Establishing executive compensation performance goals remains a challenge. Focusing on core principles can help when the answers aren’t clear.
Executive Compensation Consulting
Create a competitive advantage. Drive long-term success.
Compensation committees and CEOs share a fundamental goal: building and rewarding high performance management teams. By aligning dynamic executive compensation design with your long-range business and talent management goals, we help you transform pay from a cost of doing business to a strategic differentiator.
How Pearl Meyer helps
companies realize exceptional performance.
Get the core responsibility right
Compensation committees must put forth an executive pay plan that attracts, retains, motivates, and rewards—and one that is fair, ethical, transparent, and clearly communicated.
Think boldly and with purpose
Consider not only the current and long-range business goals in your compensation plan design, but also how it influences your broader leadership strategy for ultimate individual and organizational performance.
Maintain an edge
Achieving financial goals, transformational milestones, and a positive culture with an engaged and high performing management team will always set you apart from the competition.
Create catalysts for change
Compensation can impact behavior. We help you ensure the right people are in the right positions and doing the right things to achieve success.
Approach & Partnership
Understand
your key business drivers and your mission, vision, and organizational culture.
Evaluate
the external environment.
Execute
core committee responsibilities: compensation, leadership, and communication.
Drive
key outcomes: a high performance leadership culture and exceptional business results.
Our Services
Strategic Review
- Short-, medium-, and long-term business goals
- Compensation philosophy
- Leadership profiles
- Historical performance assessment
Compensation Alignment
- Value-driver analysis
- Goal-setting and metric selection
- Dynamic pay modeling; probability and pay leverage analysis
- Pay-for-performance analysis
- Short- and long-term incentive plan design
Market Evaluation
- Peer group selection
- Competitive analysis
- Market-based pay studies
- Contracts, severance, and change-in-control agreements
- Executive benefits and perquisites
Compliance Confidence
- Share plan authorization
- SEC and regulatory advice
- Pay versus Performance calculation
- ISS/Glass Lewis expertise
- Institutional shareholders policies and practices review
Communication
- Plan documentation
- Disclosure requirements
- CD&A development
- Shareholder and stakeholder communication
Meet the Expert
Aalap Shah
Managing Director | Philadelphia
Aalap is a managing director at Pearl Meyer. With more than 20 years of experience, Aalap advises public and privately held companies on executive compensation issues, with focus on pay governance, pay-for-performance alignment, and incentive plan design. Of particular interest is the intersection between business strategy, people strategy, and compensation strategy, believing alignment of all three is required to design effective programs.
Compensation Insights
Technology Oversight and the Role of the Compensation Committee
Article
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How the compensation committee can help infuse technology proficiency and optimization into the fabric of the organization.
Looking Ahead to Executive Pay Projections in 2025
Research Report
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Information from 219 companies centered on year-end 2024 and pay projections for 2025.
2024’s Top Five Proactive Conversation Starters for Fall Compensation Committee Meetings
Article
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Practical advice for helping your board get ahead of issues related to internal succession, PSUs, non-financial metrics, executive departures, and effective CEO evaluations.
Looking Ahead to Executive Pay Practices/Design in 2025
Research Report
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Timely data on how companies of all sizes and ownership types are approaching executive compensation and incentive plan design.
Getting the Most from Your Compensation Peer Groups
Article
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A well-designed peer group can provide context beyond “How much do we pay?” and “How do we pay it?”
Is Your Board's Compensation Risk Assessment Doing Enough?
Webcast
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How and why to conduct a more in-depth compensation risk assessment than is typical.
Aligning on AI in the Boardroom: Connecting Leadership, Change Management, and Executive Compensation
Advisor Blog
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Three areas where directors can establish common ground with management teams and set the stage for effective AI goals.
FTC Issues Final Rule Generally Banning All Noncompetes in the United States
Client Alert
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Details on the Final Rule, which has potentially broad and dramatic implications for almost all US employers, and how you can prepare.
Defining and Redefining Clawbacks
Ask the Expert Interview
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Compliance with the final clawback rules is straightforward; the discussion now is how to address the impact on existing clawback policies.
The Softening Economy and Incentive Design: A Compensation Committee Top Concern
Advisor Blog
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There are still difficulties with goal-setting and investors may become impatient. Here are ideas for creating effective incentives amid uncertainty.
Sizing Up Retention and Transaction Bonus Pools
Article
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As a merger, acquisition, or sale takes shape, whether and how much to pay for bonuses is a key decision point for compensation committees.
Small Steps to Mitigate Risk and Create Resilience in Executive Compensation Goals
Advisor Blog
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Numerous emerging issues raise the stakes for executive performance, potentially contributing to more hits and misses in incentive plan targets.
Leadership Consulting
We work with directors and executives to improve individual leadership effectiveness and create high-performance boards and management teams.
Survey and Governance Data
Pearl Meyer is a powerhouse of both survey and proxy data. Our survey team produces over 50 annual compensation surveys and our partner, Main Data Group, offers public company governance and compensation data.