Eximia founder and Fellow Chartered Company Secretary Chrissie Davis spoke at GEO’s 24th Annual Conference last week. Along with fellow panelists June Davenport, Dexter Tang and Vikki Scott, they discussed ways of ‘keeping equity relevant in uncertain times’.
Here are just some of their tips, tricks and takeaways to keep equity at the forefront of your talent acquisition and retention strategies.
Making equity plans part of your company’s DNA and culture
- The way you communicate your share plan should be in line with your purpose, goals and values.
- Engagement can’t happen without effective communication. Your people and prospective employees need to understand the value of your share plan to make an informed choice about joining or remaining in your organisation.
- Use communication to embed your plans into every part of the employee journey: from recruitment and onboarding through to leaving.
- Be open and transparent. People want to be informed, even if the message is difficult – so don’t shy away from hard communications.
- Work out the ‘why’ before you begin communicating your plan: why your organisation is launching a share plan, and why your people should be interested.
- Consider having a branded theme for your equity plan(s). You need to align with brand guidelines – but still want to stand out from the crowd. This could be applied holistically across reward more broadly.
- People respond best to other people. Leverage that by getting your managers on board with the share plan, and asking previous participants to tell their stories as part of your communications.
Key takeaways from the panel
- Eximia’s Chrissie focuses on communicating the ‘why’ and making sure that links to the cultural levers.
- Diageo’s Vikki highlights the need to celebrate and recognise the role people play in the organisation.
- Google’s Dexter promotes using equity to enable diversification and holistic financial wellbeing.
- Morgan Stanley at Work’s June says her priority is to listen and adapt.
If you’re looking for comprehensive expertise to help embed these top tips in your own share plan communications, reach out to a GEO award-winning consultancy today!
