Asda, BT and Holiday Extras are among the organisations recognised for their employee share plans at the 2015 IFS Proshare Awards.
The awards recognise outstanding and innovative workplace share schemes that have bolstered employee participation in the past year.
Asda was recognised for its effective use of technology, while BT was awarded for most effective communication for an organisation with 50,001+ employees, and was highly commended for its overall performance in fostering employee share ownership.
Meanwhile, Holiday Extras was recognised for its effective communication as a smaller organisation with 5,000 or less employees.
The awards also recognised the individual contributions of two share plan professionals. Pam Roffe, manager of share plans at Royal Dutch Shell, was named employee share plans champion of the year, and Janet Cooper, partner director and trustee of Tapestry Compliance, was awarded for her services to employee share ownership.
The full list of winners is:
- Best new share plan: Manx Telecom
- Best international share plan: Prudential and Skyscanner. Highly commended: EVRAZ
- Most effective communication (up to 5,000 employees): Holiday Extras
- Most effective communication (5,001 – 50,000 employees): Aviva
- Most effective communication (50,001+ employees): BT Group
- Best employee share plan outcome following a major corporate change: UBS. Highly commended: Auto Trader
- Most effective use of technology: Asda
- Best financial education initiative for employees: Henderson Global Investors
- Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (up to 5,000 employees): British Land
- Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (5,001+ employees): Barratt Developments. Highly commended: BT Group
- Employee share plans champion of the year: Pam Roffe, manager of share plans, Royal Dutch Shell
- Award for services to employee share ownership: Janet Cooper, partner director and trustee of Tapestry Compliance
Gabbi Stopp, head of employee share ownership at IFS Proshare, said: “The previous year has been an eventful time in the employee share plans world, which has made the task of the judges even more difficult than normal. New schemes have been launched both at home and abroad, employee share ownership is growing in terms of overall participation and favourable tax legislation has seen many new companies explore the benefits that these plans offer.
“We offer our congratulations to all the winners, commended entries and indeed for every nomination. Although we can’t offer everyone an award, every organisation offering an employee share plan should feel proud in providing employees with a highly valuable workplace benefit that makes a real difference to their financial futures.”
