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5 Steps to Educate and Engage Employees About Your Equity Plan

December 1, 2020 Jenna Matthews
Illustration of employees discussing education for equity plans in a meeting room.

If you want to motivate your employees, few tactics are as effective as giving them an equity stake in your company. But for employees to fully benefit, they need to understand how the plan works, how much their equity could be worth and how equity grants can help them achieve their life goals – information that’s hard to share in a dense document or highly technical presentation.

That's why your company needs a strategy to communicate with employees across the lifetime of the plan.

Here is a five-step plan to help your company create regular conversations and high-impact learning around equity.

Illustration of a city skyline near a lake.

Step 1

DEFINE AND UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCES

By creating a unique equity strategy for different groups within your company, you can engage a larger swath of your workforce.

Know your Audience:

  • Everyone
  • C-Suite
  • Global Employees
  • Younger Employees
  • Employees nearing retirement
Illustration of a employee communicating his equity plan to his participants.

Step 2

GET EVERYONE INVOLVED

Sometimes you need a little help from some friends. Get the entire organization involved in communicating key plan information and benefits.

Key Stakeholders:

  • Human Resources
  • Internal communications
  • Compliance
  • Influential leaders
  • Key managers
Illustration of employees discussing their education equity action plan while sitting in a park.

Step 3

SEIZE EVERY OPPORTUNITY

It’s important to share plan milestones once in a while, but having more regular conversations about equity can help your employees understand the value of their stock plan and get more from it.

Illustration of a women hiking while looking at a distant mountain range.

Potential Equity Plan Milestones:

  • Plan launch
  • Enrollment dates
  • New grant issues
  • Vesting schedules
  • Proxy season

Different Ways to communicate:

  • Intranet postings
  • Company-wide emails
  • Town halls
  • Offsite training
  • Performance reviews
  • Internal quarterly updates

Step 4

MAKE IT EASY TO ACCESS EQUITY INFORMATION

Your workforce absorbs information differently. You should communicate across various internal channels so people can engage with plan materials in the way that works best for them.

Illustration of equity information being downloaded on a laptop.
Illustration of a icon to demonstrate webinars.

Webinars

Illustration of a icon to demonstrate intranets.

Self-serve portals (Intranets)

Illustration of a icon to demonstrate email campaigns.

Email Campaigns

Step 5

MEASURE YOUR RESULTS AND REFINE YOUR STRATEGY

Your communication goals will determine the message you'll emphasize. Here are some examples of how to tailor a message to your goals:

Illustration of employees discussing their equity plan access while looking at a computer screen.
GOAL Illustration of an icon used to demonstrate plan enrollment. Increase plan enrollment TACTIC

Clearly explain the benefits of enrolling and the potential cost of missing out.

GOAL Illustration of an icon used to demonstrate participant engagement. Increase participant engagement TACTIC

Use the Shareworks mobile app so your participants can engage with their equity shares on their time.

GOAL Illustration of an icon used to demonstrate share plan understanding on a chart. Improve plan understanding TACTIC

Clearly deliver key facts about your plan and the value it can provide. Make it relatable to your participants by thinking about what matters to them the most.

GOAL Illustration of an icon used to demonstrate employee retention. Employee retention TACTIC

Make the connection between the company’s equity plan, its culture and an employee’s total compensation.

You don’t need to build a communications plan from scratch. Shareworks Academy has a presentation starter kit to streamline the entire process.

Still need a Shareworks Academy account?
Reach out to your Relationship Manager.

About the Author

Jenna Matthews

Jenna Matthews is a customer marketing manager at Shareworks by Morgan Stanley, with over five years of experience in the digital marketing space.

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CRC 3347451 (11/20)