The NASPP Blog

A few weeks ago I shared a couple of infographics I’d seen on ESPP Plans and asked for readers to share more of their visually inspired communications. My thought was that a stock plan picture is indeed worth a thousand words (think of all those plan terms boiled down to a few pictures that a participant can digest.)  I’m happy to report that I got answers, and more sample graphics. In today’s follow on blog, you can view them, too.

Restricted Stock at a Glance

Emily Cervino of Fidelity graciously shared a stock plan graphic on Restricted Stock Awards. As soon as I saw it, I realized that the third parties who support issuer stock plans have much to offer when it comes to communications. This takes a lot of the communication burden off the stock plan administrator and directs participants to the provider prepared content for learning.

The Marriage of Video and Infographics

Bruce Brumberg of myStockOptions.com pointed out to me that infographics don’t have to exist on their own. myStockOptions.com has an entire suite of free videos that incorporate infographics. They are publicly available, so feel free to take a look! I’ve included the link to one on Stock Options: NQSO Taxation.

Charts Count Too!

Last but not least, Terry Adamson of Aon Hewitt suggested that good charts can be effective visuals, too. His team has a suite of charts that allow participants to compare their performance awards to the performance of peer companies. Here’s a sample:

What’s Your Inspiration?

Are those creative juices flowing yet?

Inc. magazine recently published some eye popping statistics about visual content. While the statistics were oriented towards marketing, I think many apply to stock plans – after all, communicating with participants is very much about marketing the aspects and features of your stock plan as a benefit. Some of the tidbits about visual communications included in the article:

• The average person gets distracted in eight seconds, though a mere 2.8 seconds is enough to distract some people.
• 81 percent of people only skim the content they read online. (Usability expert Jakob Nielsen has written that the average user reads at most 20 to 28 percent of words during an average visit.)
• People form a first impression in a mere 50 milliseconds.
• An estimated 84 percent of communications will be visual by 2018.
• An estimated 79 percent of internet traffic will be video content by 2018.
• Posts that include images produce 650 percent higher engagement than text-only posts

If your stock plan communications are still very text heavy, it’s time to explore how infographics, video, and charts can take those communications to a more effective level.

And, I’m perfectly willing to do another follow on to this topic as interest warrants – I’d love to hear from some of you issuers about what you’re doing to include visual content in your participant messaging. Thanks to all those who shared their visuals with us!

-Jenn