Congratulations from ifs ProShare to all those companies who have won one of our 2010 awards or who have been commended. You should be proud of your achievement in demonstrating best practice in the employee share plans arena.
The judges considered that Global Payments UK had responded well to employee feedback in establishing an SAYE plan. Focus groups and the Company’s Employee Engagement Survey played key roles in the design of the plan. They resulted in clear communications which highlighted the key benefits of the plan and explained the added complexity of currency fluctuations due to the offer of US parent company shares. The judges liked the ‘Golden Ticket’ concept, which saw every 75th enrolee to the plan receiving £75 to spend as they chose. Almost 50 per cent of employees chose to join the plan, which was a massive increase on the previous employee stock purchase plan.
A review of its existing benefits package, compared with the market, identified the lack of SAYE as a gap in its offering. The introduction of SAYE received full support and approval from the Board. The Company carefully considered the employee demographic and responded to this in the communication materials. The judges were impressed by the use of an hourly countdown on the final day, which saw take-up rates increase significantly.
Clear objectives and a strong commitment from the highest levels of Telefónica to employee share ownership made this entry stand out. Telefónica made an impressive simultaneous launch in a number of countries. Plan design principles were important, including the need for the plan to have a low investment risk. Key challenges were identified early on in the process and a detailed project plan to overcome these was drawn up. A variety of multilingual communication methods were used to good advantage, resulting in a high take-up. Microsites hosted on the company intranet provided country-specific information, including basic financial education in terms of investing in shares.
The judges were particularly impressed with the consideration BHP Billiton showed to cultural sensitivities and regulatory requirements throughout the various jurisdictions in which it operates.
The judges were impressed and entertained by the imaginative and fun communications that cleverly linked the SAYE communications to SSL International’s varied range of products: these appealed to the judges’ sense of humour. The lighthearted take on ‘playing FOOTSIE’ carried SSL International a step ahead of the other entrants. The judges were pleased to note that the high level of employee involvement encouraged by SSL International in the communication of the plan had been reflected in high take-up levels.
First-time entrant CPP Group was faced with many challenges to overcome, not only because SAYE was a new plan for its work force but also because many of the work force do not have access to emails. In addition, CPP Group has a large call-centre work force, which meant that it was difficult for employees to attend presentations. It was therefore very important to gauge which type of communication would have maximum impact. In order to increase take-up, employees were consulted at all levels on communication and plan design – one was even set the task of baking cakes to promote the plan. This ingredient of high-level employee engagement at every step of the way impressed the judges greatly and clearly showed that sometimes you really can ‘have your cake and eat it’.
In another hotly contested category, FirstGroup was a testament to the benefits of targeted communications for specific audiences. By producing two separate brochures it was able to increase the take up of its SIP by a staggering 63 per cent in the under-30 age group, all in the midst of the difficult economic climate. Interactive modellers were used to enable employees to understand the benefits the share plans could offer by providing details on which plan to join, while also providing a tool to use to check on investments to maturity. These modellers proved to be very popular with the employees and with the judges, the latter being impressed with the low cost of creating such a useful tool.
Hammerson clearly demonstrated a sound commitment to employee share ownership not only with its UK employees but also with those based in France who were able to join the French free share plan. Within the company a high percentage of staff (65 per cent) had one or more SAYE accounts open and participation in the SIP plan was commendable, with some staff contributing the maximum annual amount.
The judges were impressed by Lloyds Banking Group’s high level of employee engagement. Lloyds Banking Group selected a friendly approach in its communications and emphasised the corporate glue linking employees to the new merged entity.
The judges considered that the strong board commitment deserved recognition. Petrofac deserved to be commended as it had clearly considered the different alternatives and thought these through.
Marks & Spencer identified that the new 50 per cent tax rate could adversely affect employees’ views of its share schemes unless it found an effective way to calculate the various tiered PAYE rates correctly, to eliminate the concern that employees could end up selling too many shares to cover their tax liability.
The result was a truly innovative piece of technology, which enabled Marks & Spencer to find a solution to a complex and challenging problem that has proved to be a headache for all companies that operate share plans.
Marks & Spencer also adopted a ‘greener’ solution, reducing the amount of paper used and providing better solutions for distribution of communications to employees.
Henderson Global Investors retain this award for another year. Henderson Global Investors has consistently set the bar in this category. The organisation shows a clear commitment to employee share ownership while taking care to give employees the tools they need to make an informed investment choice.
Commended at last year’s awards, National Grid deserves to win this year’s award with its continued support of employee share ownership, reflected in its corporate values of: ‘Respect, Integrity, Ownership and One Team’. For over 25 years it has encouraged employees to join share schemes and, as a result, has employees who are committed to the company, with 53 per cent of employees becoming beneficial owners of National Grid shares (with an average holding of over 1,000 shares).
Over the last four years Standard Life has successfully built up its share plan offering and the take-up levels. With a clear link to its wider benefits strategy, the judges felt that Standard Life deserved to be commended. Standard Life has also shown its commitment to wider employee share ownership by offering tax-efficient share plans, where possible, throughout the various jurisdictions in which it operates.
Following on from last year’s success, Tesco has retained this title for another year with another innovative idea. Tesco became the first employer to be granted HMRC approval to automatically register its employees for its free share plan (‘Shares In Success’ scheme).
Tesco remains mindful of the needs of its varied work force when considering its share schemes. For instance, its SAYE plan is designed to take into account its weekly paid staff and allows employees to save as little as £1.25 per week. It has also introduced a total reward statement that allows employees to view the value of their holdings in a simple and effective manner.
High take-up, given the employee profile, of over 75 per cent is evident across all the share plans.
Another high-class entry from BT. Once again, excellent use was made of technology, which enabled employees to gain secure access to their administrator’s website through the secure BT website, requiring only one log in. This resulted in employees being able to view all their holdings (including BT holdings that did not form part of the share scheme) in one place. BT this year sent out its message of employee share ownership to its overseas employees by relaunching its international SAYE plan, which resulted in an impressive take up of 79 per cent across 39 countries.
The judges felt that BHP Billiton should be commended in this category since it is a dual-listed company with listings on four stock exchanges, meaning that its share plans are subject to different currencies and legal constraints. This, however, has not deterred it from offering all-employee share plans across its various jurisdictions; it has been rewarded by having only 10 per cent of employees elect to sell their company shares when able to do so.
