It would improve equity, sure, but a potentially larger impact would be that when "increasing value for shareholders" the shareholders in question are also the employees. It's a lot easier winning a fight against short-term profit taking when a significant portion of the shareholders are figuratively and literally invested in making long-term choices.

Is that something that happens?

I’ve owned company stock and I’ve never noticed a situation where the employees owned enough to make a difference in how the company operates.

The only exception being a company designed to be employee owned…