Employee share plans are changing. Equity is being offered more widely across organisations, employers are placing greater emphasis on helping employees understand the value of ownership, and technology is changing how shares are administered and accessed.
In our recent webinar on the future of employee ownership, Dominic Harrison, Director or Business Development, Share Plans Solutions and Bryony Wilson, Business Development Manager, Share Plan Solutions, at Equiniti and Sally Blanchflower from Tapestry Compliance explored these changes through three lenses: reward, responsibility and digital transformation.
Together, they raise an important question for employers: will your employee share plan look the same in three years’ time? The answer is probably not.
Equity is moving beyond the executive suite
Traditionally, discretionary equity was concentrated among the most senior employees. That picture is beginning to change.
While performance-based awards largely remain focused on senior leadership, the webinar highlighted how participation in time-based awards - including Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and restricted shares - is expanding beyond traditional executive populations into other leadership tiers, critical talent and specialist roles. Free share awards to the wider workforce are a continuing trend.
As Dominic Harrison summarised:
“Equity is definitely moving beyond the executive suite, deeper into the organisation.”
But giving more employees access to equity creates another challenge: making sure they understand what’s being offered.
Offering a share plan is no longer enough
As ownership broadens, the employer’s role is evolving too.
For all-employee plans, employees need enough understanding to decide confidently whether participation is right for them. For discretionary awards, the challenge is different. Employees may receive an award without actively choosing to participate, so understanding what they have received and its potential value becomes critical.
As Bryony Wilson, Business Development Manager at Equiniti, explained:
“Leading companies are starting to treat employee ownership as a journey rather than a calendar event.”
That means moving beyond communications focused solely on enrolment, maturity, grants and vesting. Ongoing education can help employees understand subjects including dividends, voting rights, AGMs and how company performance relates to the equity they hold.
The principle is simple: employees are not necessarily asking for more information, but they do need better information.
Communications should be relevant, continuous and accessible, reflecting expectations for clear language, short-form content, personalisation, mobile-first experiences and information on demand.
Technology is changing the ownership journey
Alongside changing reward and engagement strategies, market infrastructure is evolving.
The webinar explored how dematerialisation and shorter settlement cycles could affect share plan processes, while tokenisation presents longer-term possibilities for greater automation.
Technology also has an important role in the employee experience. As the session highlighted, it can increasingly support employers in delivering personalised education, timely engagement and accessible ownership at scale.
The direction of travel is therefore about more than just digitising existing processes. It is about thinking differently about the complete ownership experience.
Preparing for what comes next
For employers, the future of employee share plans brings together three connected changes: ownership is broadening, employer responsibility is increasing, and technology is driving greater digitisation and automation.
The opportunity is to bring those elements together. creating share plans that don't simply give Providing employees with equity and helping them to understand what ownership means to stay connected throughout their journey.
Could your employee share plan look very different in three years’ time?
Watch our on-demand webinar to hear the full conversation from Equiniti and Tapestry Compliance, exploring the changing future of reward, employee responsibility and digital transformation.