KKR Gives Industrial Workers a Piece of the Action

As one of the original “barbarians at the gate” in the takeover battles of the 1980s, KKR & Co. became an icon of the private equity ­industry’s bare-knuckle approach to business. Lately it’s talking about a strategy for boosting returns that sounds a lot more friendly: Giving employees an ownership stake of a business KKR controls.

In May, Gardner Denver Holdings Inc., a maker of gas compressors and vacuum systems, went public and awarded shares worth a total $100 million to about 6,000 employees who weren’t already included in the company’s equity program, including hourly workers and customer service and sales staff. As its executives rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange, workers learned they would each get shares equal to about 40 percent of their annual salaries.