Resource Library Insights

Only by supporting all major stakeholders, through calibrated and balanced incentives, will companies achieve sustained success.

How one-time multiyear performance awards can revitalize a pay plan.

Now may be the right time for boards to anticipate several challenges to pay design that a recession will almost surely prompt.

Passive money managers, finding wins on ESG, turn to say on pay. What boards need to do.

With companies starting to release CEO pay ratio data for the first time, boards and management teams are bracing for a wave of reactions.

Leading up to an IPO, compensation planning and strategy often take a backseat to the immediate business demands and actions that are required to take the company public. With so many new requirements, the focus of the Compensation Committee is often on the work needed to prepare for the IPO event, and not on the tomorrows that follow.

Following an IPO, the outlook for employee equity programs changes overnight. The company instantly goes from a handful of investors to a diverse shareholder base. Governance requirements kick in. Regulators require significant disclosure of compensation and equity practices. Employee expectations shift. And as the company evolves, what worked at one stage doesn't necessarily work at the next.

Since boards of directors are responsible for aligning company affairs with shareholder interests, companies often implement director stock ownership guidelines to ensure that board members are invested in the company's current and future performance. These guidelines typically require that directors own at least some specified amount of company equity and that they hold equity granted as compensation for a minimum period before selling those shares. In recent years, investor activism...

Public companies are beholden to align long-term interests of executive officers with those of their shareholders, and this balance often manifests in how executives are paid in relation to company performance. Many companies address this through use of equity packages, but because executives can still sell or hedge these shares, their incentives to make long-term decisions for the company are not always clear. To avoid this, many companies implement stock...

The annual performance review. Many boards don't take full advantage of them as a leadership- development mechanism for the CEO. But CEOs are no different from other employees: they need honest, direct and timely feedback. In the CEO's case, getting unfiltered feedback from most people can be especially tricky, so a rigorous review by the board matters all the more.

The weakness in many reviews is that they underestimate the value of rigor behind the feedback and the quality of the conversation. Here are five tips to revitalize reviews to help the CEO deliver long-term sustainable performance.

A clear and differentiated business strategy is critical to a company's long-term success. The same is true for a well differentiated strategy for long-term incentive compensation. A tailored and thoughtful approach to long-term incentives can be a valuable management tool" reinforcing for both executives and company stakeholders the company's key performance imperatives. Read the entire article (PDF) written by Seamus O'Toole and Blair Jones.