• Employees have had clarification on how their actions will be handled after Elon Musk takes office.
• Stocks can represent a significant percentage of a tech worker’s overall compensation.
• Salary will be treated the same for now, but changes will come after the deal is completed, the executives said.

Twitter executives shared details about how employee compensation will work once Elon Musk takes the company private, highlighting efforts to limit attrition in a show of hands.

The board accepted Musk’s takeover bid of $54.20 per share on Monday. Some employees fear the billionaire is diluting content moderation efforts and several have said they are already considering leaving.

Going from a public company to a private one could make it harder for Twitter to retain talented engineers. Most large tech companies grant restricted stock units to staff that vest over several years, keeping employees longer with the ability to grow their earnings well beyond a base salary.

During the town hall meeting, recordings of which were heard by Insider, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Chairman of the Board Brett Taylor were peppered with questions about how the company will handle this change. Employees submitted questions that were read by the CMO and Human Resources Director Leslie Berland during the meeting.

A staff member questioned why Twitter decided to pay out RSUs on their current four-year post-takeover vesting schedule, instead of having the shares vest all at once. “Are major shareholders being paid on a similar schedule? It sounds like a way to not pay employees who may leave or be fired what they’ve been granted,” the employee added.

Taylor said that when the Musk deal closes, instead of being paid in RSU, these employee stock awards will result in cash. “People’s compensation plans are not changing in this transaction. Only the currency of those compensation plans is changing,” Taylor added.

The executive didn’t elaborate, but it’s likely that Twitter employees’ RSUs will vest in cash rather than additional stock under the current schedule. This means the company will retain some of the retention benefits of these grants, as staff will still need to stay on to secure future payments. Most Twitter employees receive at least a portion of their compensation in the form of stock.

Another question from employees concerned the potential for staff exodus as a result of Musk’s takeover. “How did the board and Mr. Musk plan to deal with the mass exodus of employees, given that the acquisition is being made by a person of questionable ethics?” asked this worker.

Taylor has made it clear that Twitter, the board, and Musk are focused on this retention challenge.

“One of the themes today is continuity and ensuring that Parag and this management team continue to operate this platform successfully on behalf of our users and that was obviously a big talking point. on the board and as I mentioned, it’s important to Elon Musk also because of how important Twitter is as a service,” Taylor said.

Taylor admitted Twitter’s leadership is about to change. He told staffers at the meeting that the council “no longer exists on the other end of this transaction.”

With no advice in place, an employee asked “Who will hold Elon accountable and how?” Again, it was Taylor who answered, explaining that public and private companies “operate differently” and that there will certainly be changes to the company’s “governance structure” once Musk takes over.

“There will be a new structure there,” Taylor added.