The NASPP Blog

The NASPP’s 2014 Domestic Stock Plan Administration Survey (co-sponsored by Deloitte Consulting LLP) is now open for participation. This is the industry’s most comprehensive survey on stock plan administration, easily worth the cost of NASPP membership. Seriously–consulting firms charge upwards of $1,000 to participate in surveys that offer less data with fewer respondents. We let you participate for free–but issuers have to participate to receive the full survey results. Don’t put it off; you’re going to want this data and you only have until April 25 to complete the survey.

For today’s blog, I highlight just a few of the many data points in the survey that I am eagerly anticipating an update on. These are hot topics today and I’m looking forward to finding out where current practices stand with respect to them:

• The Latest Trends in ESPPs:  Rumor has it that companies have been implementing new ESPPs and have been enhancing the benefits (discount, lookback, etc.) in their existing ESPPs. We saw a decline in both the number of ESPPs and the benefits offered under ESPPs in the last survey, so I’m very excited to see if this trend really has turned around.
• Automatic Exercise on Expiration:  For the first time ever, the survey collects data on this emerging practice.  I think it makes a lot of sense so I’m very interested to see what percentage of respondents have implemented this program.
• Rule 10b51 Plans: Has the recent negative attention that Rule 10b5-1 plans have received from academics and the media impacted the use of these plans?  My money says no; if anything, I expect usage to have increased a bit; we’ll see if I’m right when the survey results are published.
• Stock Ownership Guidelines:  The 2011 Stock Plan Administration survey saw a 35% increase in the percentage of companies that have stock ownership guidelines, a remarkable increase–far higher than we expected based on responses to the 2007 survey.  If everyone that said they were considering implementing stock ownership guidelines in 2011 survey did actually implement them, close to 80% of all respondents will now have these guidelines in place. 
• Social Media:  The topic du jour when it comes to educating employees these days is the use of social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)  I think these tools have significant potential for reaching younger employees. I look forward to finding out what percentage of respondents use them now and setting a baseline that we can use for comparison purposes in future years.

April 25 will be here before you know it and you are definitely going to want to have access to the full survey results. If you are an issuer, register to participate today. (Service providers that are not eligible to complete the survey can access the full survey results at no cost, provided they are members of the NASPP. This access is available to service providers only; issuer companies must complete the survey to access the full survey results.)

– Barbara