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Featured - 4 items
Where’s your business at?
Just like people, companies’ needs, priorities and challenges evolve with their stage of development. Start-ups are busy exploring. They’re finding out what works and striving to grow and make their presence felt while growth companies have proven their ability to fend for themselves, but need to keep up the momentum, possibly in the face of new competition from unexpected quarters.
On the other hand, mature businesses have proven their abilities, but have to be constantly vigilant to maintain their success and adapt as the world around them changes. They may also feel the greater responsibility that comes with maturity, influence and prominence: the pressure to lead by example and build on a hard-won legacy.
And of course at almost any stage of its development, a business might find itself at one end or the other of a deal – which brings a whole new set of challenges.
Does your compensation strategy match your maturity?
To achieve their goals at each of these stages, businesses need different employees with different talents. And they need a different compensation strategy to attract, retain and motivate them.
The challenge for start-ups is to get the right skills on board and foster an entrepreneurial spirit. At this stage maintaining liquidity is imperative, so incentives that promise a share in future success without exhausting present cash reserves might well be the way to go.
Growth companies need to consolidate and formalise their relationships with employees, which is likely to involve defining a compensation philosophy, principles and policy and designing and implementing an incentive plan that not only motivates and retains employees, but also meets increasingly complex legal, regulatory and reporting requirements.
Mature organisations have to make these arrangements even more formal, and may well need guidance on their compensation committee, compensation governance and disclosure, as well as with compensation analysis and benchmarking.
Organisations involved in deals will probably need help with reviewing existing incentives and designing and implementing retention plans to make sure the new structure has the talent to sustain it and thrive.
How can PwC help?
PwC’s compensation management and consulting team has been through an evolution of its own, and can now offer a comprehensive mix of skills and know-how that can be adapted and evolved to support organisations as they mature and develop.
Below you’ll find a range of compensation design, implementation and maintenance services spanning the entire life cycle of your company. Remember that while the services are broadly matched to specific degrees of maturity, at any specific stage of your company’s development you may also require support in other areas as well.
Additionally, as employers are increasingly navigating multiple jurisdictions with numerous tax and regulatory authorities, our team can help navigate these complexities whilst maximising the benefits for both people and business.
Start-ups
- Design and implementation of short-term incentive (STI) and long-term incentive (LTI) plans, including plan rules and documentation, internal communication, Swiss and international income tax and social security assessment and support, tax rulings, employer reporting and withholding obligations and accounting treatment
- Valuation considerations of non-listed shares for income tax and wealth tax purposes
- Employment tax risk assessments, and support with employer compliance obligations that reward policies may be creating
- IPO readiness checks and preparation for non-listed companies
Mature companies (listed and non-listed)
- Compensation philosophy, principles and policy
- Design and implementation of short-term incentives (STI) and long-term incentives (LTI) plans including plan rules and documentation, internal communication, Swiss and international income tax and social security assessment and support, tax rulings, employer reporting and withholding obligations and accounting treatment
- Valuation considerations of non-listed shares for income tax and wealth tax purposes
- Employment tax risk assessments, and support with employer compliance obligations that reward policies may be creating
- IPO readiness checks and preparation for non-listed companies
- Compensation committee advisor, governance and disclosure
- AGM and shareholder’s engagement
- Benchmarks of compensation (Board and ExB in Swiss market)
- Report and roundtables for Swiss listed companies
Growth companies
- Compensation philosophy, principles and policy
- Design and implementation of short-term incentives (STI) and long-term incentives (LTI) plans, including plan rules and documentation, internal communication, Swiss and international income tax and social security assessment and support, tax rulings, employer reporting and withholding obligations and accounting treatment
- Valuation considerations of non-listed shares for income tax and wealth tax purposes
- Employment tax risk assessments, and support with employer compliance obligations that reward policies may be creating
- IPO readiness checks and preparation for non-listed companies
Compensation in Deals
- Review of existing incentive plans and assessment of potential cost impact
- Review of employee shares/founder shares and assessment of income tax treatment and potential cost impact
- Support on tax rulings
- Design and implementation of retention plans
Executive compensation products for mature organisations
When companies reach a mature stage, their essential needs are to align compensation structure with market practice and a pay for performance philosophy as well as adhere to additional governance and compliance requirements. To support mature companies achieve these objectives, we propose a panel of diverse products listed below.
Comprehensive customised set of services for Compensation Committees of Swiss listed companies
We designed a comprehensive customised set of services for Compensation Committees of Swiss listed companies which covers the basic annual agenda items of the Compensation Committee:
- analysis of the most recent annual general meeting;
- annual review of compensation strategy against market practice and proxy advisors’ guidelines;
- drafting of the compensation report for your company;
- yearly governance update and preparation of the next annual general meeting.
By purchasing the Compensation Committee Suite, you will automatically receive our Executive Compensation Design in SMI Expanded Companies report with an invitation to join our roundtables twice a year.
To find out more about the Compensation Committee Suite, we invite you to click here.
Order the Compensation Committee SuitePublished for the second time under the umbrella of PwC, the latest report contains exhaustive information on the design of the compensation programmes applicable to the boards of directors and executive committees of companies in Switzerland. With 50 organisations analysed in addition to those represented on the SMI and SMIM, the report now covers the top 100 Swiss listed companies. For more information on the content of our report, we invite you to read our recent article.
In the appendix, which is provided as an EXCEL file, the company-specific information is summarised in tables to make it easy for you to compare the various compensation systems.
In addition, companies that purchase the report are invited to attend two roundtables. These roundtables are a great opportunity to hear and discuss about the latest market trends. To learn more about these roundtables, we invite you to visit our event page.
Benchmark on Executive Committee Compensation
Our Swiss Executive Compensation Survey was developed to meet the growing demand for reliable and consistent benchmarking data for Executive Committee positions in Swiss-listed companies. Participation is required in order to purchase the benchmark.
- In addition to publicly available data on CEO compensation mix and levels, the survey includes individual compensation mix and level data for other common Executive Committee positions
- Includes data on annual base salary levels, target incentive amounts (short- and long-term), realised compensation and pension contributions
- Choose from several available formats:
- Standard Report: offered to survey participants every three years and includes a fixed set of compensation data for each position available in our database
- CEO Report: list of individual CEO compensation (SMI, SMIM and participating companies)
- Customised EC Benchmark: comparison of own EC compensation against a customised peer group based on available data
- Customised CEO Benchmark: comparison of own CEO compensation against a customised peer group, includes a list of CEO compensation levels by individual company
Customised benchmarking reports include details on peer group composition, all reports show statistics for each compensation element as well as overall compensation mix.
Compensation benchmark for Swiss Board of Directors
To meet the high demand for benchmark data on Board compensation, we developed a database of Board compensation in Swiss listed companies, which allows us to provide you with a personalised report based on a specific and relevant peer group of Swiss listed companies. Upon request, international peers can also be added to your report.
This customised benchmark analysis enables you to verify that the Board compensation in your company is competitive and aligned with market practice. It includes information on the typical compensation structure and the compensation levels for the functions of Board chair, Board vice-chair and member of the Board, including details around compensation for the work in the various Board’s committees.
Training programme for reward specialists
The Compensation Governance training has been developed for reward specialists who are expected to deal with reward governance matters in the future. The training comprises three one-day modules which build on each other.
- Module I: Compensation governance basics
During this course, we cover all relevant compensation governance topics in the Swiss context, with a focus on corporate governance in general and the SIX Corporate Governance Directive in particular. - Module II: Legal fundamentals and other directives
During this course, which builds on module I, we cover relevant compensation governance topics in the Swiss context with a focus on the Stock Corporation Law, the Swiss Code of Best Practice and international compensation governance aspects. - Module III: Shareholder engagement
This third one-day training builds on module I and II and addresses reward specialists who would like to deepen their understanding of Compensation Governance or are particularly interested in the topics of pay-for-performance and shareholder engagement in the Swiss context.
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Contact us
Jose Marques
Director People and Organisation and Leader New world. New skills., PwC Switzerland
Tel: +41 58 792 96 34