Better than 401(k)?: There's a move to get workers real long-term ownership in America's companies

By most metrics, employees have never been more disconnected from their work. Employee engagement in the U.S. fell to its lowest level in a decade last year, with roughly 31% of employees engaged, according to Gallup. Workers also are losing confidence in their company's future, with that sentiment falling to a record low, according to Glassdoor, leading many to either quit, or perhaps worse, stick around and do less.

Pete Stavros, co-head of global private equity at KKR, said that when he meets with CEOs and asks them how their employees are feeling, it often results in vague responses: "There's not a tremendous amount of insight," he said.

When KKR runs its own set of worker surveys across the companies in its portfolio, "The results consistently surprise CEOs to the downside. They're like 'Wow, yeah, I didn't know it was that bad.'"

Stavros has been championing a strategy that he believes can solve some of these issues, born out of his own decades of experience across hundreds of private equity deals but also his father's career journey working for a small construction company in Chicago: employee stock ownership.

"These programs can really meaningfully move the needle on culture when they're well implemented," he said. "These are outcomes that build wealth for workers, make them happier on...
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