Compensation Planning and Process Support

Proactive, Contextualized Advice Starts Here

Farient Advisors offers comprehensive compensation, performance, and corporate governance services to public, private, and pre- and post-IPO companies. Our professionals work closely with boards of directors and management to design customized compensation solutions that address today’s challenges while anticipating what may be on the horizon.

Just like you, we hate surprises. Our services are designed to create defensible pay programs that link compensation to performance, set clear goals and performance metrics, and can be explained to investors. In fact, we wrote the book on it: Fair Pay, Fair Play: Aligning Executive Performance and Pay (Jossey-Bass, 2010) continues to be a go-to resource for consulting services and governance advisors. With the expanding role of the compensation committee and its greater focus on sustainability, stakeholders, and shifting disclosure requirements, our experienced advisors guide management and the board to perform the basics, avoid blind spots, and plan for what’s coming next.

We Ask Questions, Listen, Collaborate

We work closely with management and the board’s compensation committee to do the right things right. With the responsibilities of the compensation committee continuing to expand, its members are devoting more time and energy to human capital management and environmental, social, and governance issues. How these and other factors affect executive incentive plans is where our team excels. Today, executive compensation plans must balance the interests of all stakeholders. And, in fact, many compensation committees are changing their charters and adopting new names to reflect their additional duties. Examples include:

• Human Resources and Compensation Committee
• Talent Management and Compensation Committee
• Human Capital and Compensation Committee
• Management Development and Compensation Committee
• Human Capital Management Committee
• Human Capital, Diversity and Compensation Committee

Fine-Tune Communication with Stakeholders

We know how to design, build, and tell compensation stories. Farient Advisors understands the intricacies of executive pay and corporate governance performance. Our compensation advisory services help clients develop the right pay programs to align the interests of stakeholders with those of management. There has never been a better time to re-evaluate executive and director compensation to finely tune your story.

This service includes:

Issues Prioritization

Diagnosis of issues to determine top strategic priorities

Compensation Committee Calendar and Agendas

Incorporation of priority issues into the annual planning calendar and placement of all committee topics in meetings throughout the year. Thorough preparation of meeting agendas with time allocations noted

Executive Top Sheet

A summary of compensation philosophy, peer group, program design, and equity spending on one handy reference sheet

Compensation Committee Processes

Provide guidance on committee protocols, e.g., the need for prep meetings, executive sessions, the resources required, and other protocols

Decision Support

Outline board oversight responsibilities and determine which ones should be owned by the compensation committee

Our Services

  • Compensation Strategy and Philosophy

    Our team develops compensation frameworks that consider each company’s business strategy, values, and culture. Our team has a deep understanding of how executive pay translates into performance. That’s why the pay programs we design for our clients are sensitive to both the strategy of the organization and value creation for shareholders and other stakeholders.

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  • Pay and Performance Alignment

    Farient Advisors has always advocated that pay and performance be aligned and disclosed. In fact, at the onset of Dodd-Frank, our CEO published the definitive work on pay and performance alignment. That book, "Fair Pay Fair Play," is relevant today as the compensation of CEOs is linked to ESG goals.

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  • Pay Design and Policies

    Farient Advisors has always advocated that pay and performance be aligned and disclosed. In fact, at the onset of the Dodd-Frank legislation in the US, our CEO published the definitive work on pay and performance alignment. That book, Fair Pay, Fair Play: Aligning Executive Performance and Pay (Jossey-Bass, 2010), is particularly relevant today as the compensation of executives is increasingly linked to stakeholder incentives.

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  • Governance Support

    The role of the director continues to expand to include new oversight areas. Good governance begins with the board. Our team works closely with compensation committees to best align the interests of management, shareholders, and other stakeholders, and to strategically communicate pay for performance to all stakeholders.

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  • Stakeholder Incentives

    Sustainability or stakeholder incentives are becoming part of many executive pay plans. Whether it’s diversity, equity, and inclusion or reaching carbon-neutral goals, our team has built deep expertise in how sustainability issues impact client strategies. Our sustainability team is embedded in every client engagement. This accelerates an understanding of a client’s sustainability positioning and enhances our ability to evaluate sustainability performance, competitive positioning, and change processes to determine the right approach.

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  • Transactions

    Transactions are an important mechanism for implementing strategy. We engage early in the process to anticipate the implications of any transaction, including special programs (e.g., retention plans), Section 280G calculations, and ongoing pay strategies—from peer groups to pay levels to program design. We cover all types of transactions.

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  • Other Services

    We provide a variety of compensation and governance-related services that range from executing standard processes to navigating challenging or one-of-a-kind situations. These include but are not limited to board compensation, the facilitation of CEO performance evaluations, and special programs such as retention.

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  • Talent Management

    With the expanding remit of the compensation committee, all aspects of executive talent take center stage. From talent vulnerability to retention and succession, harmonizing the right talent, in the right place, at the right time has only added to an already challenging job.

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  • Board of Director Compensation

    Increased demands coupled with the requirements required of all boards to be future-ready. Is director compensation keeping pace? Board pay should be fair but not egregious. Farient provides several services to keep board compensation defensible and balanced. From board peer reviews and full-board evaluations to the development of compensation programs, we work across all industries to make board compensation relevant to the market, fair to board members, and a non-event for onlookers.

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We’re Here for You

Let us know how we can help you think differently about executive compensation and its alignment with performance.

Contact Us

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