Challenge:
The Executive Compensation team at a Fortune 100 company regularly reviews its program by considering market trends and benchmarking against similar organizations. But it had been six years since the team conducted research among its customers—the executives who participate in the program. As a result, anecdotal stories were often used as fact in planning meetings.

Solution:
Davis & Company worked with the planning team to include employee research in its review process, so the team could understand what executives valued about the program, gather feedback about each component and test program design ideas. We moderated 12 focus groups (10 in-person and two web-based) at four key locations and conducted five one-on-one interviews with senior executives.

Results:
Not only did the Executive Compensation team have new data—the voice of executives—to make a compelling case for change (which had to be approved by the Compensation Committee and the Board of Directors), but it also developed a comprehensive view of communication issues to be addressed during launch of the updated program.