ALIGNMENT OF INTERESTS

News & Record, November 21, 2016

Some businesses refer to employees as associates. The workers know they’re still employees.

Greensboro entrepreneur Dennis Quaintance can now use the word “partners” to describe the people who work for his businesses.

Quaintance and his wife, Nancy, announced last week that they will sell their management company to an employee stock ownership plan. Full-time employees are vested in the plan after three years. They accumulate retirement benefits based on annual profits.

“You don’t put any money into it. You gain participation just by working here,” he told them.

The management company owns some of Greensboro’s signature hotels and restaurants. The Proximity Hotel is one of the greenest buildings of its kind. Quality and service distinguish the properties, which depend on committed workers.

“I cannot imagine a situation where our interests could be more aligned,” Quaintance said of his businesses and the new partners who run them.

That’s a progressive attitude that will serve everyone’s interests well.