How engaged are your employees with your share plan?

You've got a great share plan, but have you considered how you'll promote it and keep your participants engaged?

One of the most common mistakes companies make when rolling out their plan is what we call the set-and-forget approach. This is where companies mostly rely on platform-generated communications without an employee engagement strategy.

You may find you're not getting the best return on investment because:

1. Your employees aren't aware of, or actively embracing, the opportunities or features you've invested in; and
2. As a result, the lack of engagement means your share plan isn't effectively supporting your overall employee value proposition and your employees are more likely to churn.

Getting employees engaged with your plan can be a great way to strengthen their connection with your company. After all, engaged employees are sticky, and we're all striving to attract and retain talent in a market where employee-employer loyalty is at an all-time low. According to a study completed in the US¹ with 5000+ respondents, 71% of employees said they're actively looking or willing to switch jobs if they see a great opportunity — ouch!

It's worth noting that loyalty isn't just low for employees. The cost-of-living crisis and the ease of switching providers have left your customers struggling to stay loyal too, creating a difficult environment for engagement and leading to higher rates of churn.

Despite (what feels like) ever-changing communication preferences, cultivating authentic engagement is key. So, here are our top tips to capture and keep your audience — whether that's your employees or customers.

1. Take the time to understand what's most important to your audience — let this drive your message.

What motivates you to participate in an employee share plan? Is it your strong belief in the company? The lure of a matched contribution, or perhaps a tax benefit?

What if I flipped the question and asked, "What stops you from participating in an employee share plan?" Is it a perceived complexity? Fear of the unknown, or perhaps a lack of knowledge/awareness about shares and investing?

Authentic engagement comes from communicating value. It can be easy to assume this means promoting features and benefits, but while these are important, they're not where true value lies. Instead, when you flip the question and uncover barriers, you can create motivating messages and resources that communicate value in ways that really matter.

Luckily for businesses, above all our individual preferences, you'll always find universal motivators that cover a decent cross-section of your audience, meaning you don't have to create bespoke messages for every single person.

2. For maximum impact, communicate your messages during the moments that matter.

When "offer" stage rolls around, it's likely too late to demonstrate value and maximise engagement. Sure, you can remind employees about your share plan, and even promote some of the features and benefits, but the opportunity to demonstrate value in the moments that matter has already passed.

The best engagement strategies build awareness and interest over time. Our advice is to schedule communications about your share plan (or even your employee value proposition) throughout the year, especially in the lead-up to the "offer" stage.

To find the best channels, consider all the moments that matter to your employees — when you've got their full attention. During these moments, through which channels are you communicating? And voila, there's your engagement plan! Examples include employee onboarding materials, in-person and online town hall meetings, all-staff presentations, and direct messages/emails from senior management (aside from the usual employee newsletter).

3. Don't set and forget, your audience will forget you too.

As with any communications or engagement strategy, it's important to stay agile. Our advice is to set some targets and measure the contribution of your communications or engagement strategy against those goals.

If you're reaching your goals, consider ways to keep your content fresh and relevant. If you're not reaching your goals, consider whether you've got your messaging right, and whether it's effectively addressing your barriers to engagement through the right channels.