Resource Library Sustainability

A new study finds that ESG targets in executive compensation are met or exceeded more often than financial targets, resulting in high payouts and raising concerns about inadequate corporate governance.

Companies are altering their descriptions of DEI initiatives in annual reports, including shortening descriptions, removing entire sections, and changing words or phrases to cut mentions of race in specific hiring targets following the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision overturning affirmative action in college admissions.

Financial Times offers advice for companies looking to refine their CEO succession process, including selecting multiple candidates to prepare for potential shifts in company strategy, developing candidates in roles that give them a breadth of experience, and managing internal and external communication to ensure successors aren’t publicized too early.

Following the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action last summer, companies looking to add or re-evaluate DEI metrics in their compensation plans should seek to avoid legal challenges by evaluating the extent to which their diversity targets are binding.

A recent report from Deloitte highlights executive and director concern around human sustainability issues and their ability to oversee those issues for broad-based employees, and outlines potential methods to address these issues such as providing living wages and benefits to employees and holding meetings to allow broad-based employees to express specific needs, among other methods.

HR Policy Association opines on the complexity of current prevailing incentive design structures and offers simplification opportunities to consider for committees looking for alternative design ideas, including several questions that can be asked to ensure that their programs are a good fit for their company’s unique challenges, among other items.