Although Rachel Aird has worked with the Integrity Marketing Group for less than two years, she is receiving a bonus in cash this week, which she plans to spend on a vacation.
“It makes me feel valued and appreciated,” said Aird, Integrity Marketing Group’s PR Director.
Aird is among the 5,500 Integrity Marketing Group employees nationwide who are receiving a portion of an unexpected $125 million cash payout and equity ownership in the company. Up to 400 Integrity Marketing Group staff members are based in Dallas.
“It’s extremely meaningful to know that, as we’re growing together, Integrity Marketing Group is living up to what they say in sharing their success and growth with each of their employees,” Aird told Dallas Express.
An independent distributor of life, health, and wealth insurance, Integrity Marketing Group recently announced that Silver Lake, a private equity company, made a $1.2 billion minority equity investment in the insurance business.
“The employee payout is part of that transaction,” said Bryan W. Adams, co-founder and CEO of Integrity Marketing Group. “This is truly a testament to all of our employees that we’re paying this out because they are the reason that we are here and the reason we’re growing so fast.”
Over the past five years, Integrity Marketing Group has achieved year-over-year annual growth of more than 100% and expects new sales in excess of $7 billion, according to a press release. The company’s Employee Ownership Plan was implemented in 2019.
“When we gave the shares to our employees two years ago, we embarked on this journey of employee ownership that has transformed our company and our culture,” Adams told Dallas Express. “This investment in people has allowed us to grow faster than we could have ever grown before. This is a realization of what that is.”
Under the Employee Ownership Plan, eligible workers will receive cash awards of varying sizes based on factors such as position and tenure.
Employees who have participated in the program since its 2019 inception will receive a minimum of $8,000 and still have an estimated $60,000 in current equity value remaining in company shares.
The company also awarded equity units to employees who had yet to qualify for them through the plan.
“I encourage the rest of the business community to look at this as an opportunity to build a great, fast-growing company because you can’t do it on your own,” Adams said in an interview. “Your employees have to buy into that idea and vision. One of the best ways I’ve found to do that is by truly giving up some of the ownership to the people that matter most in the company, which is our employees, and allowing them to share in the reward of it.”
This is not the first time Integrity Marketing Group has paid its workers.
The company made a retroactive cash distribution of $50 million to their 750 employees upon inception. “We want to live out our core values,” Adams added. “At Integrity, our five core values include integrity, family, service, respect, and partnership. It is in living out our core values of partnership that we came to this idea and mindset of creating an Employee Ownership Plan. It’s the best business investment I’ve ever made.”
