Executive Compensation

Context

The HR Committee was struggling to balance the organization’s social and commercial agendas
The pay philosophy was not reflective of the complexity of the organization and executive roles
The HR Committee noted a disconnect between pay and performance – particularly for executives

Conducted interviews to articulate and document various Board members’ visions of the organization
Supported the Board to align on a common vision and market positioning – i.e. devised a pay philosophy within a spectrum that ranged from “Branch of Government” to “Commercial Organization”
Conducted a full diagnostic of the current pay program, peer practices and regulatory environment to determine “what to fix”
- Included overview of peer practices, pay levels and structure, performance sector, performance assessment process and scorecards
Determined and documented the revised pay philosophy – key success factors included:
- Increased pay and performance linkage – through compensation mix (i.e. more “at risk”) and better performance metrics
- Targets that were more difficult to achieve
- Clear guidelines for long-term performance

Using a consensus-based approach, worked to define the peer group selection approach – while maintaining a balance between public and private sector peers
- Public sector: Selected the most relevant 17 public sector organization based on the refreshed pay philosophy
- Private sectors: Filter through 120+ publicly traded organizations to identify the most relevant 14 organizations, including:
  - Similar international organization (based in UK, US, Australia)
  - Similar sized organizations (based on top and bottom line)
  - Canadian organization with similar operations or participating in the supply chain
Captured benchmarking data and illustrated current positioning and “market-pay gaps” by roles
- Sourced private the best available survey data and integrated the data to the other benchmarking data to complement some executive roles

Redesigned the short-term incentive program, including:
- Review of the corporate scorecard
- Inclusion and definition of individual performance
Designed a new long-term incentive program and supported the HR Committee in the selection of the best long -term performance measures, aligning with their corporate strategy rework.
Modelled the executive compensation outcomes under diverse performance scenarios
Supported the Committee in determining the best transition strategy
Reviewed and drafted compensation disclosure

Reviewed and commented on executive employment agreements and legacy incentive programs
Prepared individual executive term sheets and incentive programs term sheets
Bridged external experts (actuaries) with the Committee and initiated creative solutions specific complex cases of benefits transition
Reviewed and drafted compensation disclosure

Independent Insight.
For Confident Decisions.