This is called vesting, and is absolutely the right way to go about it. There should also be a cliff, a minimum amount of time they need to work (usually 1 year) in order to actually get the equity they've been earning per month.
This is a good guide to creating equity structures: http://thestartuptoolkit.com/blog/2013/02/equity-basics-vesting-cliffs-acceleration-and-exits/