Companies can boost employee engagement by offering shares

Firms who have been forced to trim flexible benefits packages due to the recession could boost employee engagement by offering company shares to staff.

This is the opinion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which stated that giving workers a slice of the business' future profits can go a long way in improving motivation.

Performance and reward advisor at the CIPD Charles Cotton believes this is a shrewd way of compensating for pay freezes.

By having this extra incentive, bosses may find productivity levels among their workforce increasing.

"If the organisation starts to return to profit they [workers] have got these shares that they can potentially cash in," he commented.

This week, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills announced that prime minister David Cameron had backed a scheme to boost relationships between management and staff within UK firms.

The independent Employee Engagement Task Force will be available to enterprises that wish to garner tips on how to improve the morale of workers