Wachtell Lipton's "Director Onboarding and the Foundations of Respect" describes a new director onboarding approach that acknowledges the inadequacy of the traditional one-time and frequently very basic orientation in the context of today's more complex and dynamic environment where new directors are expected to hit the ground running, and increasingly come to the boardroom "fresh" and from widely diverse backgrounds.
The instructive memo outlines and elaborates on the key components of the suggested "reimagined" onboarding process with reference to core focus areas in a manner that will benefit both new and seasoned governance practitioners and directors charged with overseeing the process who are looking to develop or evolve their onboarding program to accommodate current dynamics in a way that is also appropriately tailored to the company and new director-specific.
Note that according to the recently released Society/Deloitte Board Practices Report, nearly 90% of all respondents have a formal onboarding program for their new directors that commonly includes providing a fairly robust package of written materials about the company, as well as opportunities to meet with other board members and executive management.
See our recent report: "New Director Onboarding," and additional information & resources on our Director Orientation/Onboarding page.This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!