Denali Therapeutics improves financial wellness with Cashless Participation.

The biopharmaceutical industry requires constant innovation, rapid scientific advancement, and a highly specialized workforce. In such a competitive environment, attracting, retaining, and motivating top-tier talent is critical to long-term success.

Denali Therapeutics had long offered an ESPP, but many employees chose not to participate because they could not afford the after-tax payroll deductions given other competing financial priorities. A meaningful benefit was reaching only the part of the workforce that could absorb its cost.

Denali introduced Cashless Participation to make the existing ESPP accessible to the full workforce. The offering combined Cashless Participation with the plan's 12-month offering periods, lookback, and reset features, preserving the design that already worked while removing the contribution barrier holding employees back.

Carver Edison paired the launch with employee education and a custom plan website equipped with tools and resources tailored to the Denali team, giving every employee a clear path to participate confidently.

ESPP enrollment increased 30% after the introduction of Cashless Participation, opening the program to populations that had previously sat out.

Employees using Cashless earned 7.6× more profit for every dollar they contributed compared to traditional ESPP enrollees, and took home 89.7% more stock than they could have afforded otherwise. The plan that had once benefited a slice of the team now delivered for the whole team, on the same design.