Options for Executive Compensation Disclosure

Understand Your Options

The clock struck midnight on December 31st, ringing in the start of a new year. While most companies work to finalize their audited financial statements in the next month or two, they also need to be aware of other important tasks required in the months ahead. This includes the calculation, review and approval of Annual Incentive payouts for 2018 as well as the review and approval of any adjustments to Base Salary, Target Annual Incentive and Long-Term Incentive opportunities for 2019. Once these approvals are made, companies must figure out how they are going to communicate the executive compensation decisions made for 2018 and potentially what shareholders can expect for compensation in 2019, to shareholders. This information is provided through a company’s Form DEF 14A in the United States or its Canadian equivalent, the Management Information Circular, also referred to as the proxy circular. Specifically, the Compensation Discussion & Analysis (“CD&A”) section is where the majority of information can be found.

Three Key Questions

When providing disclosure to shareholders, companies need to keep in mind three key questions that should be answered through its disclosure on Top 5 Named Executive Officer (“NEO”) compensation:

  • What was paid to executives?
  • How was compensation paid to executives? and
  • Why was compensation paid to executives?

This includes describing each form of compensation that is provided to executives (i.e. Base Salary, Annual Incentive, Long-Term Incentive, Benefits, Pension and Perquisites). It should also provide shareholders with information on the exact level of compensation given to each NEO for each compensation element. Lastly, disclosure should also explain why each of the compensation elements was provided to executives. This can include the purpose of each compensation element and how they link to a company’s strategy and shareholder value. Information on the performance achieved during the year that justifies the level of Bonus or Long-Term Incentive granted to the executive should be included as part of this and also, where possible, disclosure of the specific performance metrics used to determine performance and the level of performance achieved against these metrics.

How Information is Presented in the Proxy Circular

While certain forms of disclosure, such as the Summary Compensation Table outlining the value of compensation granted to a company’s Top 5 NEOs or the Outstanding Share-Based and Option-Based Awards table for NEOs, are mandated by regulators to be disclosed, companies have a variety of alternatives to choose from in terms of how much they want to present within the proxy circular. Companies typically will fall into one of three buckets in how they choose to present information:

  • Minimum Compliance
  • Minimum Compliance Plus
  • Award Seekers

Minimum Compliance

This bucket is where many Small and Micro Cap companies fall into as they have limited resources available to them in order to complete the annual proxy circular. The task is typically performed by the company’s Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Secretary (if they have one) or outsourced to outside legal counsel with the mandate to provide only what is required by the regulators in order to stay in compliance. This keeps preparation costs and the time required to complete the exercise at a low level. Minimum Compliance disclosures often do not provide information on a company’s practices in a clear and easy-to-read manner, ending up with a lot of text and little to no graphs and tables to help present information in a more readable format for shareholders. A company’s compensation practices are often not as robust as larger companies, with executives typically receiving only a Base Salary and Stock Option grants with Annual Incentives paid on more of a one-off and discretionary basis with little structure in how they are determined. This means that the company often has little to no formal process to disclose to shareholders and therefore keeps the level of disclosure at a minimum. These companies also tend to have more of a Retail shareholder base and in many cases, although not always, will face less scrutiny on their compensation practices from shareholder advisory groups, such as ISS and Glass Lewis, to improve upon their compensation disclosure practices. They can get away with providing limited information until they grow and more of an Institutional shareholder base begins to enter the stock and requires clearer information from the company.

Minimum Compliance Plus

This bucket is where the majority of companies find themselves in the market (often at Mid Cap and growing Small Cap companies) as they seek to meet the minimum required standards, but also want to improve upon that disclosure by adding in more graphs and tables to tell a better compensation story to shareholders. These companies tend to have slightly more internal resources available to them in order to complete this task and will often have a Human Resources representative work with the Corporate Secretary as well as a company’s independent compensation advisor to draft and review the annual disclosure and improve upon past practices. While they don’t necessarily want to be on the leading-edge of compensation disclosure, they better understand the value that improved compensation disclosure can bring when communicating with shareholders. Often at this stage, in a company’s life cycle, they begin to implement a more structured strategy to determine how they make annual Base Salary adjustments, determine Annual Incentive payouts and grant Long-Term Incentives to executives. Because of this added structure, a company now has a more formalized process to share with shareholders and is in a better position to disclose how it goes about determining compensation on an annual basis. Given the company’s size, they tend to have more Institutional shareholders in the stock and therefore the opinions of ISS, Glass Lewis and their Top Institutional shareholders start to have a larger impact on voting results at their Annual General Meeting. These groups demand better disclosure from companies and will ensure that their voices are heard if they do not receive the expected disclosure.

Award Seekers

This bucket is where many Large Cap companies find themselves as they seek to go well beyond the required disclosure to provide a clear, but comprehensive story to shareholders on the process followed to determine executive compensation on an annual basis. These companies have a much higher level of internal resources available to them and will put together a team made up of their Human Resources, Legal and Finance divisions to work on the annual disclosure. They will also work with their independent compensation advisor and other outside parties to produce a document that not only provides great information, but also is much more visually appealing to the reader than the typical proxy circular. These companies fully understand the value that plain language and easy-to-read material can bring when communicating with shareholders. They have had a formal compensation design in place for many years, when determining executive compensation, so the objective of disclosure is not just to provide readers with information on the structure of pay, but to provide shareholders with a better sense of a company’s annual process and any compensation improvements they have made in the past year, based on the feedback they have heard from shareholders. Given the company’s size, they have a majority of Institutional shareholders in the stock and therefore the opinions of ISS, Glass Lewis and their Top Institutional shareholders have a direct impact on the voting results at their Annual General Meeting. As an example, a negative vote recommendation from ISS, Glass Lewis or group of top shareholders has the potential to lead to a failed Say on Pay vote, which is embarrassing for the company and its Compensation Committee. Once a solid disclosure format is put in place, “award seekers” are always looking to improve upon the proxy circular, making annual disclosure an ever-evolving process as they are never satisfied.

Closing Thoughts

As you can tell, a company has a variety of ways in which it can choose to provide annual disclosure on executive compensation, which is often predicated on the exact circumstances facing the company. Does the company have a high Retail or Institutional shareholder base? Has the company received negative feedback from ISS, Glass Lewis or a Top shareholder in the past? What stage of life cycle is the company in and what kind of structure is currently in place to determine executive compensation? What resources does the company have available to it to prepare disclosure? These questions should all be asked when determining the type of disclosure, the company can provide to shareholders. However, no matter which level of disclosure a company chooses to provide, it should always remember to answer the three main questions that all shareholders want to know as it relates to compensation:

  • What was paid to executives?
  • How was compensation paid to executives? and
  • Why was compensation paid to executives?

Without answers to these three questions, a company will face scrutiny on its executive compensation disclosure practices.

Effective Board Member Orientation Pays Off

Effectively Preparing New Board Members

Boards spend an unbelievable amount of time, energy and financial resources trying to find the right nominees/candidates that can add value and enhance governance oversight, but for many boards, the momentum ends once the vacancy is filled or when the infamous “orientation binder” is sent to a newly elected board member. In practical terms, this is like an Olympic marathon runner training for years and then deciding to walk their race on the day of their Olympic event – ultimately, they are not utilizing or benefiting from the hard work they put in upfront.

By not following up with a strong orientation program, boards are not preparing their new members to become true board contributors from day one, which means that they will take roughly their first year to catch up and self-learn as much as they can. Alternatively, boards can be proactive and do their best to prepare new board members upfront and help ensure they hit the ground running and are contributing on day one.

Orientation Packages

As a bare minimum, your board should have an updated orientation package ready for new members the day they are elected. Ideally, this should be kept in an electronic format, updated regularly, and perpetually available to all members. Overall, this should include:

  • A short historical overview of the organization including its mission, vision and values;
  • A year-to-date list of organizational accomplishments;
  • Staff organizational chart;
  • Charter/articles of incorporation;
  • Bylaws and committee mandates;
  • Most recent financial statements (quarterly and audited annual);
  • Most recent strategic plan and approved budget;
  • Approved minutes from the last 3 to 6 meetings;
  • Current board member bios and photos;
  • A list of links to all overarching legislation;
  • All applicable governance policies including the board’s code of conduct;
  • A copy of the director’s & officers liability insurance policy;
  • Yearly calendar of all upcoming board meetings, committee meetings and important events.

Orientation Session

As well, a general orientation session should be offered as soon as possible to help review the high-level elements of the aforementioned documents and to review the board and management’s roles and responsibilities. Understandably, it is the chair and committee chairs that attend and present at this session, but it is also a best practice to make these sessions open to all board members that can attend because it will not only provide a great opportunity for the new members to get to know the board, but also provide a discrete refresher for any board members who may feel that they could benefit but are afraid to ask. Also, in attendance should be key executive staff members who can walk participants through their roles and specific area of responsibility. As an alternative, if a general session is impossible to establish, the second-best option is to set up a day or two of individual meetings with the board chair, each of the committee chairs, and key executives.

Timely Onboarding is Key

Ideally, all of this needs to happen well in advance of the new members’ first board meeting because, by doing so, there will be a higher probability of them participating and/or contributing at an impactful level right from the very beginning. They know that there was a lot of thought put into their election onto your board and that comes with an expectation that they are bringing value to your board. If you don’t help them build momentum from the very beginning, you diminish their potential and full capacity that your board has in effectively overseeing your organization.

Effective Performance Planning

All About Motivating the Right Behaviour

There’s been a lot of talk in the market place today about the value of performance plans. The naysayers claim that they are not driving performance in the way they were originally intended, and the supporters argue that all compensation should not be a guarantee. A point of intersection is the fact that everyone agrees that employees should be recognized for the contributions they make and the performance they deliver.

Open the Conversation

Organizations are notoriously bad at having “hard conversations” which are discussions on performance, behavior, or anything that can be interpreted as judgmental in any way. This is a problem because all organizations need to deal with negative activities when they arise and, more importantly, inspire the lion share of their employees to perform at their highest level. By doing so, they can maximize outcomes (sales, profits, etc.) and keep stakeholders happy. When it comes to compensation and governance, stakeholders are relatively quiet when organizations are successful and driving higher returns, but when things go south, board pressures increase because stakeholders tend to place more scrutiny on things such as compensation plans and demand changes to corporate governance.

Establish a Schedule

To properly drive performance, organizations need to first establish a schedule and stick to it! You’d be surprised how many boards get around to first discussing annual performance objectives half way through or at the end of the first quarter. This would be like betting on a horse race after the horses are out of the gates and sprinting toward the finish line. Two things happen here, staff feel that first quarter performance is not considered important and agreed targets are easier to hit. If you want employees to perform for the entire fiscal year, logically you need to agree on the performance objectives and targets before the fiscal year begins.

Implement SMARTER Objectives

A reasonable set of SMARTER objectives; Clarity and focus are other elements that help to set an organization up for success. Laundry lists of objectives do little to keep employees focus on essential outcomes and instead, have them struggle with prioritizing their time between multiple objectives that will have minimal impact on their overall incentive reward. Therefore, to help to keep employees focused and driven concise one-page scorecards are ideal and should clearly outline:

  1. Clear performance target expectations; and
  2. All rewards associated with each objective.

Once the performance cycle properly begins, hard discussions should be replaced with proactive coaching conversations focused around the scorecards where employees go into every meeting with absolute clarity on their performance and can engage in win-win conversations in overcoming barriers and/or achieving higher performance levels. Moving away from judgmental conversations and focusing discussions on performance improvement, helps engage employees on a higher level and affirms that everyone wants the same thing – higher performance.

Performance management plan naysayers most likely develop their opinion on experiences and aspects associated with poorly executed and unclear plans that do little to motivate employees. Implementing simple things such as a schedule, scorecards, and win-win coaching conversations go a long way and help ensure that performance remains a priority and that stakeholder expectations are being met.

Attracting & Motivating a High Performance Executive Team (Mining)

An Interview with Corporate Director, Peter Gillin

Peter Gillin is a Corporate Director who currently serves on the Boards of several public companies, including: Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd., Sherritt International Corporation, Dundee Precious Metals Inc., TD Mutual Funds Corporate Class Ltd. and Wheaton Precious Metals Inc. He was a Director of HudBay Minerals, Inc., and was Vice Chair of N.M. Rothschild & Sons Canada Limited, an investment bank. Peter was President and CEO of Zemex Corporation and Chairman and CEO of Tahera Diamond Corporation.

Peter holds an HBA degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors – Director Education Program at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management and has earned the designation of ICD.D from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Follow Peter Gillin on LinkedIn.

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GGA: What are the key factors in developing incentive plans?

Peter Gillin: Boards focus on the motivation and attraction of new executives, but a key element is also the retention of existing executives. Boards need to have a clear idea of what they want to pay for – in other words, what is the job and what are the important elements of that job for which the candidate will get compensated. And that, of course, involves the specific goals and objectives for the executives and the time horizons for accomplishing them. In any package of compensation, you must mix and match the incentives, obviously salary, plus short-term bonus (typically in cash) and then various other equity related instruments. In order to motivate people in the proper way you must offer a diverse portfolio. It’s also important to start early. Incentive plans require careful consideration, and so much of the planning is driven by specific goals, objectives, and an element of subjectivity. There needs to be time for the executives to provide input – of what they think they’ve accomplished or not. Bench-marking for senior executives is a very widespread practice, but it’s inherently inflationary and sometimes people lose sight of that fact. All in all, you determine what you want to pay for, how you’re going to pay for it and then you compare that to the rest of the world to see if it’s fair.

GGA: What about the considerations needed when building effective incentive plans, specifically within the mining space?

Gillin: In my experience, the greatest single difficulty in formulating any of these plans, in the mining space, is the movement of commodity prices and whether that creates a financial windfall or financial penalty. Ideally you want to have your compensation system designed to operate exclusive of the performance of the company itself because the companies have absolutely no control over that. You cannot forget to factor in the alignment with the shareholders. They suffer when the commodity prices decline, and they are happy as clams when prices increase. What you want to avoid is generously awarding executives when things are bad – that doesn’t sit well with the shareholders. Usually, senior executives have substantial equity awards, and when you compensate them there is an expectation that they have done a first-class job – met all of their objectives and goals (in terms of production).

GGA: You mentioned equity awards. As of late, equity has become obviously more complicated. How do approach equity awards?

Gillin: Well. Cash is the really the easiest approach. As you know, equity participation incentives for executives are of utmost importance and performance share units around the ascendancy options are on the decline. Interestingly, there’s a difference between Canada and the United States and the utilization of those more so in Canada than the U.S. In fact, the mining industry tends to utilize them a great deal more than other industries, particularly smaller mining companies. But, as I said, when things get complicated cash becomes king.

GGA: What about technology? Do your boards use any when developing incentive plans?

Gillin: Absolutely. There is a new trend of incorporating board management software into the executive compensation planning process. One of my companies, in particular, installed a balanced scorecard system and it’s an outstanding piece of technology. It doesn’t do all of the work – determining what compensation is fair – but it works with the board’s subjective judgement to design incentive plans. The board is responsible for using the technology to generate some numbers and then deciding if those numbers feel right, under that circumstance. Ultimately, when it comes to consideration, it’s very valuable to have the combination of the board and the technology.

GGA: How has the role of directors changed (regarding compensation)?

Gillin: Well certainly from the general board perspective, the overall evolution of governance, the improvement of governance techniques, criteria and behaviors have evolved. It’s just been a massive increase over the last 15 or 20 years, if not longer. I mean, I know the first board I ever went on, years and years ago, somebody suggested using a dartboard when determining how you compensated people. It wasn’t sophisticated. But that’s no longer the case. I mean, everything must be well designed, well-structured, very transparent and fully defensible. And that applies to compensation, but also board behavior – meaning board outreach. Specifically, shareholder outreach by the members of the board. I’ve done that in several companies and the agenda is always one of three topics: governance, compensation and strategy formulation. It’s very often focused on compensation. And ordinarily, if the shareholder calls the company and wants to have a conversation, then you know you’re already in trouble. So, if you do it proactively you get a much better response. That’s a relatively new development, but none of this is going to stop. It’s just the way of the world these days.

GGA: What would be the key takeaway from what we’ve covered today. If readers were to walk away with only one piece of information, what should it be?

Gillin: That’s hard. We’ve covered a lot of important information. Compensation is a very important element in this discussion, the main focus, and how companies work to determine it. It’s often the trigger for activism, and all of the other elements flow from it, together with stock price performance.

Risky Business & Board Oversight

Good board members ask good questions.

Risk exists in every organization and it is a board member’s role to probe until they are convinced that management is not incurring any undue risk or risk that is outside of the boundaries they helped to establish. Board members must be cognizant of the lengthy list of risks that exist. Be it:

  • financial risk,
  • legal risk,
  • human resource risk,
  • governance risk,
  • political risk,
  • cyber risk,
  • social media risk, or
  • headline risk.

Overall, board members need to make sure that they are successfully overseeing risk, asking good questions, and ensuring there are other elements of good governance and risk management are place.

Guiding charters, bylaws, mandates, strategic plans, policies and procedures need to be formulated, implemented and updated regularly because they provide focus and direction to proper oversight and establish a framework and safety net for your board to operate within. Operating without these documents, or failing to update them, will not only put your organization at risk but will also increase your board’s liability. Often, board members don’t realize that guiding documents can help protect board members, if something was ever to go wrong. If something did go wrong, your Board must be able to answer “yes” to the following questions – it will go a long way in protecting board members and the stakeholders they serve.

  • Did the board members act with loyalty, prudence and impartiality?
  • Did the board members act within the guidelines of the existing and relevant policy or procedure?

Given the evolution of cyber threats, protecting confidential or sensitive information is an area that is relatively new to organizations. Over the last decade, many boards have evolved away from printing out and shipping board meeting packages to every member.

  1. With the emergence of email, many boards began to send out board materials electronically.
    • This opened risks to email hacks, the ease of forwarding sensitive material, and fact that material remained accessible on lost or stolen devices.
  2. The provision of document repositories then enabled boards to store and access electronic documents on the internet.
    • Many of these services were not secure which made them vulnerable to hacks.
  3. The emergence of secure digital platforms now enables boards to improve their document security while simultaneously enhancing access to electronic materials and inter-member and stakeholder communication tools.
    • With enhanced security around access, and control, this next evolutionary step is proving to be the logical next step for boards that are concerned about mitigating risk.

Risk is a reality in all organizations and board members need to remain vigilant in its oversight. As seen in guiding frameworks and board materials distribution and communication, things will continue to evolve, and related risks will continue to change. Therefore, board members need to continue to ask good questions, and continue to ensure that their organizations are managing risk in a proactive way and doing what is necessary and required to safeguard themselves, as fiduciary leaders and the organizations they are entrusted to oversee.

An Essential Tool for Improving Board Composition

Creating a Board Skills Matrix

An essential question asked by board members is how can we improve our performance? While there are many possible answers to solve this riddle, making sure your board composition is set-up as intended is key. An increasingly prevalent tool used by boards in evaluating their board’s composition is the Board Skills Matrix. According to a 2017 study by Equilar, 307 U.S. and Canadian public companies disclosed the use of a Skills Matrix within their proxy statement. A Board Skills Matrix strengthens an organization’s overall governance practices by identifying the current skills, knowledge, experience and capabilities of current board members. The matrix is a relatively simple table that lists all board members along the top with a board’s view of the essential skills and experience required by the board to be most effective.

Once the essential skills are determined, the board can then evaluate whether each board member possesses that skill or not with a simple check mark (see example below). This evaluation can be done, by the Board or Nominating Committee Chair, by conducting their own assessment of each board member or by asking each board member to self-assess against the identified skills and experiences through use of a questionnaire. At GGA, we have developed a digital boardroom platform, the emPower platform, which can be used by boards to identify the skills and experiences they require. Then each board member can fill out an online self-assessment questionnaire on how they stack up against the identified skills and experiences. These individual questionnaire results can be consolidated and instantly accessed by the Board or Nominating Committee Chair to identify any gaps amongst the current board.

Illustrative Example: Board Skills Matrix

A completed skills matrix, as demonstrated above, helps the board in two ways:

  1. Board Member Development – the matrix identifies areas for individual skills development, that can be strengthened through additional education and training opportunities. This allows for an individual development plan to be created to improve the board member’s overall skill level.
  2. Board Skills Development – the matrix can identify areas for overall board improvement through education or through the recruitment of a new board member that possesses a specific skill set to improve the board’s composition.

In the example above, Board Members # 3, 4 and 6 could use individual skills development in the area of Investments. Increased skill/experience in Compensation and Human Resource matters is required for the board, as many board members do not have experience in that area.

At a bare minimum, the results of the Board Skills Matrix assessment should be shared internally so that the board can identify any areas for future improvement. However, many public companies are taking a pro-active approach and disclosing the results of the assessment directly in their proxy statements on an annual basis (as evidenced by Equilar’s research above). For mid and large cap companies, shareholders are expecting more transparency from companies which require companies to be honest about the skills and experience the board truly values and how each board member stacks up. They can also use this opportunity to detail to shareholders how the board plans on filling any identified gaps in skills.

How does a board determine which skills and experiences to include within its skills matrix? It starts by asking where the organization is today and where it wants to be in the future? Are the skills required to sit on the board today going to be the skills required 5 years from now? This allows the board to determine the skills required to sit on the board and add value, both now and in the future. There are certain skills that are commonly required for a board such as Financial Literacy, Human Resources and Legal experience, but boards should also ask what industry-specific skills and experience are required in addition to functional experience. Are there diversity aspects that need to be considered by the board in addition to specific skill sets? These questions should all be answered when developing a skills matrix.

Required Board Skills

What skills should you be looking for? Recent research by Korn Ferry indicates that the Top 5 skills required by boards as part of their Board Skills Matrix are as follows:

  1. Finance/Accounting (97% prevalence)
  2. Industry Knowledge (95% prevalence)
  3. Compensation/HR (86% prevalence)
  4. Board/Governance Experience (81% prevalence)
  5. Legal/Regulatory/Compliance/Government/Public Policy (80% prevalence)

Other skills/experience included by companies are:

  • M&A/Corporate Finance/Investment Banking/Capital Markets (74% prevalence)
  • Risk Management (64% prevalence)
  • Executive Leadership (63% prevalence)
  • Strategic Planning (48% prevalence)
  • International Experience (45% prevalence)

While not identified above, a growing number of companies are also including Cyber-Security and Information Technology experience on their boards to deal with the increasingly concerning issue of cyber-hacking.

Diversity & Matrix Development

Historically, companies produce a long “laundry list” of skills and experiences as part of their Board Skills Matrix. However, institutional investors are starting to advocate for a more nuanced approach to developing a skills matrix. Instead of including 10-15 different skills and/or experience, they prefer to see companies disclose the 3-5 most important skills required on the board with an evaluation of how each board member compares against these skills. This makes it more clear which skills and experiences the board feels add the most value and how the current set of board members adequately cover each of those skills/experiences.

In addition to skills and experiences, companies are also looking at ways to increase the diversity on their board and will sometimes include this as one of the board considerations when evaluating board composition. While quota-based systems have been implemented in many European countries, they have historically not made their way across the Atlantic to North America. However, recent trends indicate a growing focus on gender diversity in North America, with California recently approving a quota-based system for public companies incorporated or headquartered in the state. In Canada, the Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) has implemented a comply or explain regime that requires companies to disclose the existence of a gender diversity policy for executives and board members or explain why a policy has not been put in place. ISS and Glass Lewis have also put in place specific voting recommendation guidelines that will recommend “Against” votes for Nominating Committee Chairs in situations where there is no written diversity policy and no female board members. These new laws and policies should cause boards to consider diversity within their matrix in order to stay in line with this evolving trend. Diversity should also go beyond just gender to include age, race, religion and ethnicity as well.

Closing Thoughts

Getting the composition of your board right is a tough job, especially with the evolving nature of the world as we transition to a more digital world and deal with emerging issues such as climate change, cyber-security and sustainability. It is important for boards to put in the proper processes in place to ensure they are operating efficiently and effectively. One of the essential tools in doing this is the development of a well thought out Board Skills Matrix to identify the skills and experiences required and evaluating your board members against this criteria. By using this tool, boards can prepare themselves to deal with a company’s major issues, both today and into the future, thereby acting in the best interests of stakeholders.

Like what you read? Feel free to browse through the rest of our blog content (how about checking out The Power of Board Assessments) for more.