over time and (ii) to provide financial planning support from an investment adviser that was created by NRECA to provide financial services to cooperatives and their employees.
How it Works
Homestead representatives can provide guidance in structuring the program to help meet your cooperative’s workforce needs. Cooperatives can use our sample documents and forms to implement the program. Funding for the bonus awards is invested in a money market mutual fund that has the potential to earn income and in this way increase the value of the bonus amount. Initially, bonus awards are held in a Homestead Funds account registered to the cooperative. If and when the bonus award vests, the shares of the mutual fund are transferred to the employee.
A quarterly account statement can be provided to both cooperative management and the employee, which can serve as a consistent reminder of the award that is coming down the road or the amount potentially “left-on-the table” if they were to leave the cooperative.