Equity Compensation (EC) plans are a powerful way to reward your employees, staff, and contractors for the efforts that result in organizational growth and future profits, bolstering your employee morale, attracting top talent, and furthering your company’s reputation within your industry.
However, administering Equity Compensation plans poses a unique staffing challenge for your Human Resources, Finance, or Legal departments, particularly if your organization is not large enough to require a full-time dedicated Equity Compensation administrator.
If you assign staff from other departments and areas of expertise the duties associated with Equity Compensation administration, you will run into issues regarding lack of dedicated EC expertise.
Between the need for clean data, efficient workflow processes, and regulatory requirements, assigning Equity Compensation administration tasks to non-experts can quickly result in snowballing challenges for your organization. On top of this, you can risk your professional appearance to your employees and the public alike if the processes are done incorrectly or you miss your deadlines.
On the other hand, traditional Equity Compensation outsourcing from software providers or brokers may have the built-in EC experience and compliant administration processes, but they lack the willingness or even ability to handle organization-specific issues that arise and cannot readily adjust to your evolving, dynamic needs.
That’s where bringing in experienced consultants can benefit your entire organization. Managed Services is a combination of organization-specific consulting, technology, and expert handling of the complicated EC workflows and processes.
Managed Services offer an attractive price point that effectively gives you full time expertise on a part-time budget, perfect for scaling to your Equity Compensation needs. Consultants allow you to spend a fraction of what it costs to hire an in-house EC expert without sacrificing the domain-expertise you need to effectively administer your Equity Compensation plans.
Managed Services is not Outsourcing
If you already use an Equity Compensation outsourcing service or software, you are probably familiar with the challenges associated with stock plan administration. While traditional outsourced solutions can certainly be helpful with tasks such as meeting ASC 718 and IFRS2 guidelines, you will still need to pull non-expert staff resources to interact with and manage these solutions.
Plus, even with automation, you still have the challenge of data consolidation, accuracy, and consistency. Automating aspects of your Equity Compensation is important, but do not confuse it with bringing an expert managed EC consultant into your organization to oversee this process. No two organizations have the same challenges, and as such, Equity Compensation administration is never a one-size-fits-all solution.
Financially, it Makes Sense to Hire Consultants
If your organization is on the smaller side, administering the Equity Compensation plans will not typically require full-time weekly work.
As such, you must either pull staff from other departments,, or hire a full-time Equity Compensation administrator and find them additional tasks to perform throughout the week. Both options can be problematic given the highly-niche expertise of a qualified EC expert.
Additionally, someone with the level of experience required to deliver the best results can command a competitive salary between $90,000 and $250,000, depending on their experience, which is no small expense if they are only needed part time.
Compare this to hiring an outside consultant, where you can potentially meet your Equity Compensation needs for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire, depending on your organization’s size and scope of your EC. This comes without the sacrifice in quality and experience associated with pulling non-expert staff into part-time Equity Compensation administrator roles.
With these numbers in mind, the savings can be substantial for bringing on an outside Equity Compensation consultant with a track record of delivering results.
Software-Agnostic Consulting Expertise
At CompIntelligence, we have experience with most Equity Compensation administration systems. Whatever platform your organization uses, we are more than comfortable to work with your existing system, and do not require full-scale migration.
As such, our experts are well-suited to seamlessly integrate, improve, and optimize your existing Equity Compensation infrastructure, which saves time and money while minimizing the need to retrain any staff familiar with your current system. CompIntelligence also has a proprietary data mapping/automation software, CompXchange, that can help to integrate data from various sources and automate manual, time-consuming processes. CompXchange works in conjunction with your existing equity software platform to fill any gaps in the data flow.
However, in the event that you are switching systems or launching a brand-new software platform, CompIntelligence will help you migrate the data to the new system and ensures your staff learns the skills they need to utilize the new or updated equity software platform.
Finally, if it does make sense for you to hire in-house Equity Compensation experts, our team can assist with building out your team. With the largest network of stock plan professionals in the industry, we can source, hire, and onboard the employees you need to create a functioning Equity Compensation administration wing within your HR and Finance teams. We then remain available on an as-needed basis to ensure your operations run smoothly as you transition to having your own subject matter expert employees.
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CompIntelligence Delivers High Level Experts With Deep Experience
At CompIntelligence, our team specializes in all areas of Equity Compensation. From stock plan administration on both a short term and long term basis, to advisory services for tasks such as procedure review, documentation, and new plan rollouts, our team has many fortune 100 companies among our former and current clients.
We also offer technical services built around your specific needs, including system integration, automation review, report building, and custom platforms to manage all stages of Equity Compensation plan administration.
All of our consulting experts have years of experience in the industry and the CompIntelligence resources to back them up on whatever problems your organization faces. With a low expert-to-client ratio, you will get the individualized attention you need and deserve to ensure efficiency, financial savings, and peace-of-mind as you implement and administer Equity Compensation across your company.
Overall, our team delivers these solutions at a fraction of the cost for keeping everything in-house, especially when you consider the technical expertise required to implement the software and automation areas of a streamlined Equity Compensation administration solution.
Conclusion
If your organization is struggling with the regulatory, efficiency, and lack-of-expertise issues that face many companies when rolling out and administering an Equity Compensation plan, it’s likely time to hire professional help.
Contact us today to find out how CompIntelligence can streamline your organization’s Equity Compensation administration to bolster your bottom line, improve employee morale, and grow your industry reputation.
