Retailer Tesco communicates its share scheme to employees using a range of channels and materials to ensure the information is clear and effective.
The employer has around 330,000 employees in the UK, Ireland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
A total of 52,000 UK staff take part in Tesco’s sharesave (SAYE) scheme, also known as a buy-as-you-earn scheme, with plans maturing each year. It aims to effectively communicate its share scheme to staff by posting content on its internal platform, called News and Views, to highlight the details, as well as using videos to illustrate different examples. The employer also produces physical materials such as leaflets and flyers in offices to explain the scheme.
James Goodman, UK people director at Tesco, believes that it is important to communicate how to sign up, what happens to saved money across various scenarios and other information that allows staff to make an informed decision.
“We send out to a wide distribution staff emails to drive awareness and registrations for the scheme,” he adds. ”We also have comprehensive frequently asked questions (FAQs) and articles on the intranet, Our Tesco, to fully inform employees about their options.”
The supermarket uses straightforward and jargon-free language in both its video and text content to ensure its employees understand all the information and implications of joining the share scheme. The same is applied to its FAQs, illustrations and examples to explain the scheme to employees and help them to work out whether they are relevant for them. Testimonials from employees to highlight ways their colleagues used savings, such as for holidays and to pay for weddings, have helped them to make their decision.
It additionally uses its staff News and Views platform to host video content explaining complicated financial terms, which helps to engage employees around share schemes and financial results for the organisation. It also created a sharesave microsite with Equiniti, for which it used simple language and layouts to ensure staff did not feel overwhelmed by the financial choices around the schemes.
In terms of helping employees budget for saving into a share scheme, Tesco offers employees financial help and education through its financial wellbeing campaign on its intranet.
“We’re committed to offering flexibility, rewards and benefits, and believe good financial wellbeing comes from employees being in control of their day-to-day finances, reducing debt and saving for the future,” Goodman says. “We offer helpful video content around learning better money habits, borrowing responsibly, saving regularly, our pay advance scheme, and other advice on staying in control of finances.”
