The Top Five Elements of a Strong Severance Pay Policy

This is a summary of the severance section of the full 2017 Severance and Paid-Time Off: Results from the Special Survey. Forty-five companies from a variety of industries including Technology, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Education, Financial Services, Retail and more...

Compensation Philosophy – A Foundation for Decisions

What is a Compensation Philosophy?  Does your company have a compensation philosophy? What does that even mean?! A compensation philosophy is a description of the objectives, guidelines and principles on which compensation policies, programs, systems and practices are...

New England Companies Paying More for Talent in 2017

According to a recent study by Wilson Group, Concord, MA, and Bose Corporation, New England companies are expecting modest growth in their business. Sixty-two percent (62%) of companies recently surveyed expected growth exceeding 4% in 2017; this compares to only 44%...

Long-term Incentives for Private Companies: Do you need them?

Long-term incentives (LTI), including stock options, restricted stock, have long been a key element of total compensation plans in public companies. The principle difference between LTI plans in public versus private companies is that the funding for these long term...

When the CEO Becomes Only the Chairman

At some point in time a company’s leadership changes.  The individual serving as CEO and Chairman relinquishes the CEO role and passes this on to the next generation, but he or she remains as the Chairman of the Board.  Since this individual is no longer an employee...

How to Fix Executive Pay

The WSJ published a very interesting article on how to “fix” executive compensation.  They recommend that Boards consider preventing executives from exercising equity for 3 to 5 years after grant and integrating debt as part of the performance measures.  This is an...