The incentive for an employee is his/her salary and to do their job well.
They have very low effect on the success of the company other than doing their job well.
They have very low effect on the success of the company other than doing their job well.
By 'they' did you mean engineers at tech startups? They have a huge effect on the success of the company and options-based incentives directly cause vastly greater alignment and output.
(in general the shares reflect engineers' preferences, as they do require a certain level of salary and don't want to take as big risks as the founders. founders would be happy to give them more share and less salary! they have a huge impact on success.)