As previously reported in the Society Alert (see "S&P 500 Board Committee Structure Benchmarking"), EY's recent analysis of S&P 500 board committee trends revealed that more boards are adding additional standing committees beyond the key three (Audit, Compensation, Nom/Gov): As of 2016, more than 75% of the S&P 500 had at least one additional committee - up from 61% in 2013, with Executive Committees being the most common type of additional committee at 37%, followed by Finance (31%), Compliance (12%) and Risk (11%).
How do Society members stack up? According to the recently-released 2016 Board Practices Report, a collaborative board practices benchmarking effort between the Society and Deloitte LLP's Center for Board Effectiveness, not surprisingly, 100% of respondents have standing Audit Committees and Compensation Committees, and 99% have a standing Nominating/Governance Committee. Beyond that, almost half (48%) have the consistently-most-popular non-key Executive Committee, followed by 41% with a Finance Committee, and 22% with a Risk Committee (expectedly dominated by Financial Services companies). 10% or fewer companies reported having standing Investment, Finance & Investment, or Strategy committees.
Additional insights for the S&P 500 are reported in Spencer Stuart's 2016 Board Index (one of many benchmarking resources posted on our topical pages):
- Boards have an average of 4.2 standing committees and a median of four committees, which has remained consistent over the past decade.
- 21% of boards have five standing committees, and 14% have six or more.
- Several committees have become more prevalent in the past 10 years, including Risk, Science/Technology, and Environment, Health & Safety. In 2006, for example, 4% of boards had a Risk Committee, compared with 11% today. By contrast, the number of Public Policy/Social & Corporate Responsibility Committees have declined somewhat.
Access additional resources on our Board Committees, Board Composition, Board Practices/Governance Practices, and other relevant topical pages.
The iconic Society/Deloitte Board Practices Report - which presents findings from a survey distributed to the Society's public company members in late 2016 - covers trends in over 15 areas of board practices and hot topics including cyber risk, shareholder activism, and board diversity.