Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) Survey Results

The 2009 ESPP Survey

To help companies make effective decisions under changing economic conditions, the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and the Certified Equity Professional Institute (CEPI) partnered in a research project on practices in employee stock purchase plans (ESPPs). The NCEO/CEPI survey, conducted in June and July 2009, includes responses from over 400 companies. With questions written by experts in the field, the resulting data is a unique source for insight into trends in plan design, participation rates, compensation cost, run rates, overall satisfaction with the plan, and more.

ESPPs are getting more focus as companies reevaluate their equity compensation plans. Many advocates suggest that ESPPs may be a more cost-effective, shareholder friendly way to provide for broad-based equity and that they are less vulnerable to rapid downward swings in stock prices. Others say these plans should play only a nominal role and offer minimal discounts. In the face of this controversy, the NCEO/CEPI data are your best source for answers to help you navigate the best course for your company. You will learn:

• how many companies extend their ESPPs to non-U.S. employees
• what percentage of companies changed the look-back feature last year
• what the difference is in participation rates for managers versus hourly employees
• what the most common offering periods and discounts are
• what percentage of compensation cost is typically represented by an ESPP
• whether companies limit the number of shares per employee

A PDF version of the questionnaire is available and lists all the questions in the survey.

You can order the comprehensive report or the data, or you can order both the report and the data in a single package for less than what you would pay if buying them separately.

Comprehensive Report

The full report of survey data is a 58-page PDF document that provides descriptive statistics for all items in the survey, narrative describing methods and highlights, and analysis of the relation between plan design features and outcomes such as satisfaction and changes in participation rates. It will be delivered by email shortly after we process your order.

Data

The raw data are available to those willing to consent to the confidentiality agreement (see below). The data is based on the items in the questionnaire as filled out by 412 companies, although identifying information and answers to some open-ended questions are not included. Purchase of the data includes a Microsoft Excel file with the data and a guidebook describing the structure of the data. It will be delivered by email shortly after we process your order.

Terms of Use for 2009 ESPP Data

By purchasing the data from the 2009 ESPP survey, you are agreeing to following terms of use:

• You will acknowledge the NCEO as the source of the information in all materials, speeches, presentations, or other forms of communication that draw on the ESPP data. The correct title is "2009 Employee Stock Purchase Plan Survey." The NCEO should be referred to as the National Center for Employee Ownership. When feasible, a link to our Web site (www.nceo.org) should be provided.
• The NCEO made the following commitment to each participating company: "All of your answers to this questionnaire will be completely confidential. No specific information will be released to anyone outside the NCEO on a given company's practices." All identifying information (email address, individual names, IP addresses) has been removed from the data. You agree to respect the commitment that the NCEO has made, and specifically:
  • You will not attempt to identify in any public sphere any companies based on the answers to company background questions or any other information contained in the data.
  • You will only share analyses that aggregate data from multiple companies, rather than data from multiple questions for any individual company (i.e., you will not recreate a portion of the answers to the questionnaire for any one company).
• You will not release the data to anyone outside your company or sell reports generated using the data for profit.

The 2006 ESPP and FAS 123(R) Survey

Has FAS 123(R) resulted in companies redesigning their employee stock purchase plans? A total of 111 companies responded to the 2006 survey on this topic. Most companies expect to change their ESPPs in some way in response to new accounting rules. Far more are modifying their plans than are out-and-out eliminating them.

The information is presented online. You will receive your access information via email within one business day. Users can sort the responses by industry, company size, and other variables to get the data that apply the most specifically to their own interests. They can also download a spreadsheet of all responses.