Engagement - Thinking, acting and being rewarded as owners – revitalising Shared Ownership culture

2.50pm – 3.30pm BST, 18 June 2025 ‐ 40 mins

Case Study

At JTC, a global financial services company, Shared Ownership is a part of who we are and what we believe in. Every few years all employees are eligible for a share award based on their contribution. By 2023, a period of rapid expansion had diluted our Shared Ownership culture as people joined the business from organisations where immediate, tangible cash bonuses were the norm. 

With the next share award imminent, we needed employees - 60% of which would be first-time recipients – to understand the mechanics and implications of the award on personal finances. And to see beyond the financial incentive to embrace an ownership mindset. 

We engaged a specialist IC agency for the first time. Partnering with H&H, we developed a year-long engagement campaign using the drivers of human motivation to underpin our activity. As a publicly listed company, our campaign also needed to navigate the strict limitations on when and how we could announce a share award.

We adopted a phased approach:

• Shared Belief: laying the programme foundations through storytelling that united past, present and future owners of the business. 
• Shared Understanding: building a knowledge baseline using a suite of training materials.
• Shared Experience: delivering celebratory ‘Ownership for All’ days, for colleagues from Cape Town to Canary Wharf.

We used the programme to refocus our broader comms practises including:

• Auditing channels and how we position our messaging
• Using mixed and multi-media to amplify content, including enhanced use of video and podcasts
• Greater engagement with comms champions
• Creating wrap around activities to support Line Managers while reinforcing them as key channel
• Pushing boundaries with our internal brand, exploring how it could become inclusive and representative

Three takeaways from the session:

1. Consultation is important and time consuming. Plan ahead! And keep your audience front of mind
2. Consistency is key. It’s not repetition, it’s reinforcement
3. Campaigns (especially year-long ones!) don’t happen in a comms vacuum, so master the art of the pivot! Keep your strategy clear, but your tactics flexible

Aimed at the following practitioner levels:

• Head of

Speakers

Sophie Tomlinson

Client Director, H&H

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Rae Swemmer

Director, Group Marketing, JTC

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Sophie Tomlinson

Client Director, H&H

Sophie has worked across the civil service and private sector in comms, consultancy and policy roles, with a strong focus on relationship management and strategic delivery. When she isn’t advocating for wonky comms, Sophie can be found in hot pursuit of the best almond croissant London has to offer, or practicing her Spanish on unsuspecting locals. She is an indiscriminate book worm, and mixes a mean negroni.

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Rae Swemmer

Director, Group Marketing, JTC

Rae has over 30 years marketing and communications experience, predominantly in the finance industry, and has been at JTC since 2009.

Aside from her husband, Rae’s trusted sidekick is Zulu – a Spanish rescue dog of particular comedy note – and when not spending quality time with them, she alternates between developing either her gardening or baking skills. Rae also has a magic cinema card, a weird obsession with bacon and banana pizza and loves settling down with a good book on a rainy afternoon.