Building a culture of ownership: How share schemes elevate total reward
Executive share plans are a fundamental feature of remuneration in listed companies. The rationale is straightforward - shareholders want management teams to have ’skin in the game’, ensuring executives experience the same financial outcomes as shareholders, benefiting from value creation and sharing in the consequences of underperformance.
This alignment between executives and shareholders has long been recognised as an important element of good reward governance. However, employers are asking a broader question: if ownership drives accountability, engagement and long-term thinking at the top of the organisation, why should that not extend across the workforce?
From income to wealth
Financial wellbeing of employees has become a priority for employers. Traditionally, support has focused on pay, pensions, savings vehicles and financial education. While all are important, share plans introduce something relevant to long-term financial wellbeing – the opportunity to build wealth.
This distinction matters. Salary and annual bonuses provide income. Share ownership provides employees with the opportunity to accumulate an asset that may grow in value.
Long-term financial security is often built through a combination of income and asset ownership. Share plans can therefore play anpart of a wider financial wellbeing strategy.
The financial value delivered through employee share plans can also be significant. In the tax year ending 2025, HMRC estimated that via tax-advantaged employee share schemes, employees received approximately £790 million in income tax relief and £440 million in National Insurance relief, demonstrating the meaningful financial benefits that can be generated through employee ownership.
Engagement through participation
Employees who understand how company performance influences the value of their investment are often more engaged with their organisation’s objectives and long-term success. Share ownership can also support retention by strengthening employees’ connection to the organisation and creating a tangible stake in its future performance.
The UK’s long-standing framework of tax-advantaged employee share plans, including Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plans (SIPs), reflects a broader recognition that employee ownership can create value for employees, employers and shareholders alike. HMRC’s latest statistics show that more than 20,000 companies operated a tax-advantaged employee share scheme in the tax year ending 2025, demonstrating the role that share ownership plays within UK reward strategies.
Getting the design and implementation right
Successful plans begin with clear objectives. Organisations should consider whether they are seeking to improve financial wellbeing, strengthen engagement, support retention or foster a greater sense of ownership across the workforce.
Communication and education are equally important. Employees need to understand not just the benefits of participation, but also practical considerations such as investment risk, taxation and how share ownership fits within broader financial planning.
Clear communications, intuitive enrolment processes and ongoing engagement campaigns can make a significant difference to take-up rates and perceptions of value. Organisations achieve the greatest impact when share plans are viewed not as a standalone reward programme, but as part of a broader financial wellbeing and employee engagement strategy.
Engaging employees in share plans
Understanding your employees money mindset can provide the key to relevant communication for all employees.
Aon’s research and client experience into employees’ money mindsets shows a clear pattern:
- Fewer than 3 in 10 employees naturally think long term about their finances. This group is comfortable with investing and will usually appreciate the value of a share plan and it’s impact on their future plans.
- 3 in 10 employees identify as spenders (focused on the very short term). They care more about what they can see and feel now. For them, a benefit that pays off in a few years’ time can feel distant, irrelevant and abstract.
- The remaining 4 in 10 are disengaged or struggle to become financially prepared on a regular basis. Finances frustrate them.
To truly engage the dis-engaged or short-term focused employees, frame share plans the way they think about money. That means less emphasis on 'long-term investing' and more emphasis on immediate motivation and visible progress.
Messages that tend to land well with this group sound like:
- You can build wealth automatically straight from your employer.
- It can feel like you’ve earned free money through company contributions or discounts.
- You’re an investor without the pain of investing – no need to pick stocks or time the market.
- Your organisation is giving you a kickstart into your future financial wellness.
There are many powerful, positive messages for this cohort. The big challenge in communication is not making the messages too technical – full of jargon, complex examples, or investment theory. Once that happens, we lose a majority of the workforce.
Looking ahead
As organisations focus on engaging, retaining and the wellbeing of employees, share plans offer a rare opportunity to help all three. But the greatest value of employee share ownership may be in its ability to transform employees from earners into owners. When employees can participate in the value they help create, the benefits can extend well beyond reward – to employees, shareholders and the organisation as a whole.
If you are curious to know more, download: Relative Total Shareholder Return Awards (TSR) in Long-Term Incentive Plans (LTIPs).
