How and why we decided to launch an EMI scheme for our employees.

Company equity for staff… What does this look like?

An Enterprise Management Incentive, is a government‑backed, tax-advantageous share options scheme. The EMI scheme provides staff with the option to buy a number of shares in the company which then ‘vest’ to their full value once they have worked for us for a period of three years. As the shares increase in value, our staff have the option to sell the shares and take the financial gain, or to keep hold of their share in the company for future investment.

Why the EMI scheme?

At Steadfast Collective, our foundations lie in team. We are strong believers in hiring talented smart creatives and intentionally investing in helping them to grow.

We value the hard work our employees do and would like them to stay with us for the long term. Offering our staff a future stake in our business is a way to reward our staff for their contribution to our company success and growth.

We also think our EMI scheme is a great way to attract new talent who want to be a part of what we are building. The EMI scheme also has massive tax advantages (for both staff and the company)

How the EMI scheme works.

We are using the Vestd platform to manage our company EMI scheme. Staff get emails inviting them to review their EMI options and are able to regularly check how shares are performing via the online dashboard. Each member of staff can see their own share options timeline and associated vesting schedule of key dates in their EMI plan.

TL;DR?

In short, we started the EMI to:

• Attract and keep the best people

• Give employees a sense of ownership in what we are building

• Reward those who help to grow the company with equity

• Benefit from a committed workforce

We are excited to see how our EMI scheme benefits our staff in the future.