Evolving Roles: New Challenges and Opportunities for Compensation Committees

In the rapidly changing business landscape at the time, the role of the board in setting compensation strategy was evolving. Boards were becoming more actively involved in shaping the overall strategy to attract, retain, and motivate top talent.

Compensation Committees were facing new and pending legislation around HCM, cybersecurity, pay versus performance, and clawbacks. They were also fully immersed in areas such as DEI, succession planning, and minimizing talent turnover, making talent management and oversight multidimensional. Talent vulnerability had become a key topic, with companies exploring unique ways to retain talent.

Director peers participated in an interactive discussion on how companies were addressing new disclosures and talent vulnerability.

Key questions for the discussion included:

• How was the board’s role evolving around talent management and talent vulnerability?

• What were some of the key legal issues that Compensation Committees faced in the talent management environment at the time?

• How could Compensation Committees best assess and manage corporate risk and promote good governance in the compensation context?

• Did companies have sufficient holding power over top talent?

• How should Compensation Committees have addressed recent regulatory (FTC) and legislative steps to remove or minimize non-competition protections for companies?