Supermarket J Sainsbury today announced that over 8,0000 employees are to share around £23m as a result of participating in the company's Employee Share Ownership Scheme.
ifs ProShare, a not for profit organisation concerned with the issues of employee share ownership and financial education in the workplace, has welcomed the fact checkout assistants, store staff and other employees at J Sainsbury are in line for an average payout of £2,875.
The scheme, which matured today, gives Sainsbury employees the chance to convert their savings into Sainsbury's shares at either 241p or 302p a share respectively (the price at the start of the 3 or 5 year scheme). Shares in Sainsbury's closed at just over 511p yesterday.
Fiona Downes, Head of Employee Share Ownership at ifs ProShare, hailed the Sainsbury scheme as a good example of the benefits of SAYE.
Downes stated, "Since SAYE schemes were introduced by the Government in 1980, hundreds of thousands of employees across the UK have benefited from employers who have put such schemes into operation.
Giving employees a stake in their employer helps boost company performance and is an effective savings mechanism for staff."
J Sainsbury won the 2006 ifs ProShare award for Most Effective Communication of a Share Plan. The company employed a range of innovative methods to communicate the benefits of their Share Plan to staff and achieved a 38% increase in employee participation. This will ensure many more employees are able to benefit from strong company performance in the future.
Fiona Downes added, "Ensuring as many employees as possible take part in their employers scheme is crucial and Sainsbury's have done a very impressive job of increasing participation over the past 12 months - as winning our award demonstrates."
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