Equity Unpacked: Employee Thoughts on Equity-based Compensation

Our CEO, Lilah Raynor, was recently featured on the Charles Schwab podcast, “Equity Unpacked: The Stock Plan Administrator’s Podcas‪t‬.”

This new podcast series that makes sense of “all things stock plan management” is hosted by Amy Reback, Vice President of Stock Plan Services at Charles Schwab. She talks candidly with guests from the stock plan world to untangle how notoriously complex equity compensation works, so participants and stock plan administrators can make more empowered decisions.

In this episode, Amy Reback and Lilah Raynor discuss: “What do employees really think about equity compensation?” During their talk, they dive into the data from this year’s participant survey conducted by Logica Research—and explore the ways COVID-19 has impacted how people are (and aren’t) investing.

One interesting trend the study uncovered, that is discussed on the podcast, is that employees are even more likely now (90% up from 87% during the last wave of the same study) to choose to work for a company due to equity compensation, with this trend being especially true for the Millennial generation.

In fact, this study and other studies are finding that the pandemic is hitting Millennials hard, “with younger ones not as established in their careers so their jobs are more vulnerable, and older ones with more financial responsibility—while at the same time they’re having job security issues, and they’re taking care of kids and working at home with kids at home.” This generational group is highly engaged with their own financial situation, rely heavily on company stock to round out their personal portfolio, and they need help understanding how to manage their equity compensation and other assets.

The study also showed that 85% of employees would like their employer to provide more education about equity compensation. So there’s really an opportunity here for employers to provide education and help in planning, and help alleviate anxiety during current times.