Hugessen Consulting recently conducted a Summer 2020 COVID-19 Director Pulse Survey to gather director views and corporate actions related to executive incentives amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Please click here to view the results. Key takeaways include:

- Incentive expectations are down markedly for 2020, in close alignment with the negative financial impact experienced by many companies due to the crisis. This is particularly evident for those industries hardest hit - Energy, Industrials and Financial Services.

- While a minority of companies have taken specific in-year STIP actions to date, the most common being modifying metric targets / goals, most companies expect to use discretion at year-end to right-size payouts, a discussion many boards have already breached.

- In-year LTIP actions taken or being considered (i.e. PSU modification or stock option exchange programs) are notably less common.