Our Insights

March 19, 2025

A series exploring HR & Compensation in M&A. A well-planned HR and compensation strategy early in the process is crucial for a smooth transition, talent retention and engagement, business continuity and synergy realization. This first article outlines the HR workstreams, helping companies navigate critical decisions and align their people strategies for long-term success during each stage of a transaction.

March 6, 2025

The public sector in Alberta is undergoing a significant shift in how compensation and total rewards are structured. Legislative reforms, inflationary pressures, and a rapidly changing labour market are forcing organizations to reassess their approach to pay and benefits. For HR professionals and public sector leaders, this moment presents both challenges and opportunities. This article outlines a summary of the changes and potential considerations.

February 10, 2025

Good governance is fundamental to building trust with shareholders and ensuring alignment between executive decision-making and long-term company performance. Meaningful and effective share ownership guidelines are one key mechanism to reinforce such alignment. This article delves into current and emerging practices among TSX60 companies, explores proxy advisor and governance body guidelines, and summarizes Laulima’s predictions.

January 3, 2025

Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis have released their voting policy updates for the 2025 proxy season. ISS updates apply to meetings held on or after February 1, 2025 and Glass Lewis updates apply to meetings held on or after January 1, 2025. Download Laulima's article for more details.

November 18, 2024

Long-Term Incentives (LTI) serve as a critical component of annual compensation across all sectors. In order to ensure that compensation supports critical business needs and strategy, companies sometimes provide additional one-time LTI awards to address exceptional circumstances, such as major acquisitions, leadership transitions, retention or new executive hires. Download Laulima's report for more details.

November 13, 2024

In today’s human resources landscape, balancing a pay for performance philosophy with the imperative to ensure equitable compensation can seem challenging. In our view, differentiating pay based on performance is a key element of fairness. With the right guardrails in place, organizations can implement a performance-based pay structure that does not conflict with internal pay equity objectives or external legislative requirements.

October 7, 2024

In June, Laulima shared a preliminary analysis of the 2024 Say on Pay (SOP) votes within the TSX60, noting an upward trend in shareholder support for executive compensation. This fall update further confirms that trend, now backed by complete vote data. Download Laulima's report for more details.

August 15, 2024

LTI is the largest component of executive pay, with increasingly more emphasis on the use of Performance Share Units. The most prevalent combination of performance metrics is comprised of Relative TSR and absolute financial performance. Stock options continue to decline in prevalence, with companies recently eliminating or reducing the weighting on stock options. RSUs continue to make up 20-25% of total LTI. Download Laulima's complimentary report on TSX60 Long-Term Incentive Plans to learn more.

August 1, 2024

Among TSX60 companies, ESG metrics are common in short-term incentive plans, while prevalence continues to increase in long-term incentive plans on a gradual basis. Most TSX60 companies disclose gender representation across the senior management and Board of Directors levels, with disclosure for other underrepresented groups becoming more common. Download Laulima's complimentary report on TSX60 ESG and DEI to learn more.

July 16, 2024

Our pay transparency checklist below can help you forge a clear and pragmatic path for your pay transparency journey, build credibility with your leaders, and enhance employee engagement, while aligning with any applicable regulations. Download our complimentary checklist to start your journey.

July 12, 2024

Most TSX60 companies use a formulaic annual incentive plan, with financial metrics as key performance drivers. The majority of companies also integrate ESG objectives into their plans. Actual STIP payouts exceeded targets, with individual performance playing a significant role. Download Laulima's complimentary report on TSX60 Short-Term Incentive Plans to learn more.

June 20, 2024

Modest CEO salary increases, notably larger long-term incentive (LTI) awards, the majority of companies paying executives bonuses above target, and a continued trend towards greater emphasis on performance share units (PSUs). Find out more by downloading Laulima's complimentary report on TSX60 Executive Compensation Key Findings.

June 6, 2024

This year, shareholders of TSX60 issuers have once again shown overwhelming support for executive pay, with an uptick in Say on Pay approval results. Download our complementary preliminary report for more details.

May 13, 2024

May 3, 2024