How do restricted stocks, treasury stocks and stock appreciation rights benefit employees?

Restricted stock represents any equity that is conditionally given or sold to an insider as compensation or as part of an employee stock option plan. Generally, this type of stock restricts the investor from selling the shares in the short run to make a quick profit. Furthermore, the investor may be required to stay with the company for a certain amount of time before he or she will be allowed to trade the security. In theory, this type of stock only benefits an employee if he or she does a good job of working with the company for the long run. Because the employee can only gain the full benefits of owning this stock by staying with the company for a number of years, it is in the employee's best interest to show good work performance in order to increase the value of the company. If all goes well, after a couple of years the employee will own a valuable stock, which can then be sold for a profit. (For more on this, see Option Compensation - Part One and The "True" Cost Of Stock Options.)

Company treasury stock refers to shares that have been repurchased by their issuer. The main intent of company treasury stock is to lower the number of outstanding shares. When a company repurchases stock, it benefits investors by causing an overall increase in share price. This type of stock can either be canceled or held by the company to later be resold on the market or used to fund stock option plans. (For more info, read A Breakdown Of Stock Buybacks.)

Stock appreciation rights are rights that a company gives to particular employees that allow them to receive bonuses based on the appreciation of the company's stock over a specific time period. These rights benefit employees in the same way that owning a call option would; the more the share price increases over the time period, the greater the bonus the employee will receive.