EXCLUSIVE: TalkTalk has increased take up of its employee share plans for 2014.
The telecommunications organisation introduced its sharesave scheme, provided by Equiniti in 2010. It has launched a new plan every year since offering both a three and five-year scheme.
Prior to the launch of this year’s schemes, some 55% of TalkTalk’s 2,200 employees were participating in a sharesave scheme. This has now increased to more than 74%.
Despite the eligible number of employees in 2014 being lower than 2013, due to a reduced headcount, the take up was up from 38% in 2013 to 40% in 2014.
The average amount employees are saving has also increased. On average, employees are saving £159.64 per month compared to £120.46 in 2013. This equates to an average monthly increase of £39.18 per employee.
Jenny Davidson, interim head of reward at TalkTalk, said: “The increase in take up is down to a number of reasons: our extensive communication, the maturing of our first scheme, increasing the saving limit to £500 and launching a share incentive plan (Sip).”
Since its launch, the Sip has achieved 14% take up.
The organisation communicated the schemes via drop-in sessions with provider Equiniti, updated brochures and a new social intranet site to make it easier to post regular information about all of its share schemes.
The dedicated site includes information about the two different schemes, gives examples of how schemes could work for employees financially and also sets out key dates for opting in and out.
Davidson added: “We really promoted the schemes and the launch of The Wire, which the social intranet is called, helped to put a special focus on it this year.
“For an organisation that launched its first scheme four years ago to have more than 70% of employees in share ownership and investing in at least one of the plans available shows just how engaged our employees are.”