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Get the complete book: 42 E.S.O.P. Ideas
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Contests spark people's competitive spirit, and are a fun way to get people involved. Here is an example of an idea that is fairly simple and cost-effective.
Guess the Number
Many schools ask students to "guess the number of jellybeans in the jar" to teach them how to estimate. You can run a similar contest to highlight information about your company or ESOP.
You can run just one or several contests at once. The numbers to guess could be number of shares in the ESOP, number of shares total, share price, number of participants in the ESOP, number of ESOPs or ESOP participants in the U.S., company sales volume, etc. For example, you could put one jellybean in a jar for each ESOP participant or represent the company share price in pennies.
You can use jellybeans, coffee beans, uncooked pasta, rice, marbles, buttons, bolts, or any cheap, plentiful, small but discrete, non-perishable items. To get a good measure of how many of these items you put in the jar, instead of counting them out, try counting 10 or 50 of them and weighing them with a postal scale. You may need to measure an empty cup or container first, and then compare the weights of the container with items and without.
What you’ll need:
- Prizes
These can be anything that seems appropriate to you: "personal hours," gift certificates at local businesses, mugs or t-shirts (see the OA online store for fun and stylish ESOP-themed items). Or you could also offer the contents of the jar as a prize.
- Rules
Be sure to establish rules for the guessing--for example, you may stipulate that the winner will be the person who guesses closest to the number without going over.
- Jar(s)
Choose containers that are transparent, so people can see the items. Consider allowing people to lift them.
- Location
Find someplace to display the containers where everyone sees them often during the workday.
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