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
N Brown Group launches profit-share scheme to reward entire workforce
N Brown Group has launched a profit-share scheme for 2,200 employees who are not eligible for its management bonus plan.
01 Dec Reckitt Benckiser aims for global unity with share plan
01 Dec Cattles boosts take-up of sharesave with new plan
05 Nov CIPD Reward Forum: Corporate Sipps are the new flexible benefits
01 Nov DSGI extends share deal to store managers
Analysis
Encouraging wider share ownership among staff
The stock market may have the jitters, but there are plenty of reasons why employers should encourage employee share ownership, says Sonia Speedy
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
03 Mar Tailor share communication
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.
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
04 Jun British American Tobacco improves financial education for staff
Research
Males more likely to take up share plans
Male employees are far more likely to participate in employee share plans than their female colleagues.
06 May More than half of companies outsource share plan admin
