Just Life Group And Sharesies Agree On Company Employee Share Scheme

Just Life Group (JLG) has announced a new and innovative employee share scheme that gives employees the opportunity to buy and sell shares in the publicly listed company as well as other shares listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

Chief Executive of Just Life Group Tony Falkenstein and his team realised an opportunity to break the usual Employee Share Scheme model, which incurs legal fees to set up, and instead distribute that money to employees via the online share platform Sharesies.

“Even though we are one of 151 publicly listed companies in New Zealand, very few of our staff own any shares. We’d been considering a scheme for staff but the legal fees were over $10,000. So we thought, what if we did it differently and instead gave our staff the opportunity to own shares in the company and have their own share portfolio,” says Falkenstein.

JLG partnered with Sharesies to open an account for every staff member. In the coming days they will be depositing $50 of JLG shares into each employee’s account. They are also giving employees the option to have $10 deducted from their pay each fortnight to deposit in their Sharesies account, which JLG will top up with a 10% subsidy. With these funds the employee will be able to invest in any public company share.

“We wanted to give our employees the opportunity to invest in JLG, while also getting to understand and invest in other New Zealand companies. We are also excited to be supporting the local Sharesies platform. It was a totally original idea and they loved it,” says Falkenstein.

“At its heart, Sharesies is encouraging more kiwis to develop their wealth. This employee share scheme is a unique and exciting way for local companies to give back to their employees. It's also great for employees to get access to investing this way, and own a slice of the companies they passionately work in. We think the innovation of Tony and his team is epic,” says Sharesies CEO, Brooke Roberts.

The share scheme has been welcomed by JLG employees with over 50% percent having already taken up the offer of shares, and allocating additional pay to the platform.

JLG employee Rachel Baxter, a Senior Customer Sales Executive, has taken up the offer and is looking forward to being part of the bigger picture of JLG.

“The offer of shares and investing my own money into Just Life Group Ltd is a fantastic opportunity. I have never really looked at the share market, other than for my superannuation,” says Ms Baxter.

JLG is running mini-seminars for their employees to teach them about shares and investing.

“I’m looking forward to learning how the stock market is impacted by events in our world and how it can affect values and changes within the market place. It will also be great to invest more, however small, to increase and expand my investment portfolio,” says Ms Baxter.

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