Over 90% of UK SMEs say that Enterprise Management Incentives are good for business

A new report, believed to be one of the most comprehensive of its type in UK history, has found that nearly all businesses with an EMI share scheme have seen improvement in their retention, recruitment and growth.

Of those operating an EMI share scheme:

• 93% agree that it helps with recruitment.
• 95% agree that it helps with employee retention.
• 93% agree that it helps with company growth and development.

The report was compiled by Vestd and was submitted to the Government this week in response to a new call for evidence on the effectiveness of EMI.

What is EMI?

EMI is the flagship share scheme backed by the Government and was introduced to help SMEs compete for the best talent. EMI provides a tax-efficient way for businesses to share equity with their staff. This enables companies to offer an enhanced reward package to potential employees, theoretically leading to greater job loyalty.

However, the scheme hasn’t been assessed in over a decade, prompting the Government to launch a review earlier this year, to find out whether the scheme is meeting its aims.

EMI ‘instrumental’ to business development

Vestd’s report consolidates data from over 5,000 sources including general UK employees, senior managers and company founders, and Vestd’s own customers. The research was compiled internally and with the help of YouGov and 3Gem.

The data affirms that large percentages of companies setting up an EMI scheme do so with the Government’s initial ambitions in mind.

Vestd asked over 2,500 sales prospects for their reasons for setting up a scheme.

Of these companies, nearly half were looking to improve retention, one in four reported that they were specifically looking to improve their recruitment and just under a fifth were seeking EMI to enhance company growth.

For those already running a scheme, the results are far higher. When asked if the scheme has helped, the numbers shoot up to nearly 100% in each category (retention, recruitment, growth), demonstrating that EMI emphatically works.

Atec Security CEO Simon Adcock took part in the research and said: “Our EMI scheme was instrumental in securing the services of two new leadership team members who have since made a critical difference to our performance.”

Similarly, Benedict Wheatley of Lazy Susan Furniture said: “Since the implementation of the scheme we have had 100% retention of staff.”

As the most advanced share scheme platform for UK SMEs and startups, Vestd is an authority on EMI. Thousands of people use the platform to monitor and manage their share schemes and the company regularly invests in definitive research around the subject.

Expansion of the scheme will help more businesses

Founder of Vestd, Ifty Nasir said: “These results are profound in their uniformity. It’s clear from the data and from the anecdotal evidence that whenever a company introduces EMI, they see results that outstrip even their most ambitious hopes for what the scheme can do for them.”

“We’ve also collated recommendations from our customers as to what the government should do to improve the scheme. The overriding message is to widen the eligibility criteria so that more companies can participate.”

“This data constitutes an overwhelming endorsement of EMI. During this time of recovery from COVID-19, enhancing the existing scheme could be one of the most powerful things that the Government could do to support small businesses and startups across the UK.”

The Government’s consultation is due to close on May 26th. More information can be found here.

For more information about this press release, contact jemma@vestd.com

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About Vestd

Vestd is the first and most advanced share scheme platform for UK SMEs. It is used to create and manage share and option schemes, and to distribute equity to key people.

Vestd.com