Apiux is a pioneer in a model that allows it to share a percentage of its annual profits with a group of its employees. Learn more about Yellower Share (Y-Share).
The post-pandemic years have been atypical for talent and companies around the world. ‘The Great Resignation’, led to the resignation of 4.4 million people from their jobs in the United States.
What does that mean for companies? Tech talent are looking for more than simple jobs. They want places where they can grow, develop, be motivated, and belong.
Around 2021 and 2022, Apiux’s management team was wondering how to make a different company, and how to make Yellowers feel that their work contributes to something bigger and that it belongs to them.
That is when Y-Share was born as a way that Yellowers can become shareholders of the Apiux Group and obtain a percentage of the company’s yearly profits.
From Cooperative to Partnership: What does innovation imply?
At first, Francisco Figueroa, Apiux’s CEO and Founder, had in mind that the best way to achieve this was to turn the company into a cooperative.
“One Sunday I was reading the newspaper, and I saw in the news that Friosur would become a cooperative and I thought: we have to go that way. Later, reviewing the legal details, we realized that due to the nature of technology companies (high personnel turnover), it would not be the most viable option,” said Figueroa, explaining the story to all the Yellowers.
At a second point, it was thought that the best way would be to allow Yellowers to be direct shareholders of Apiux, but this limited the options to a very small group of people who met certain seniority and performance requirements. The idea was that many could be part of Y-Share.
Apiux also evaluated the path of going stock market and share stock options with employees, as Big Tech and some Fintechs in the region do. However, the company wanted something that involved innovation, exploring a new path.
After many attempts, false starts, and a dose of frustration in any innovation process, Apiux came up with an ideal model to meet the goal they were looking for to make many Yellowers feel part of it.
Now came the challenge of communicating Yellower Share to the entire company, explaining the initiative, and inviting Yellowers to join.
We Are Owners
At this point, you may be wondering: What exactly is Yellower Share? It is an association through which Yellowers can become shareholders of Apiux Group.
Those who decide to join, voluntarily, receive an annual cash flow with part of the profits that Apiux generates yearly. The conditions for joining are related to the time of permanence in the company and other details that have to do with commitment and a sense of belonging.
Although the main objective of this initiative is to recognize the contribution that Yellowers make to the company’s economic results, gradually we realized that it goes much further, and that Yellower Share became our key story as an employer brand.
Yellower Share quickly connected with our ‘We Are Owners’ value, with our Talent Manifesto, and with one of the competencies we measure in our performance management system: ‘YellOwners’.
But what if Yellowers do not want to be part of or identify with this story? Surely the initiative would not make much sense. That is why in the second half of 2022, Apiux took the leap a3nd invited many employees to join.
The campaign ended last November 17, 2022, a day that was christened Y-Share Day, and on which 39 Yellowers took the leap and became the first generation of partners.
We had a symbolic and very emotional ceremony. There, the members signed a document that marks a milestone in the history of the Yellowers and Apiux.