Society members across sizes and industries weighed in on their new director and committee member orientation and onboarding practices.
Among the key takeaways for public company respondents:
Formal program (n=111)—While the vast majority of companies represented by respondents have formal orientation and onboarding programs for their new directors (94%), that is typically not the case for new committee members (41%). Company size is a factor, however, with the majority of large-caps having formal committee member orientation/onboarding programs vs. 29% of mid-caps.
Extermal service providers (n=97)—Companies rarely engage external providers in conjunction with their director onboarding and orientation. When they do (9%), external or independent auditors and compensation consultants for new audit committee and compensation committee members, respectively, are most commonly tapped.
Orientation/Onboarding materials (n=105)—Nearly two-thirds of large-cap companies provide new directors with materials relating to talent matters, such as executive compensation, development, and promotion; corporate culture; and recruitment, as part of their orientation or onboarding, vs. one-third of mid-caps.
Across company sizes, board governance documents, company background, company policies, financial information, strategic plans, an operations overview, market and industry information, and other materials related to board practices and processes, such as assessment forms and education offerings, are commonly provided.
Orientation/Onboarding process (n=103)—Assignment of an experienced board mentor or board buddy to new directors is not the norm; however, one-third of companies (40% large-caps | 26% mid-caps) have implemented this practice. Other orientation/onboarding processes/practices across company sizes are shown here:
Orientation/Onboarding practices (n=101)—Among potential enumerated practices, a majority of companies provide their orientation and onboarding materials online (e.g., posting on a secure site or board portal); have a structured schedule or timeline for the process; and regularly review the process for necessary updates, while half have a process to solicit feedback from new directors on the effectiveness of their integration.
Management participation (n=100)—The Chief Legal Officer/GC; corporate secretary/assistant or deputy corporate secretary; CFO; CEO; CHRO; and COO, commonly participate in the director orientation and onboarding process across companies. Large-cap companies also commonly engaged their CISO and Chief Accounting Officer.
Responses tended to vary by company size. Access the survey results by company size here.
Small-cap and private company findings were omitted from the report and the accompanying demographics reports due to limited respondent populations; however, members may access those results by emailing Randi Morrison.