The NASPP Blog

When I was in elementary school, I received a grade for how well I played with others. My conduct in class and on the playground was presented to my parents as poor, needs improvement, satisfactory, or excellent. As a professional, your ability to partner with your peers may not come to you in a report card, but it absolutely does influence the quality and efficiency of your work.

The stock plan management team must partner with many different groups or individuals, each having their own priorities, annoyances, and standards. These are my top three questions you should ask anyone who uses data that originates from the stock plan management team or software:

How do you make use of the files reports from the stock plan administration database?

This may sound like a general question, but once you start digging, you might be surprised by what you find out. It’s important to know what pieces of data are essential to your partners, not just what reports and files your procedures dictate must be delivered to them. Internally, you may be sending reports or automated files to several different departments including legal, HR, payroll, and finance. Externally, you are coordinating data as well with your broker(s), transfer agent, and advisors or other third-party vendors. If you know what the intended outcome is for the data you supply, you may be able to simplify your own processes. For example, you may be providing two separate reports when all the required data can actually be included on a single report. This is particularly important as a review item if either your or the other party’s database or software has recently been updated.

What manual adjustments do you make to data you receive from the stock plan management team?

Automation is a key element of stock plan management. As you start to understand exactly how data from your stock plan administration database is being used, the next logical piece of intelligence to gather from your partners is if you are a source of annoyance for them. A fantastic follow-up question in this conversation is, “How can I deliver this data in a way that no longer requires manual adjustments?” If your partners have to take your data and rearrange it, combine it, or otherwise manipulate it before they can even start to use it, then you should be looking for a way to combat that. Even if you can’t provide the data in a different way immediately, you can be looking for solutions to the manual processes that your data has created. Plus, just knowing that you care enough to look for a solution can ease the burden of manual processes for your partners–at least temporarily–and even create a more cooperative environment.

When entering data from the stock plan management team into your database, what happens if there is rejected data or the data results in an error within your system?

This question is most applicable to files that are directly imported into a software or database, but it can also be important for data that must be entered manually. For example, if your file containing tax withholding amounts from stock plan transactions includes a social security withholding amount that puts an employee over the annual maximum, you want to know how the payroll software will account for that issue. Incongruous data can also be discovered during manual reconciliation processes. The most important piece of information that you want to know about these glitches is if there is a standard or automated adjustment to the original data, such as allocating excess Social Security to income tax withholding or rounding up when a number contains more decimal places that the system can accommodate.

Starting these conversations with your partners is useful above creating efficiencies and reducing risk of error. It also helps to create solidarity between your team the departments and outside contributors you partner with. By taking time to understand the needs and limitations of the groups and individuals using data that originates in your stock plan administration database you open the door for you to solicit help in resolving issues that originate outside your department as well. Also, although you don’t bring home a report card to let you know how well you “play” with others, successful coordination with other departments and service providers absolutely does influence your standing in your annual review. So, once you’ve taken the time to ask these questions, be sure to share your knowledge and the results of your efforts!

-Rachel