“Compensation committees are taking a holistic view of the downturn and having healthy conversations about the impact paying executives for relative performance will have on shareholders, employees, reputation, and culture,” said Peter Lupo, managing director, Pearl Meyer.

“There was a dramatic increase in nonfinancial metrics in 2019, and because of the impact of COVID-19, I suspect a lot of metrics in annual incentive plans will be nonfinancial moving forward,” said Mike Esser, managing director at Pearl Meyer.

“If executives don’t react in a way of camaraderie [because of COVID-19] that’s going to be very telling about the kind of company you are,” said Aalap Shah, managing director of Pearl Meyer.

“I think compensation committees are going to have some serious and difficult conversations about to what extent they adjust performance to take COVID-19 into account,” says Peter Lupo, senior managing director and head of the Atlantic region for Pearl Meyer.

Consultant Pearl Meyer found that 6% of companies have reduced or eliminated employer contributions or matches to their retirement plan, and 16% are considering it.

“If boards don’t stop to think about what can unintentionally happen by not adjusting their own pay, they could face increased reputational risk,” said Jan Koors, managing director.