Introduction

Governance professionals report on how their boards receive the training and education they need to fulfill their duties and how they monitor and feel about those efforts

Introduction

Governance professionals report on how their boards receive the training and education they need to fulfill their duties and how they monitor and feel about those efforts

Directors bring many things to the boards they sit on, but they cannot be expected to be up to date and fully qualified on every latest development in the world that impacts their company and every best practice for responding. That’s where director education and training come in.Governance teams play a central role in making sure their board has the right information and skills to be able to fulfill its duties and oversee the organization. This can involve tailoring to the individual members of a board, but it must also account for the growing array of issues that investors and other stakeholders expect directors to be fluent in, such as ESG or cyber-security. In this special report we present the results of a survey conducted among governance professionals such as general counsel, corporate secretaries and their teams. Their responses provide insight into who on the board oversees director education and training and who – outside of the board – provides those services. We also look at which topics boards are receiving specific information or training on, how frequently governance teams check whether their board has what it needs and, ultimately, how they rate their board’s ability to oversee the key issues facing the company.

Key findings

Overall, almost all respondents (95 percent) say the general counsel/corporate secretary plays a role in providing directors with relevant, up-to-date information. The next-most frequently cited provider is finance (named by 65 percent of respondents), followed by outside advisers (59 percent).
Three quarters of all respondents say their general counsel/corporate secretary conducts director training. Just over half (54 percent) use outside advisers.
More respondents say their board has received specific information or training over the past year on ESG matters (80 percent) than on any other topic.
Overall, approaching half of respondents say they assess on an ongoing basis whether their board members have the relevant information they need. A further 19 percent say they make such an assessment at every board meeting.
Outside of corporate governance, respondents on average rate ESG and executive compensation as the most important areas for board members to have expertise in.
Overall, respondents give their board’s competence based on director training and education an average score of 8.6 out of 10.

Survey demographics
This report is based on the findings from an online survey conducted between August and September 2022. A total of 226 respondents took part.