A recent member-requested Society Quick Survey on the use of external search firms for new director recruitment garnered responses from approximately 130 issuer members (64% of which represent S&P 500 companies), which can assist other members with benchmarking their board practices in this area.
Noteworthy results include:
- Nearly 95% of companies elected/appointed a new director in the past three years.
- Over 70% of companies have used a third-party search firm for a director position in the past three years.
- Approximately 80% of the companies that used a search firm for a director position in the past three years elected/appointed a new director identified by the search firm.
- Nearly 60% of companies that used a search firm for a director position in the past three years used the firm to identify candidates with certain qualifications and/or diversity because the company didn't have a pool of potential candidates that met their needs in this regard; 36% had a pool of potential candidates, but wanted to expand their reach.
- Almost half of companies that used a search firm for a director position in the past three years believe that the company's use of an external search firm was worthwhile/valuable - primarily because they needed a potential candidate with certain qualifications and/or diversity. Another nearly 24% believed it worthwhile, primarily because they didn't have a pool of potential candidates.
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Access additional resources on our Board Succession/Refreshment page, and stay tuned for additional board practices benchmarking data in next week's Society Alert!
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