BT Group, Burberry and Rio Tinto are among the winners of the IFS Proshare Awards.

The awards recognise employers’ contributions to the employee share ownership industry.

BT Group won the ‘Most effective use of technology’ award, as well as the award for ‘Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership, for organisations with more than 15,000 employees.

Burberry won ‘Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership’, for organisations with between 1,001 and 15,000 staff, while Rio Tinto won ‘Best international share plan.

The full list of winners is:

  • Best new share plan – Amadeus IT Holding.
  • Best international share plan – Rio Tinto.
  • Most effective communication (up to 1,000 employees) – Rackspace.
  • Most effective communication (1,001 to 15,000 employees) – Henderson Global Investors.
  • Most effective communication (15,001 + employees) – Asda.
  • Best commitment to employee share ownership for small companies with fewer than 250 employees – IGas Energy.
  • Best employee share plan following a major corporate change – Conviviality Retail.
  • Most effective use of technology – BT Group.
  • Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (up to 1,000 employees) – Apache.
  • Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (1,001 - 15,000 employees) – Burberry.
  • Best overall performance in fostering employee share ownership (15,001+ employees) – BT Group.

John Collison, head of employee share ownership at IFS Proshare, said: “2013 has been a momentous year for the employee share ownership industry, and this has been reflected by the quality of the nominations that we have received and from the diverse range of industries from which they have been submitted.

“The story of this year’s awards is the emergence of several comparatively smaller organisations, whose innovative thinking and energy have impressed the judges throughout.

“That these organisations have performed so well demonstrates that employee share ownership can benefit nearly every business, regardless of size.

“We congratulate all of our winners and finalists, and commend all of their hard work in bringing the widely-known benefits of employee share ownership to the UK and global economy.”