Share schemes
Employers can design their own employee share schemes, but most prefer to make use of favourable tax treatment available through the four Inland Revenue approved schemes: sharesave (SAYE), share incentive plan (Sip), company share option plan (Csop) and enterprise management incentive (EMI). The most popular staff option scheme in the UK is the sharesave scheme, also known as save as you earn (SAYE). Executive share option plans (including long term incentives – Ltips) are used for very senior employees. It is very common for unapproved share option plans, such as Ltips, to be used for executives or directors. They are called 'unapproved' because they do not attract the tax breaks available to 'approved' plans.
Definitions of employee share scheme terms
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News
Tesco employees share GBP98m bonus pot
More than 207,000 Tesco employees will share a £98 million bonus pot after the retail giant reported profits of £3 billion for the last year.
18 Jun BA pilots set to take pay cut for shares
01 Jun VT Group uses sharesave to boost staff engagement
14 May Sainsbury's staff share GBP60 million bonus pot
11 May Equiniti acquires ICS Computing
23 Apr Budget 2009: Sharesave changes to cut administrator costs
Analysis
What to consider when deciding which share plan to offer staff
There are many factors to consider when deciding which share plan to offer, says Katrina McKeever
20 Nov Maximise tax breaks by transferring Sips to Sipps
01 Oct Guide staff through share scheme maturity
01 Oct Rolling out an employee share scheme internationally
01 Oct Promoting share schemes in an economic downturn
Case Studies
BT offers access to sharesave and share incentive plans
BT offers employees access to both sharesave and share incentive plans (Sips), with free share allocations that are tightly linked to company performance - based on customer satisfaction and earnings per share.
12 Jan Case study: Henderson
01 Oct Case study: Home Retail Group pleased with take-u
04 Aug Easyjet's share schemes take off
05 Nov Jackson makes the most of the Sip at Punch Taverns
05 Nov BHP Billiton's global share scheme has has a 30% take-up
Research
Pension schemes most commonly-offered benefit
A pension plan is the most commonly-provided benefit offered by employers to staff, followed by investment in training and development, which remains a priority for organisations despite the economic downturn.
12 Jan Share plans increase loyalty
06 May More than half of companies outsource share plan admin
