Corporate Secretary’s “Director education and training: Ensuring the board has what it needs” (sponsored by Diligent) reveals benchmarking data on director education and training practices based on the results of a recent survey of 226 governance professionals worldwide (69% North America) across predominantly public companies (37% mega- and large cap | 31% mid-cap | 24% small-cap).
North America-specific findings (except as otherwise indicated) include:
Board oversight—The vast majority of companies both in the US and globally report primary oversight of director education and training by the Nominating & Governance Committee (69% and 60% respectively).
Corporate secretary role—Beyond the board itself, the GC/Corporate Secretary is by far the most common human resource for providing directors with relevant, up-to-date information and conducting director training (95% and 77%, respectively). A majority of respondents (57%) also look to outside advisers.
Education topics—ESG issues topped the list of board education topics addressed over the past year (81%), followed closely by cyber security (78%) and corporate governance (77%). Corporate governance tops the list of topics covered with new board members as part of their orientation/onboarding.
Education/training over the past year:
Education format—Education/training is most often provided live (in-person or online) (95%). No other format (e.g., online self-guided, online educational resources, videos) garnered a majority response.
Monitoring directors’ needs—Respondents tend to continually assess whether their companies’ directors have the relevant information they need, and to annually assess directors’ education/training needs.
Director experience/expertise—On a scale of 1 – 5, respondents rated corporate governance as the area of experience or expertise most important for at least one director to possess (4.1), followed by executive compensation (3.9), and cybersecurity and compliance/regulation (each at 3.8). ESG issues and ethics each received a rating of 3.7.
See “ESG tops list for director education, study finds” (Corporate Secretary); our recent report: “Society Members Speak! Board Education & Evaluation Practices”; and additional resources on our Board Practices/Governance Practices page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!