The current economic and employment conditions are more complex than ever before. With the ‘Great Resignation’ and labour shortages plaguing 2022, this year’s themes are recession and high inflation – a cocktail that significantly impacts companies' people strategies.

This panel of experts will discuss the latest hot issues companies are challenged with and how they are affecting their corporate culture and sense of purpose.

• Find out how equity teams are weathering the challenges of inflation and the cost-of-living crisis
• What the best employers are doing to attract, retain, incentivize and reward talent
• What the future of work looks like and its impact global employee and executive share plans

Most of us have a Starbucks Star account, Hilton Hotel points or Emirates Air Miles, so why aren’t share plans incentivised in the same way? Can a new kind of plan design that encourages employee engagement through a points system increase participation?

This session explores innovative ideas in fostering employee stock plan engagement. The expert panel will look at the possibility of running stock plans like a loyalty program, with rewards and participation points baked into plan design and contributing to other benefits.

• Discover the types of plans that could accommodate loyalty rewards
• Find out how to structure a plan that includes participation rewards
• Explore innovative ways to communicate this plan to employees to encourage buy-in

Automation makes a big impact on the overall efficiency of your organization, bringing advantages that include higher production rates and increased productivity. The same benefits of data-driven management can be enjoyed by your equity compensation team.

This session will focus on areas that drive operational excellence and clearly illustrate the value your stock plan can derive from implementing data driven principles.

• Deploy data visualization tools to improve the participant experience and education, reducing requests for assistance
• Discover how to reduce processing errors and improve participant experience, leveraging vendors where appropriate
• Leverage analytics process automation tools, streamlining repetitive monthly business processes, reducing errors and creating visual reporting and communications for senior leadership

How can companies foster an employee ownership culture that aligns interests, and creates a loyal, cooperative, and productive workforce, particularly in times of economic downturn and uncertainty?

This session explores ways companies have used share schemes to engage employees to make them feel and act like owners of the company they work for.

• The panel will illustrate the plans they have in place, share the success stories, pitfalls and lessons learned
• Discuss whether we are returning to an era of ‘Cash is King’ and if equity is viewed as just another benefit
• Discover how companies are dealing with rising inflation and energy costs and the impact on how employees view equity ownership

The numerous and unique world events that have occurred over the last few years have led to an unpredictable business climate, but one that has presented a myriad of opportunities, particularly for the equity industry.

In this moderated session, we will take a deep dive into how equity can be used as a tool to adapt, and even counteract, many of the phenomena currently happening in the market and in the workplace with a focus on inflation and quiet quitting.

• Access industry research that underpins best practices in the creative use of equity to retain and motivate top talent and help participants hedge against broader market and governmental forces
• Hear how specific issue and administrator communication strategies can help equity to combat market forces
• Understand the role that demographics such as age and gender can significantly shift the ways in which equity should be deployed as a tool

Now in its 11th consecutive year, the Global Equity Insights Survey is the longest standing survey of global equity plans with participation of nearly 200 companies worldwide annually.

Join this session in 2023 to learn about the latest developments in equity plans from an administration and communications perspective for both Long-term Incentives and Share Purchase Plans. Each year, new focus topics based on market developments are added, so don't miss out on the latest insights regarding the war for talent and a clear focus on developing capital markets, including inflation, the energy crisis, and other economic drivers.

The session will touch upon the following key areas:

• Long-term incentive design
• Share purchase plans
• Focus on talent
• Focus on capital markets including inflation and other economic drivers

The SER has announced that the final rule changes to 10b5-1 will be released this April. Don’t let this long-awaited, and long-anticipated, rule change catch you, and your company’s employees, unaware.

Join this session for a timely and thought-provoking discussion that will prepare you for the changes.

• Hear details of the proposed amendments from the experts
• Understand how the changes might affect your company and executives
• Come away with the knowledge and tools to take action

To grow and compete for top talent, many companies are expanding their employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs) globally.

A panel of senior-level representatives from Cummins, Snowflake, and SAP will share tips and lessons learned from their experience of designing and managing large global ESPPs that include insights around optimal plan design, expanding ESPPs to new countries, regulatory issues, employee engagement, communications, and measures of success.

• Hear three global issuer case studies that demonstrate best-in-class ESPPs
• Get information and guidance that will improve your global ESPP offering
• Post your questions to the panel through an interactive Q&A and audience polls.

How does your company determine who is mobile? With work arrangements ever-changing, employees working anywhere, remote, hybrid, moving locations or back in the office; mobility matters.

These companies have focused processes and efforts around compliance, process and operational effectiveness that scales the mobility population and global footprint growth. With limited resources and shortened turnaround times, collaborating with your service providers and local stakeholders becomes paramount.

This panel explores how these companies have defined mobility, what is on the horizon and how they are tightening up processes to scale and address shorter turns.

• Understand how companies are defining mobility and scaling their equity rewards
• Get a global, EU and US perspective on how best to scale up
• Hear lessons learned from both corporate issuers and service providers

The war for talent is a pressing topic for many organizations, as they look to attract and retain the right talent to take their business forward. Increasing globalisation has widened the talent marketplace in recent years, and this together with the challenges of cost-of-living crisis, post-pandemic recovery and the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine, has created an environment where the workforce is re-evaluating priorities, and we see trends such as the widely reported ‘Great Resignation’ emerge.

In this session, we hear from two companies who have recently introduced new broad-based employee share plans, designed to reward employees for their input in driving growth, and incentivise all to play a part in increasing share value.

• Hear how plan structures can form a key part of the recruitment and retention employee value proposition
• Discover how share plans create a sense of corporate community for a global employee-base for which remote and hybrid working patterns are becoming the ‘norm’
• Consider the place of contributory share plans in the current economic climate, sharing views on how to balance short-term cashflow needs and longer-term financial wellbeing