"According to a recent survey from Pearl Meyer and Women Corporate Directors, 35% of boards discuss succession planning for the CEO and his or her direct reports, 20% discuss succession regarding the direct reports to the CEO’s direct reports, and 5% discuss succession planning three or more levels below the CEO."

"There is more of a move these days for directors to give each other feedback during—or in addition to—an annual board assessment, and that can help mitigate the risk that you end up with ‘zombie’ directors in the first place," said Peter Thies, managing director.

“The main thing a firm would want to do is keep the team together that they’ve assembled,” Aalap Shah said. The provisions can also serve as “a deterrent” to competitors.

“IPO grants [to CEOs] serve two purposes—alignment with shareholders and retention, because an executive disruption at that stage can be very problematic,” noted Aalap Shah

“When there’s a more pessimistic or negative economic outlook, it tends to put a dampener on increases in pay for the executive team,” said Matt Turner, president of executive compensation at Pearl Meyer.

“It will be difficult for many [tech] companies to not reduce the number of shares that the executives are getting," said Aalap Shah, managing director, Pearl Meyer.

As companies move forward with AI adoption, many leaders have acknowledged that AI is already changing their organizational structure, according to a Pearl Meyer report. Leaders also said they’re developing a change management strategy and implementing communication plans to keep employees informed.

The company's rate of AI adoption is important to consider, said Dan Moynihan, managing director at Pearl Meyer.

“A lot of this is very subjective,” said Deborah Lifshey, a managing director at executive compensation consultant Pearl Meyer. “Do you leave it open to morals? Or get specific into MeToo and harassment?”

“The vast majority of my clients in the tech industry are planning to cut their executives’ pay this year by giving them smaller equity packages,” said Aalap Shah, managing director, Pearl Meyer.

"Even though tech companies have made an effort to control costs in the second half of this year, many have also increased their employees' compensation in some form over the last six months, most often through equity grants," said Aalap Shah, managing director at Pearl Meyer.

“Passing [say-on-pay] by 60 percent or passing by 70 percent is almost like failing,” said Jan Koors, senior managing director, Pearl Meyer.