It’s painting with a broad brush, but stock plan professionals do have a bit of a reputation for being introverted and preferring to keep to themselves in the workplace. I thought of this the other day when I saw this gem of a quote from the late, great David Foster Wallace: “You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.” So many equity professionals have certainly embraced the spirit of this (in a sort of upside down way) in telling me that the most attention they get in their position is when something goes wrong, so the less thought about they are, the better. Real bliss comes from being seldom thought of, and, continuing down the upside-down quote path, no publicity is good publicity. There is a ton to be said for the high level of competency required to manage a stock plan in a way that makes people forget you are there. But things are changing, and being willing to make some noise is where it’s going.
The real exciting stuff happening right now is on the participant communication front. There were some great presentations at the GEO Northern California Forum, but my favorite had Emily Cervino and Billy Vitense highlighting what Starbucks was doing to engage their people using educational videos. These videos were really effective because they were produced with its audience in mind, and really told a story, rather than “talking at” the participant.
Communications is really just a subset of marketing, and marketing is no longer a one-way street. Modern communications need not only be clear and concise (really concise, actually, no one is watching 11 minute videos on ESPP according to that presentation), but it should also create evangelists who want to spread the word because they trust you. This is engagement, and it is a two-way street.
I have gotten to work with some great stock plan consultants in the past. I always loved how, in the midst of discussing some hairy spin-off, large option exchange, or complex new plan roll-out, and all its attendant technical requirements, they would bring to the front how important the participant communications plan would be in pulling it off successfully (and had they, the client, thought about that?) It was always part of the client plan, sure, but always a bit of an afterthought as well. Like they knew they would have to email everybody, and they were going to get to that first draft soon. But these consultants, they were able to get the client to see that the technical side didn’t matter a whole lot if no one cared about what had happened, or trusted them to be doing the right thing in the first place.
The good news is that people love to share in this community and talk about what is working for them. I saw that one of the presentations at this year’s NASPP Conference is Everything I Need to Know about Stock Plan Communication I Learned from Social Media. For better or worse, a social media mindset – understanding what works and why – is going to be necessary to build engaging communications. Engagement is really what the next wave of top tier equity comp professionals are going to be expected to effectively promote, and very likely how they will be measured.
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