Programme
ProShare Annual Conference – Thursday 29th September 2022, etc.venues, Bishopsgate, London
08:30 | Registration, networking and opportunity to visit the marketplace | |
09:25 | Welcome Murray Tompsett, Head of ProShare Opening Address Garry Harding, Associate Director, Computershare |
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09:40 |
Morning Planery: The Great Resignation and the Future of Work Widespread re-evaluation of employee priorities has led to resignations and contributed to significant labour shortages. This panel of industry experts will discuss:
Panellists: |
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10:40 | Refreshments and opportunity to visit the marketplace | |
11:00 | Breakout Sessions One | |
1.1 | Share ownership - supporting social responsibility - why now? The board, investors and employees are asking what is being done for the wider workforce, financial resilience and social responsibilities. Now is the time to raise employee share ownership as part of company strategy for social responsibility and supporting the wider workforce. People and planet are now as important as profit – and employee share ownership is one way for firms to embrace their social responsibilities. Panellists: |
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1.2 |
What Do Issuers Want? The Perfect All-Employee Plan We asked 100 issuers about the perfect all-employee share plan and this session talks through our findings. Expect fun and engaging audience interaction with a Family Fortunes style format. We show the top answers, allowing for challenges from our panellists representing the FTSE, AIM and global markets and the audience. Come along and enjoy the search to find the next big thing in all-employee share plan! |
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1.3 |
So, You Want to Win a ProShare Award? This year’s ProShare annual awards are extra special as they mark our 30th birthday! If you are considering making an award submission, be sure to attend this masterclass session where Jeremy Mindell - chair of the ProShare Awards Judging Panel - will talk you through exactly what you need to do to give yourself the very best chance of success. Jeremy has reviewed more than 500 ProShare award submissions over the past 8 years, so if anyone knows what it takes to win one of these coveted awards, it’s him! Jeremey Mindell - Director, Primondell Ltd |
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11:35 | Room transition | |
11:40 | Breakout Sessions Two | |
2.1 |
Transforming bp Jo Mitchell talks to bp’s Cat Rylah on how the share plan team accepted their biggest ever challenge and used share plans to engage employees in the bp transformation journey. |
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2.2 |
Rule the school: building financial education into communications that grab employee attention This unique case study, presented by education publishing company Pearson PLC and Deloitte employee communications specialists Stitch, tells the story of their successful collaboration to reinvigorate Pearson’s save for shares plan. It offers advice, ideas, and refreshingly real-life examples, outlining how you can use effective comms to engage, inform, and create value for your employees. Panellists: |
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2.3 |
Women and Money - different approaches to investing Planning for the future is more important than ever. With COVID-19 just behind us, increasing cost of living, inflation, and global uncertainties - helping employees understand and maximise their investment opportunities is crucial. We’ll be sharing insights on the gender gap in investing, the reasons behind it and what can be done to address it for women in share plans and wider financial wellness. |
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12:15 | Lunch in the marketplace Lunch Sponsored by ![]() |
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13:05 |
Afternoon Plenary: Bunfight at the OK Corral! Listen to some quick-fire debating on questions companies face in these challenging times and vote for your favourite. Forget the theory; this is the real world! We’re debating: Should we offer tax-favoured plans where possible? Is it important that employees become shareholders? Which is better - a savings plan or a purchase plan? If you had a magic wand what one thing would you change? Kristy Foster - Head of Equity Operations, bp |
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13:35 | Room transition | |
13:45 | Breakout Sessions Three | |
3.1 |
Let’s look beyond share plan take-up: Financial Education is key to long-term success Financial education empowers employees to make the right decision, including deciding if share plans should be part of the mix. It's about more than just take-up. Listening to employees and supporting their financial wellbeing leads to better long-term results. Join us to look at how Kingfisher helps its people make more confident decisions throughout the entire share plan lifecycle. Chrissie Davis - Founder, MD, and Fellow Chartered Secretary, Eximia |
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3.2 |
Supporting Sustainability: how can share plans help to protect a company's long-term interests? Sustainability is fundamental to a company's long-term success and, more than ever, a focus of business leaders. Incentives and Employment specialists from DLA Piper will consider potential share plan features that can protect a company's long-term interests – from adding weight to restrictive covenants to the use of overriding discretions, which can help to change employees' behaviours and promote the ‘right kind’ of success. |
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3.3 |
Ireland: Where are we now on share plans? A whistlestop tour of incentive plans in Ireland including some commentary / experiences on the current landscape. This will include tax advantaged schemes suitable for public companies, e.g. SAYE/APSS and an outline of other popular share arrangements for public and private companies. We will also cover Ireland in an international context and any key points regarding international share plans. |
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14:20 | Room transition | |
14:25 | Breakout Sessions Four | |
4.1 |
Is Sharesave Just for Saving? A review of the leading academic literature and industry research to help answer the question of whether Sharesave provides shareholders or is just a savings vehicle. From why employees join the plan in the first place to those all-important decisions at maturity. Most of us do not have the time to trawl through the academic literature; let us do that for you. Panellists: |
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4.2 |
Mind the gap! Closing the gap between participants’ perceived value and actual value of your performance plans Participants often have a hard time understanding share plans; when you then add a performance rule, you lose the rest. And if the participant doesn’t understand their plans, they don’t appreciate their value, and then you lose retention. With the massive investments that go into the design and running these plans, ensure you are hitting the sweet spot of understanding and buy-in. Panellists: |
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4.3 |
Connectivity Through Employee Ownership How can a company stay connected to its employees when the world can be so physically disconnected? How can companies support employees through significant moments of change? Join this experienced panel from Aviva, Schroders and Tapestry to hear two case studies on the delivery of one-off ‘thank you’ free shares to employees globally, showcasing the real power of employee share plans, especially through difficult times. Panellists: |
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15:00 | Refreshments and opportunity to visit the marketplace | |
15:30 | Breakout Sessions Five | |
5.1 |
How Do You Share Success With the Gig Economy? Estimates suggest gig workers account for 25% of the UK workforce. Current legislation makes it difficult for employers to provide them with the share plans and reward available to ‘regular’ employees. But cast an eye across the pond and there’s cause for hope. In this session, we explore how well we understand this growing new workforce and what we could do to better support them. Panellists: |
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5.2 |
Incentivising and Integrating ESG - practical guidance for incorporating ESG into employee incentives and equity compensation With ESG a top priority in boardrooms across the country, our panel will look at five key components for integrating ESG considerations and performance metrics into your stock plans and incentive arrangements:
Susannah Hill - Associate Director, Deloitte LLP Martin Osborne-Shaw - Head of Business Development Europe, Global Shares Gabbi Stopp FCG - Chief Executive, ShareGift Maximilian Meyer - Executive Director – ESG Solutions, J.P. Morgan |
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5.3 |
Mission Success - Launching a New Global Plan, CCEP’s Journey Join us as we delve into the ins and outs of CCEP’s Global ESPP launch. We’ll explore the challenges faced, from communicating the new plan to managing participants from an acquired company, closing down plans already in existence, multiple languages and some countries not even having internet access. Despite these, CCEP still came out on top with great employee engagement and an excellent participation rate. Rob Reynolds - Director Executive Rewards, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) |
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16:05 | Room transition | |
16:10 | Breakout Sessions Six | |
6.1 |
Employee share plans: building financial resilience for plan participants
Sarah Long - Head of New Business, Wealth at Work |
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6.2 |
Is it possible to reach everyone when communicating about you employee share plan? In the current cost of living crisis, communicating about employee share plans to your workforce has never been more important. Join David & Jack as they discuss the wider challenges facing businesses when communicating to their employees. In this session we will discuss strategy, tactics and how to overcome complexity when communicating your share plan. Jack Price - Managing Director, UK Communication Services, Computershare |
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6.3 |
Malus and Clawback in Practice - case studies and lessons learnt Malus and clawback provisions grant companies a mechanism to withhold or recover remuneration awarded to an employee in specific circumstances and are a requirement for listed companies under the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code. This presentation debates how enforceable and effective they are in practice, as well as suggesting potential solutions to assist companies with these obligations. David Baxter - Director, Incentives, Clifford Chance |
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16:45 | Room transition | |
16:50 | Breakout Sessions Seven | |
7.1 |
SAYE - 42 years young SAYE is the longest running and most popular (by take-up) of HMRC's tax-advantaged share plans. Issuers are interested in market trends, current and future impacts and tips for managing plans successfully, including those where there are significant maturity gains. The panel will provide stimulating discussion into these topics, covering how relevant SAYE is today and what SAYE nirvana could look like. Panellists: |
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7.2 |
Share plans in a falling market - how to maintain take-up and engagement There's no such thing as a falling market - only a market that has fallen. Nobody has any idea whether the market will rise or fall over the next three/five years - though history suggests it's more likely to rise. This session will explain how we think share plan issuers can reassure employees about equity market volatility. We'll also explain how both major UK share plans have key features which make them ideal for volatile conditions, and how to make sure this message lands with employees. We'll look at segmenting your employee base into engaged and unengaged cohorts, the way we talk about volatility and how share plans can mitigate it, to suit different audiences. Finally, we’ll talk about workplace financial education and how it can help improve employees’ financial resilience in tougher economic times. Panellists: |
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7.3 |
Employee engagement - how do share plans fit in? EY will discuss the latest thinking on employee engagement and the employee value proposition. Drawing on research into what drives employee engagement, EY will explore its different facets and how effective use of employee equity plans supports engagement. We will also discuss key features of impactful employee incentives and how to review whether your plans and communications are aligned with your broader employee engagement messaging. Speaker: |
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17:25 |
Drinks reception in market place |