More and more businesses are turning to all-employee share plans. And rightly so, given how they can improve business performance. Get the most out of it by maintaining employee engagement.
Businesses are going through a tricky time. Inflation is hitting them and their employees, they’re facing staff shortages, and employee demands are changing as people seek a better work-life balance. There’s also a new generation of workers who want their employer to share their values.
This is where your all-employee share plan comes in. It shows you’re serious about your culture and your people’s wellbeing. And you probably already know that it’s a motivational tool. That igniting the Ownership Effect will increase productivity and cooperation. That it’s a great way to improve attraction and retention.
But if you’re spending this much time, money and effort into lauching your all-employee share plan – whether it’s an ESOP, SIP or SAYE, or one entirely of your own design – how do you get the most out of it? How do you make sure your people see the value in it?
In a word (well, two): engagement and communications. Give your people the tools and information they need to understand what’s in it for them, and they will engage with it. Not sure what that could look like? Here are a few pointers to get you started.
1. Give your people easy access to their share performance.
Don’t stop your communications campaign when the enrollment window closes. Keep communicating! It’s easy to forget the value of something you signed up for 8 months ago – or only see the cost in salary reductions. Help your people see how their shares are doing to build a culture of ownership. Invest in digital platforms like microsites, and regularly add information until vesting or maturity.
2. Champion the cause
People respond best to people. Use this to your advantage by training share plan champions to talk to their teams about your share plan. Depending on your organisation, this could be your local rewards teams, line managers, or team leaders. The communication strategies we produce for our clients always begin with time on training champions, before we even start to communicate to employees! This includes information, tools and guidance on both share plans and employee engagement.
3. Peer into the future
Use previous share plan participants to talk about their experiences. Peer-to-peer conversations are a great way to showcase the perks of joining a share plan. Find people willing to talk about how being part of a share plan helped their financial resilience, and how pivotal it was in boosting their happiness and wellbeing. Include their testimonials in your campaign to keep the journey alive as employees move through the process.
A key business benefit
Share plans can hold the key to a stable, motivated and talented workforce – something critical to business success. Make the most out of it by staying on the journey with your participants, from enrollment to vest and beyond.
You can find other tips and tricks for keeping your people engaged in our Insights. To find out how we can help you launch your new plan – and create ongoing engagement – reach out to us.
