Susannah Batley, head of equity capital markets and company partnerships at Sharesies. Photo / Dean Purcell
Susannah Batley, head of equity capital markets and company partnerships at Sharesies. Photo / Dean Purcell
Online investment platform Sharesies is working with NZX-listed organisations to help facilitate employee share schemes.
Sharesies has launched Staff Shares, which it says will enable more Kiwis to access a share programme by helping listed companies integrate programmes via the Sharesies platform.
Staff Shares can be used by companies toreward employees with equity, through share schemes, salary sacrifices for investing, or one-off grants which are then integrated through the Sharesies platform.
Susannah Batley, head of equity capital markets and company partnerships at Sharesies, said it was a great way to build a "company ownership" mindset for the team, while supporting and encouraging staff to think about their long-term financial future.
"By being investors in the company, employees are able to hold a small part of the company, receive dividends and vote on these shares," she said.
"It also helps with incentivising and retaining existing talent, as well as attracting new top talent in this tight labour market."
Batley said Sharesies has worked with a number of NZX-listed companies on staff share schemes and one-off initiatives, including Contact Energy, Turners Automotive, Steel & Tube and Vulcan Steel.
"We work with each company individually to decide how the staff shares programme can best work for them and their team. In these discussions, the organisations can decide on the parameters when it comes to employees moving on and Sharesies is flexible in facilitating this."
For example, at Contact Energy, employees can receive up to $1000 worth of shares in their company for each year they participate. Employees contribute $0.01 per share.
However, once shares have been allocated, employees won't be able to sell or transfer them until they receive ownership of them, three years from the allocation date.
This will vary for different companies, Batley says.
"Employees can still receive many of the benefits, including receiving dividends and being able to vote on the shares," she said.
Batley said staff shares would be seamlessly integrated into their existing portfolio, keeping their investments visible, and easy to engage with in one place.
An example of the Contact Energy share scheme on the Sharesies platform. Photo / Supplied
Turners Automotive Group, which has also partnered with Sharesies to launch its own employee share scheme, is providing the opportunity for its employees to invest $1000 and receive $1500 worth of shares at the completion of a three-year vesting period.
Turners' chairman Grant Baker told the NZX: "Engagement of our team has been a key focus for a number of years. We've already seen major improvements, and this is another initiative to further engage our team. We believe incentivising employee share ownership is an important part of aligning the interests of our team and shareholders. It is also another core benefit we can offer people as a locally owned NZX-listed business."
Batley said there were a number of benefits in staff taking up a share scheme as opposed to going it alone.
"Shares are often offered to employees at a discount or at no cost via employee share schemes, compared to buying off the stock exchange," she said.
"Because of insider trading rules, it's also hard for employees to purchase shares in the companies they work for outside of a company-run share scheme.
"On top of that, companies have the ability to offer financial assistance to staff to take up the scheme, like interest-free loans or 'top ups'."
