#54 - Dispatches from the Executive Compensation Conference: How Executive Pay and Rewards are Evolving

In our latest installment of Coffee Talks with Planet Fair, Margrét has just returned from a visit to the Conference Board’s Executive Compensation conference in New York City with many lessons to share with listeners about bonuses, incentives, and base pay.

Although the conference was action-packed and full of thought-provoking discussions, two sessions stood out to Margrét, who was speaking on pay equity: One on the success and efficacy of short-term incentives (with illuminating facts and figures), and another about a new rewards system at AT&T.

The first speaker's research showed that executives consistently reached their incentive targets by 100% or above—meaning that bonuses are fast becoming fixed as a part of executive compensation. "With all the legal complications around incentive pay for executives," Henrike asks, "should this then just become a part of base pay?" Watch the Coffee Talk for the answers.

At the same time, AT&T has rolled out a direct-report nomination system for rewards—called Connection Awards—which has led to significant cultural growth within the company without introducing inequities. These rewards total between 5%-10% of annual compensation, and are given to employees who have truly gone above and beyond. Importantly, these aren't token awards, but based on real recognition of employee excellence.

Listen to the Coffee Talk to learn how you can approach bonuses and weed out bias‚ straight from the experts.