“I started Harbinger Partners, an IT consulting and staffing firm, in 1999 with three non-negotiable employee objectives: the company must offer a culture that ensures all employees are delighted, benefits that exceed expectations, and employee ownership. From 1999 to early 2019, we offered stock to all salary employees – that was the only way I knew how to share in the ownership.  

Fast forward to 2018. I discovered ESOPs about the time I was reviewing my will and estate plan. The few options to get access to my investment in the company – selling the company or dying – were not very appealing to me. If I sold Harbinger, I would no longer be part of its future, and whoever bought it would most certainly not continue the culture for the employees who stayed part of the company. And dying, well, that’s not much of a win for me either!

We launched our ESOP in April 2019. It was quite a process and I’m so thankful I surrounded myself with an incredibly knowledgeable team to walk me through it. I’m just as excited about being an ESOP now as I was during the launching. The ESOP is a career highlight for me – right up there with winning The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Best Places to Work a record 16 times.

The ESOP incorporates all three of my initial objectives. Our employees are delighted that they have a financial stake in the company without investing monetarily. It creates a retirement saving without costing a cent – that’s way better than buying stock! It is also a unique benefit and a significant difference from our competition. And as part of ownership, the ESOP offers our employees a more direct role in growing the company and contributing to its culture. That is a win for me, the employees, and our clients.” 

~ Scott Grausnick, CEO, Harbinger Partners, Inc.