GSI

GSI is the company in A pro-worker experiment in private equity that does emergency landslide repairs, rockfall mitigation, and related stabilization work. KKR bought the company in 2018 and used it as a more explicit version of Private Equity Worker Ownership than the earlier Capital Safety rollout.

Unlike Capital Safety workers, GSI workers were told about ownership from the beginning. Mike Pavelko says that made employees feel more involved and gave them a reason to care about company targets, even though the equity did not include voting power and might not stay with employees who left.

The episode says KKR announced GSI’s sale in October 2024 and that Mike received a large payout. Pete Stavros also says GSI’s annual quit rate fell from about half the workforce to around 15% over five years, making GSI the source’s clearest case for connecting employee ownership to Employee Retention Economics.

Connections

• KKR, Pete Stavros, and Mike Pavelko - owner, program designer, and employee case.
• Capital Safety - earlier, poorly communicated ownership rollout contrasted with GSI.
• Private Equity Worker Ownership, Employee Equity Communication, Employee Retention Economics, and Workplace Incentive Design - concepts grounded by the GSI case.