(BFM Bourse) – French interest in employee shareholding still remains intact. This value sharing mechanism is also well perceived by employees as a lever of commitment in the service of the company’s performance, according to a study carried out by Diot-Siaci Institute and Natixis Interentreprises.
Parliamentary debates on “value sharing” within companies have resumed before the Senate, the bill on the subject having been adopted at first reading by the National Assembly at the end of June.
On this subject, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Lemaire indicated “working towards the rapid development of employee shareholding in the coming months”, in his back-to-school speech on August 24.
Employee shareholding is in fact part of the range of measures offered to employees to encourage them to take stakes in the capital of the companies which employ them. This mechanism is also gaining popularity in large companies.
More than a third of employees in the SBF 120 (a stock market index including CAC 40 companies as well as 80 other companies, which collectively represent more than 80% of the capitalization of the Parisian market), are shareholders in their company, revealed the latest overview of employee shareholding produced every year since 2006 by the Eres firm.
Although this value sharing mechanism benefits from great awareness among employees, companies sometimes fail in their duty to educate on the subject. This is the main lesson of a joint study by Diot-Siaci Institute, and Natixis Interentreprises, carried out by the Ifop polling institute with a representative sample of more than 1,000 employees employed in private companies with more than 1,000 employees.
A known device but which suffers from a lack of internal communication
First observation of the study, employee shareholding enjoys great notoriety since this system is known by more than three quarters of employees of large companies (77%). Despite this “high” awareness rate, less than one in two employees (44%) see precisely what it is, and less than a third of them feel “sufficiently informed” about the benefits. taxes linked to employee shareholding (30%), also reports this study.
Companies therefore face real challenges in communication and readability around this system. As such, only 67% of employees surveyed “believe that internal communication is satisfactory” in the context of a proposal for a shareholding plan by their company.
A figure which is all the more important since, as the Diot-Siaci / Natixis Interentreprises study highlights, the quality of internal communication is a real issue for companies, to the extent that it is not always well received by employees.
An advantageous remuneration instrument
Employee shareholding is also considered a lever of commitment for companies and a factor of attractiveness for employees. In Japan, employee shareholding incentive plans are flourishing to attract new talent in a context of labor shortage. Over the last 5 years, the number of Japanese companies that have offered this type of system has doubled to close to 1000 (996 to be exact). And that’s a quarter of the 3,900 companies listed on the Tokyo stock market, according to a Nomura study published last September, cited by Reuters.
For more than half of the employees surveyed (52%), employee shareholding is seen as a unifying system which benefits both the company and the employees. Among them, 78% believe that it improves the overall performance of the company and 82% consider that it is an effective way to attract and retain employees.
In companies that have implemented an employee shareholding plan, the number of voluntary departures is almost two times lower than that of companies with a very weak employee shareholding culture: 6.8% compared to 11.3%, also recalled. Eres in its study dedicated to employee shareholding.
Companies have everything to gain by involving their employees in their capital. And for employees, this device allows them to put butter in the spinach. The vast majority of employees highlight the benefits received on a financial level since 70% of those questioned recognize that it represents “an advantageous remuneration instrument”. Among them, 84% believe that this lever is useful to improve their future retirement, and 75% to strengthen their purchasing power.
A tool popular with shareholders and non-shareholders alike
For 73% of those questioned, it contributes, in the same way as other tools such as profit-sharing, to better sharing of value. This explains a significant number of candidates for employee shareholding. Among the non-shareholder employees surveyed, 67% would be interested in acquiring shares. Especially since this system is not exclusive to large companies. Small and medium-sized entities can also involve their employees in their development project. The 2019 Pacte law also strengthens the attractiveness of employee shareholding for this type of company, especially for those operating on the financial markets.
Listing on the stock exchange provides employees of small and medium-sized businesses with additional liquidity, with “the satisfaction of selling shares at a price reflecting the performance of the company to which they have contributed,” recalled Nisa Benaddi at the start of the year. , partner at EuroLand Corporate. “Economic performance, which according to numerous studies, is superior over time, when employees are involved in capital,” she explained.
The economic and financial performance of the company, however, determines employee support, underlines the Diot-Siaci / Natixis Interentreprises study. Among the company’s employee shareholders, 54% are ready to subscribe to the company’s shares thanks to the advantageous conditions offered and 41% thanks to the company’s financial performance.
“A few obstacles remain to subscription such as the lack of clarity and transparency of the conditions for acquiring shares (for 27% of those interviewed), as well as the lack of financial means to make this investment (26%),” says the study.
“If companies are particularly expected by employees on the question of sharing value in a context of inflation, employee shareholding schemes arouse support and are rightly recognized as creating purchasing power in the short term as well as in the long term. long term. For companies, the challenge lies in the ability to translate this system internally, by associating it with effective and specifically dedicated employer communication”, specifies Mickael Berrebi, head of the Diot-Siaci Institute.
For his part, Patrick Behanzin, marketing, offer and digital director of Natixis Interagence, underlines that “employee savings remain the main vector for developing employee shareholding since among the employee shareholders in the sample, 80% are via the schemes employee savings. This demonstrates the importance for companies to develop or strengthen this type of system, particularly in the current context favorable to value sharing.”
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2023 BFM Bourse