Research
Webinar: A stake in success
Re-imagining employee share plans for the 2020s
Thank you to those who were able to attend this opening event. If you missed it, you can watch the recording by clicking the link below.
Launch Event Recording
SMF Report
Employee share plans have been shown to increase company’s productivity. They produce a more engaged and focused workforce and one which is more financially resilient. Besides being a low-risk option for building up financial capital for those at all income levels, they align employees' interests with those investing financially in the company's shares.
Despite these benefits, there have been no key changes in how they are operated for 20 years. We find policymakers have low levels of knowledge or awareness.
Thank you to our report authors and leading thinktank, the Social Market Foundation and a special thank you to our panel.
Chair: Claer Barrett, Consumer Editor, Financial Times
Scott Corfe, Research Director, Social Market Foundation
Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon (Conservative)
Sarah Olney, MP for Richmond Park (Lib/Dem)
Peter Swabey, Executive Director, ProShare
This new report makes a case for the share ownership agenda to form a key part of a ‘fair and strong economic recovery’ narrative as we emerge from the coronavirus crisis. It argues that the case for wider rates of employee share ownership is compelling. We will discuss how employee share ownership could play a role in tackling the UK’s productivity crisis, improving economic growth, innovation and outcomes for employees such as higher wages as well as bolstering the financial resilience of UK households.
Attitudes to Employee Share Ownership
Millennials (those born from 1980 to 2000) currently form 27% of the UK workforce. By 2020, this is projected to rise to 57% (source: Kings Fund). We know that this generational cohort faces ever-greater demands on their finances such as paying off debt from studies including credit cards and unsecured debt, the rising cost of living, renting, getting onto the property ladder, saving for retirement...the list goes on. We know that this generation is 'digitally native' which has significant implications for how they want to work and communicate.
Despite all-employee share plans' convenience as a savings vehicle and their potential to generate significant financial gains for participants, we also typically see significantly lower take-up of all-employee plans by Millennials compared to their colleagues in older generational cohorts.
Failure to engage the rapidly growing workplace Millennials population on share plans could have existential consequences for the share plans industry. This failure would also have an adverse impact on Millennials, depriving them of a valuable and practical means of improving their financial wellbeing.
The greater the number of non-participating Millennials ascending to decision-making roles in the corporate world, the less likely they will be to operate all-employee share plans in the companies that they run, not having known or experienced the benefits that these plans can offer.
We can hypothesise as to the reasons why Millennials don't participate in share plans to the same extent as their older colleagues, but wouldn't it be better to actually ask the question directly?
Our research 'Attitudes to Employee Share Ownership' showcases their answers.