Behavioral psychology and employee equity engagement

Know your audience, speak to their needs and use commonly understood language as much as possible. Those are some of the keys to creating an effective communications approach as you look to encourage participation in your employee equity compensation plan.

These were among the main points made by Jeff Kreisler, Head of Behavioral Science at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, while in conversation with host Chris Dohrmann during the latest episode of our “Prosperity at Work” podcast.

In his role with the company, Jeff shines a light on how psychology and emotion can impact upon individual decision making, and arising from that equips clients with knowledge and insight that helps them to develop strategies for better financial outcomes.

Against this backdrop, Jeff emphasized how important it is that companies don’t get so focused on what they’re hoping to achieve from their equity plans that they lose sight of making sure that the offering resonates with employees.

“Ask yourself who is your audience and what do they want. Think more about what they need and less about what you want. A lot of times I see people trying to force others to get on their wavelength, whereas in this kind of situation it’s better to try to get on the audience’s wavelength and work with that,” he said, stressing that this relates in any business situation, not just equity awards.

Jeff also pointed out how one way to gain a better understanding of your employee target audience may be to attempt to engage with them as individuals first and foremost, each with their own unique set of life circumstances and priorities.

“When you ask who your audience is, try to answer that question without any reference to money or job title. Who are these people? Are they young risk takers or are they nearing retirement? The point being you need to try to figure out what’s going to make them feel good about what you’re presenting,” he said.

As well as identifying the right message, how it is delivered can also be important. With that in mind, Jeff highlighted a weakness that sometimes creeps into business communications – a seeming reluctance to rely on plain language, instead leaning into avoidable insider lingo and unnecessary wordiness, possibly at the risk of not connecting with or actively alienating your audience.

“An over-reliance on jargon and acronyms can create obstacles. We tend to rely on jargon a lot, but even in our own closed circle of like-minded professionals it can sometimes slow things down for listeners or even make it feel like there is a wall between you and the audience. Ultimately, if you’re too jargony, it can create the feeling of there being an information imbalance, and that really is best avoided,” he said.

Jeff also suggests that a communications plan should not get bogged down in excessive detail. Rather than risk overwhelming some people with too much information, a better course of action might be to opt for a ‘less is more’ approach while making it clear that additional information can always be accessed or made available, if required, upon request.

“If it’s a presentation and someone wants more detail, then you can stop and provide it. With online written material you can add links. However you want to do it, there are ways to offer additional information, but in the first instance look to keep it simple,” he said.

You can listen to the fill podcast episode here.

What next?

If you want to speak to someone about employee equity compensation or want to learn more about how J.P. Morgan Workplace Solutions can work with you to design and implement an offering, contact us today.