Setting up an employee ownership of shares scheme can be advantageous for both an organisation and its employees. The programs allow you to recruit and retain high calibre professionals, while also allowing employees to have a stake in the business.

Ralli can help you to choose the most sensible scheme for your business and assist you setting up provisions to ensure that it is tailored to meet the specific needs and goals of your organisation.

Choosing the right share incentive scheme

There are various forms of share incentive programs available to companies, which have been designed to meet different objectives. These include:

• Share ownership – the ownership of shares schemes allow employees to purchase shares, whether at full price or at a discount, or receive free shares after a specified time period. These are often used to reinforce commitment and loyalty across a workforce.
• Share options – employees have the right to purchase shares at a fixed price sometime in the future, after a certain amount of time has passed.
• Phantom share awards – this rewards employees with bonuses when the value of the company grows, without giving out rights over shares.

In most cases, share ownership schemes run within the rules of a Share Incentive Plan and offer tax benefits to both the employer and employee. However, this distribution of shares can often be subject to tight restrictions.

Specialist legal guidance from Ralli

When setting up an ownership of shares scheme, it can be important to seek advice from Ralli solicitors. Our legal team will ensure that your program is suitable for your organisation and meets all relevant terms and conditions, while advising on who can own shares in your business. We can also help you to set provisions based on remuneration, length of service or performance to ensure that the scheme is tailored to your business operations.

For specialist legal guidance, contact Ralli on 0161 832 6131. Our solicitors can help you choose, set up and manage employee incentive programs including salaried partnership agreements and employee ownership of shares schemes to ensure that they truly benefit your business.