Empowering employees with company shares

Published By Grace Henley @ Vestd

If you want to give employees a stronger connection to your company’s ‘big picture’, and encourage them to share their goals, there’s no greater motivator than company shares.

Let’s face it, salary only stretches so far in terms of encouragement, and pension pots aren’t what they used to be. But if luck is on their side (and yours), their shares could convert into a life-changing monetary sum.

And the business benefits are manifold. From collaboration and engagement to motivation and accountability, sharing equity encourages positive behaviours among staff that management teams can only dream of.

Motivation lies in value

However, granting team members an equity stake in the company can fall short if there’s no real way of understanding what it’s worth – or the route to ‘cashing in’ their shares.

If an employee isn’t aware of the company’s current value, how can they estimate the potential future value of their vested shares? If there are no opportunities to liquidate their shares (or other perks like dividends), then what’s the point in having them?

Vestd, the UK’s original share scheme and equity management platform, has helped thousands of business owners unlock the power of equity. So they know a thing or two about share schemes, including the best way to set one up, design a fair scheme and crucially maximise employee engagement.

Too often share certificates are stashed away in a drawer never to be seen again. There’s no reminder of their worth, which is hardly motivating or inspiring. That’s why a digital platform is arguably the best means to set up a share scheme and manage it.

With Vestd, shareholders can access their own personalised dashboard, view recent valuations and use scenario modelling tools to project future value. This accessibility not only promotes transparency but boosts engagement, as they can see a visual representation of the true value of their shares.

And if they’re option holders, they can exercise their options (that is convert them into shares) through the platform too.

It’s easier than you think

What’s more, using the intuitive scheme designer, business owners can clearly outline what exactly will happen in the event of an exit and set specific milestones to meet before employees’ shares vest or before they can do anything meaningful with them, incentivising them to earn their stake while protecting existing shareholders’ interests.

Vestd also offers an array of CoSec tools too, to take the friction out of company admin. The two-way integration with Companies House means customers can issue shares, update their cap table and shareholder register, file confirmation statements and much more, seamlessly.

So companies who are considering giving shares to employees but are doubting the tangibility of the incentive can rest assured that meaningful options exist which allow recipients to understand the value they are generating.

And for employees to see the full benefit of such an initiative, company owners owe it to them to ensure there’s a transparent mechanism in place to allow them to trade out of any such position.

Speaking of, that’s where solutions like JP Jenkins come in. Powered by InifinitX, their secure platform supports private companies looking for a way to let their shareholders match their shares.