Grant Thornton launches employee benefit trust

Grant Thornton UK has announced a move to introduce an employee benefit trust (EBT) to reward its staff for their “contributions to the firm’s future success”.

The move follows the company’s decision to accept external investment from international private equity firm Cinven.

When choosing to take external investment with Cinven, the firm’s partners voted to set aside a substantial amount of equity to reward senior talent below partner grade.

This equity will be held in an Employee Benefit Trust (EBT), which will provide a ringfenced pool of value that will be used to reward employees.

Eligible employees at manager grade and above will be allocated equity units to reward them for their contributions to the firm.

As the enterprise value of the firm increases, the value held in the EBT will increase and is intended to be released to eligible employees following a secondary transaction. This will link the reward of eligible employees to the success of the firm, similar to how the value of equity is released for partners.

There is no cost or buy-in for eligible employees and this initiative is on top of normal salary and bonus rewards and in addition to the bonus the firm paid to its people this year.

The firm stated that some of the equity units will be allocated now and further units will be apportioned over the next three years as new colleagues join the firm, are promoted to more senior roles or to further reward exceptional performance.

Malcolm Gomersall, CEO at Grant Thornton UK, said: “As we embark on the next, exciting growth chapter for our partnership, we want to recognise the contributions of our people by giving them a greater stake in the future success of our firm.

“The EBT is an innovative approach that will unite our more experienced talent across the firm, ensuring they are pulling in the same direction and coalescing around our collective effort for the benefit of our clients.”

He added: “This kind of reward is unmatched in our profession. We are the only firm of our size and scale to ringfence equity in an EBT so that our employees can benefit from the firm’s increased enterprise value, at no cost to them. It’s a game-changing reward programme for our industry, and we are eagerly embracing this opportunity to be part of something truly exceptional.”