What’s The Best Vesting Schedule to Implement for A Share Option Scheme?

Offering employees incentives demonstrates that each workforce member is valued and critical in ensuring the organization is successful. Over the years, stock options have become enormously popular in recruiting high-calibre workers and giving them a sense of ownership in the company. Equity compensation is offered when an employee has been at the company for several years.

Workers can’t exercise their right to buy shares before the vesting date or after the expiration date. Unless the company allows early exercising (i.e., investing in the company earlier), an employee can’t exercise vested stock options. The expectation is that the stock will increase in the future.

Equity interest can also be issued to founders at or near the company formation time. They acquire special rights not available to other shareholders, such as voting, controlling, and distributing profits. Equally, beneficiaries can be appointed to the board of directors.

Share vesting is a potential solution to some of the issues enterprises face, with advantages and limitations. You’ll need to decide what scheme is suitable for your organisation. You may make multiple choices for your scheme’s vesting period, as you’ll see.

What Is Share Vesting & How Does It Work?

An employee, a co-founder, or even an investor, can be granted rights to shares over a specific time, referred to as the vesting period. They’re given ownership of an asset, but beneficiaries don’t have complete control until a particular milestone is hit, generally established in the employment contract or shareholder agreement.

If an individual’s employment terminates before the end of the vesting period, the enterprise can buy back the shares at the original price. Where a future market for a company’s shares isn’t anticipated, the organisation can establish an internal market by setting up a trust that purchases shares from team members and recycles them for others.

A Useful Tool to Retain Founders and New Employees

Early founders incur the risk of leaving their jobs to venture into the unknown, creating uncertainty and doubt about virtually everything. If they own shares vested over five years, shareholders must work for the enterprise before they’re allowed to exercise their stock options. If one of the co-founders decides to leave, the vesting schedule protects the rest from the problem.

Simply put, the departed founder doesn’t enjoy more advantages than those who remain to get the company to thrive. Early founders are motivated to continue to serve the organisation until the end of the vesting period. The terms of the agreement are available in the shareholder agreement, which provides for many eventualities. 

Stock options are substitutes for cash bonuses and rewards, compensating workers for lower salaries. Individuals may be eligible to receive shares based on performance. Larger companies offer ordinary shares, representing an equity investment in the company. In comparison, smaller companies offer dividends, so employees don’t leverage other shareholder rights (e.g., voting at the annual general meeting).

Vested shares can contribute to the retirement plan, a strategy with a few advantages. For instance, having a significant allocation of stocks helps guard against the risk of outliving money in retirement. Employees are offered company stocks besides their salaries, which incentivises long-term commitment. Stock options don’t require liquid cash, whereas wages do.

Select An Optimal Vesting Schedule That Benefits Your Organisation

You can use vesting to prevent employees from leaving too early and, in the case of early founders, to avoid giving away shares to people who don’t deserve them by not contributing to the enterprise’s targets.

During the vesting process, they can purchase a certain number of shares at a fixed price. Your cap tables track ownership across various shareholders. If you need help with your cap table management, don’t be afraid to ask for help. As your business gains traction, your cap tables will only grow in complexity, so you’ll require additional support for equity management processes.

A vesting schedule typically comes in three types, as follows:

Cliff Vesting

The stock option holder is rewarded only if they stick with the company for a decent amount of time. In other words, the participant receives full ownership of the shares on a given date – when the cliff ends, the vesting period begins.

Many companies offer shares of stock with a one-year cliff, followed by a four-year linear vesting. After the cliff, the granted shares vest each month until the four years are over. The vesting schedule can be time-based, milestone-based, or a combination of both.

Graded Vesting

Graded vesting is when an employee or founder gradually gains ownership of stock options. More exactly, the amount increases over the course of a couple of years until it reaches 100%. If a team member resigns from their position, they lose a portion of their benefits when they leave, rather than bringing them along.

For example, a two-year graded vesting schedule signifies the individual is eligible for 50% of the accrued contributions after just one year of service and the remaining 50% after the second year.

Immediate Vesting

As the name clearly suggests, the stock option holder is fully vested right away, receiving full ownership of their shares, even if they no longer work at the company providing the option or plan. An immediate vesting schedule doesn’t have a waiting or time period for individuals to leverage their benefits, so they can sell the stock right away or keep it to grow their wealth.

If the shares are offered via schemes like Share Incentive Plans, SAYE, Company Share Option Plans, or EMIs, paying Income Tax or National Insurance isn’t necessary.

Final Considerations

By far, the most common choice for a share option scheme is four-year time-based vesting with a one-year cliff. Even if you’re a solo founder, you must have a vesting schedule for equity. Maybe you’re expecting a future investment from venture capitalists or angel investors.

In that case, people who put their money into the company want a simple proposal of how to divide equity, so you’ll be forced to add vesting to your shares. Investors want a guarantee you’re committed to the business venture for the long term and will do your best to see the enterprise succeed.