Today we published the 2016 edition of the QCA/UHY Hacker Young Corporate Governance Behaviour Review. In partnership with accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, we benchmark corporate governance disclosures made by 100 small and mid-size quoted companies against the minimum disclosures of our Corporate Governance Code.
Our 2016 review shows that levels of corporate governance disclosure are continuing to evolve in the small and mid-size quoted company sector. The key challenge for all companies is to find a way to clearly and plainly describe the links between strategy, performance and remuneration. There is a strong view that if remuneration policy cannot be set in context then investors will be more cautious in their approach.
This review is designed to help quoted company directors to communicate with investors better, as it offers some recommended approaches for this reporting season and ‘easy wins’, drawn directly from discussions with institutional investors about the review.
Our top five governance reporting recommendations:
- Demonstrate clear links between strategy, performance and remuneration
- Keep your reporting concise and transparent – tell your story
- Demonstrate that you understand your shareholders' and other stakeholders' interests
- Publish the results of shareholder votes on your website
- Describe and explain how board performance is evaluated
Easy reporting wins:
- Information received by the board
- Independent directors
- Performance evaluation
Click here to download the review (pdf)
We hope that this review will help quoted company directors to communicate with investors better. As ever, we appreciate your feedback on how to improve this research and any other research we do – please email us.