Is Simplicity the Key to All-Employee Participation?

Many companies find that the seemingly complex nature of equity plans deters employees from participating and are ultimately disappointed in the take-up. We explore the innovative approaches adopted by some of our award-winning companies that successfully dismantle the barriers experienced by participants.

These simple but effective tactics have not only attracted more participants but also improved their share plan experience.

1.????GRANT SHARES TO ALL EMPLOYEES

What’s the easiest way to achieve maximum participation? Award free shares to all employees!

Danone’s ‘One Person. One Voice. One Share’ program followed this principle, with all 83,000 eligible employees receiving one free share and a cash payment equal to the gross tax amount due to ensure the share was tax neutral.

To provide a flavor of ownership, Experian granted 19 free shares with 38 matching shares after three years as a ‘thank you’ for employees that worked through difficult working conditions during the pandemic and BT Group awarded free shares to all eligible employees with subsequent awards aligned with company performance.

2.????MAKE IT EASY TO ENROLL

Ensuring a straightforward enrollment journey is essential to boosting participation. ?

Siemens Energy achieved a 75% participation rate when it offered employees a 2-click enrollment process. Additionally, Home Depot focused on removing operational barriers with its web-based enrollment and data consent platform. Its iConsent platform featured a simple 5-step process to check eligibility, notify acceptance into the plan and pass details to its new administrator for enrollment. Simplifying the process not only increased participation but helped the company to achieve greater compliance and realize significant cost savings.

3.????SIMPLIFY PLAN COMMUNICATIONS

Albert Einstein once said: 'Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler'. Equity plans can be complex and difficult for all employees to understand, but the best plan communications are accessible and educational, without downgrading the content.

A great example of this is Sage Group who removed the stress of participating in its plan by extending the breadth of its educational materials, introducing an in-house developed share calculator with currency convertor, and carefully considering its microsite’s user experience.

There are other examples of award-winning communication strategies in our article: ?Five winning engagement strategies to maximize plan participation.

4.????OFFER A 'CUSTOMER-GRADE' EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

Driving engagement?by simplifying the?employee experience is an approach adopted by Walmart. Extending its commercial ‘customer-first’ principles to its equity plan, it reinvented its rewards platform with real time updates, better communications for mobile employees and a ‘one view’ of its equity and non-equity rewards to make it easier for its employees to understand the plan and access the information they need to participate.

5.????DESIGN FOR MAXIMUM ACCESSIBILITY

Unwieldy and complicated plan designs can discourage engagement so, when it comes to user-friendliness, making everything as simple as possible is typically the best route.

When looking for a plan that is clear, concise and straightforward, look no further than Culture Amp. This award winner also invested in a streamlined exercise process via an easy-to-use online portal and a range of educational materials designed to help their people make informed investment decisions.

Similarly, Dixons Carphone gave its 30,000 employees in 12 countries a grade-based award twice a year with a 3-year vesting after 12 months of service – a simple design that was easy to understand, communicate and, most importantly, to participate in.

It can be hard to design something simple and effective, but our GEO Award winners have demonstrated various routes to providing their people with what they need, when they need it in the most straightforward way possible - and their success is reflected in their impressive plan participation rates.

About Excellence in Global Share Plans

Sponsored by Fidelity,?Excellence in Global Share Plans?is a thought leadership series that spotlights recent award winners and their plans, so others may learn from and be inspired by their strategies, challenges, and successes.