Performance-Based Compensation

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This Post will begin a series of blog entries focused on the topic of linking executive pay to a publicly-traded issuer’s diversity and inclusion (“D&I“) initiatives.  As background, there has been a recent push to hold executives accountable for the effectiveness of an issuer’s D&I initiatives by linking their executive pay to the success of such initiatives.  Pretty straight forward (i.e., the success of the D&I initiative becomes one of the metrics in the issuer’s performance-based compensation strategy).
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Continue Reading Thoughts When Linking Public Company Executive Pay to D&I Initiatives

On Wednesday, September 30, 2020, we will be hosting a webinar entitled “The SEC’s New Human Capital Rule, Workplace Diversity and Compensation Design: Year-End Disclosures and the Board Agenda 2020”.  The purpose of this webinar is to cover the SEC’s new Human Capital rule and how such disclosure will interplay and impact any diversity…

The purpose of this Post is remind publicly-traded companies to revisit their stock ownership policies to determine whether a temporary waiver of the policy requirements is advisable.  This Post is Part 5 of a 7-Part series addressing compensation adjustments that Compensation Committees could consider in order to continue to incent and retain their executive officers…

The purpose of this Post is to highlight whether Compensation Committees should be offering retention packages to their executive officers to discourage their being poached by another company.  This Post is Part 4 of a 7-Part series addressing compensation adjustments that Compensation Committees could consider in order to continue to incent and retain their executive…

This post is part of a 7-part series addressing compensation adjustments that Compensation Committees could consider in order to continue to incent and retain their executive officers in today’s economy.  The titles of each of the 7-parts in this series are listed at the bottom of this post.   This Part 3 is entitled “Address Outstanding Performance-Based Equity Awards,” and provides some alternatives that Compensation Committees could consider with respect to outstanding performance-based equity awards that have currently unachievable performance goals.  Such alternatives include (listed in no particular order, and not an exhaustive list):…
Continue Reading Current Compensation Issues (Part 3 of 7): Address Outstanding Performance-Based Equity Awards

Today’s economic environment has resulted in substantial loss of value to many shareholders and executives of publicly traded companies (i.e., the latter losing substantial value in their stock holdings, and too, losing prospective realizable pay as a result of unattainable performance goals within their outstanding performance-based awards).  In most situations, the shareholders and the executives are aligned in such loss.  But a problem is that substantial loss at the executive level could increase undesired poaching and turnover of key executives at a time when executives should be focused on navigating the company through a reopening of the United States economy.  To overcome this problem, compensation committees of publicly traded companies (“Compensation Committees“) will likely need to consider adjustments to the company’s compensation framework in order to continue to incent and retain executives.  To that end, this Part 1 (of a 7-part series) provides thoughts that the Compensation Committee should consider with respect to upcoming equity grants.
Continue Reading Current Compensation Issues (Part 1 of 7): Considerations with Respect to Upcoming Equity Grants

Join us on April 9, 2020 from 10:00 am to 11:00 am Central for our FREE monthly webinar on “Executive Compensation Considerations in Light of Market Volatility, Stock Prices and the Unknown,” where we will discuss compensatory issues to consider as a result of failed (or failing) performance-based compensation metrics and lost value to the…

Many publicly-traded issuers in today’s environment have outstanding equity awards with performance goals that are unlikely to be achieved.  In response, Compensation Committees of such issuers will need to strike a balance between incentivizing/retaining executives and dealing with the stark reality that shareholders have lost substantial value.  To that end, Compensation Committees are likely to…

Keeping with this evening’s Halloween spirit, members of Board of Directors and Compensation Committees should be aware of an allegation that is currently floating within the ominous fog – that some executives of publicly-traded issuers are trick-or-treating with “ghost revenue.”  Kidding aside, the allegation (or potential allegation) is that some executive officers are using ghost revenue (i.e., deferred revenue) in order to satisfy otherwise unattainable non-GAAP performance metrics.  A grossly-oversimplified explanation of this issue is addressed in the below portions of this post.
Continue Reading Compensation Governance: Is Ghost Revenue Real?

Just a quick note that late last week ISS made available for public comment nine discreet voting policies for potential application in 2019.   Only one of the draft voting policies addresses compensation, and it addresses the Financial Performance Assessment Methodology under the Pay-for-Performance Model.
Continue Reading ISS Issues Draft 2019 Voting Policy Updates