Integrated
Annual Report 2016

3. Determination of remuneration

3.1 Nomination and Compensation Committee (NCC)

As determined in the Articles of Incorporation and in the Organisational Regulations of Geberit AG, the NCC supports the Board of Directors (BoD) in the fulfillment of its duties and responsibilities in the area of remuneration and personnel policy, including:

  • Establishment and periodical review of the Group’s remuneration policy and principles
  • Yearly review of the individual remuneration of the CEO and of the other members of the Group Executive Board
  • Yearly performance assessment of the CEO and of the other members of the Group Executive Board
  • Preparation of the remuneration report
  • Personnel development of the Group Executive Board (GEB)
  • Succession planning and nomination for positions on the Group Executive Board
  • Pre-selection of candidates for election or re-election to the Board of Directors

Approval and authority levels on remuneration matters:

Decision on CEO NCC BoD AGM
Remuneration policy and guidelines, in line with the provisions of the Articles of Association proposes approves  
Maximum aggregate amount of remuneration for the BoD and for the GEB   proposes reviews binding vote
Individual remuneration of members of the BoD   proposes approves  
Individual remuneration of the CEO (including fixed remuneration, STI1 and LTI2)   proposes approves  
Individual remuneration of the other members of the GEB proposes reviews approves  
LTI2 grant for all other eligible parties proposes reviews approves  
Remuneration Report   proposes approves consultative
vote
1 Short-Term Incentive
2 Long-Term Incentive    

The NCC consists exclusively of independent and non-executive members of the Board of Directors, who are elected annually by the General Meeting. Since the 2016 General Meeting, the NCC has consisted of Hartmut Reuter as Chairman, Regi Aalstad and Jørgen Tang-Jensen as members.

The NCC meets at least three time per year. In 2016, it held three meetings including, among others, the predefined recurring agenda items illustrated below. The participation rate for NCC meetings in 2016 was 100%.

Beginning of year (Feb/March) Summer (August) End of year (December)
Remuneration policy
  • Review of remuneration policy and programmes
GEB matters
  • Individual performance appraisal (previous year)
  • STI payout (previous year)
  • Vesting of equity awards (previous years)
  • Succession planning for GEB positions
  • Talent management session
  • Target remuneration (following year)
  • Target setting for STI (following year)
  • Option valuation and definition of performance criteria LTI for next grant
BoD remuneration
  • BoD remuneration (following year)
Governance
  • AGM preparation (maximum amounts of remuneration of GEB and BoD to be submitted to say-on-pay votes)
  • Review of shareholders and proxy advisors feedback on the remuneration report
  • Draft remuneration report
  • Agenda NCC for following year

As a general rule, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, the CEO and the Head of Corporate Human Resources participate in the meetings of the NCC. The Chairman of the NCC may invite other executives as appropriate. However, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and the executives do not take part in the section of the meetings where their own performance and/or remuneration are discussed. At the end of each meeting, a closed session takes place among the members of the NCC only.

After each meeting, the Chairman of the NCC reports to the Board of Directors on its activities and recommendations. The minutes of the NCC meetings are available to the full Board of Directors.

3.2 Process of determination of remuneration

Benchmarks and external consultants

Geberit regularly reviews the remuneration of its executives, including that of the members of the Group Executive Board. This includes regular participation, e.g. every two to three years, in benchmark studies on comparable functions in other industrial companies. In 2015, a detailed analysis of the remuneration of the CEO and the other members of the Group Executive Board was carried out by an independent external compensation consulting firm, Towers Watson. This consulting firm has no other mandates from Geberit. The remuneration analysis was conducted on the basis of a peer group of industrial companies of comparable size and geographic scope and headquartered in Switzerland: Autoneum, Barry Callebaut, Bucher, Dätwyler, Ems-Chemie, Georg Fischer, Givaudan, dormakaba, Logitech, Lonza, Mettler-Toledo, OC Oerlikon, Schindler, Schweiter, SFS, Sika, Sonova, Sulzer and Zehnder. The study, together with other published data, served as basis to determine the target remuneration levels of the CEO and other members of the Group Executive Board for the business year 2016. While many different factors, such as individual role and contribution, company performance and affordability, are considered to determine remuneration levels, the policy of Geberit is to provide target remuneration that is in principle positioned around the market median.

In regard to the remuneration of the Board of Directors, the remuneration and levels are reviewed periodically by the NCC. Such a review took place in 2015 with a benchmarking analysis provided by Towers Watson, which investigated companies of the Swiss Market Index Mid (SMIM). The study, together with other published data, served as basis to determine the remuneration of the members of the Board of Directors for the remuneration period starting at the 2016 General Meeting.

Performance management

The actual remuneration effectively paid out in a given year to the Group Executive Board members depends on the corporate results and on the individual performance. Individual performance is assessed through the formal annual performance management process: company and individual performance objectives are approved at the beginning of the business year and achievements against those objectives are assessed after year-end. The performance appraisal is the basis for the determination of the actual remuneration.

Objective setting
(December – January)
Determination of individual objectives
Mid-year review
(July)
Mid-year discussion on performance to date against predefined objectives
Final review
(December – January)
Self-appraisal and performance assessment
Determination of compensation
(February – March)
Determination of actual compensation

3.3 Shareholder involvement

In the last four years, based on the feedback received by shareholders and shareholders’ representatives, Geberit has made significant efforts to improve the remuneration disclosure in terms of transparency and level of detail provided about the remuneration principles and programmes. The positive outcome of the consultative votes on the 2013, 2014 and 2015 Remuneration Reports indicates that shareholders welcome the progress made. Geberit foresees to continue to submit the Remuneration Report to a consultative shareholders’ vote at the General Meeting, in order that shareholders have an opportunity to express their opinion about the remuneration system.

Articles of Incorporation

As required by the Ordinance, the Articles of Incorporation of Geberit include the following provisions on remuneration:

  • Principles applicable to performance-related pay:
    the members of the Group Executive Board may be paid variable remuneration which may include short- and long-term elements and which is linked to the achievement of one or several performance criteria.
  • Binding votes on maximum aggregate compensation amounts of the Board of Directors and Group Executive Board:
    shareholders vote prospectively on the maximum aggregate remuneration amount for the Board of Directors until the next ordinary General Meeting and for the maximum aggregate remuneration amount for the Group Executive Board for the following business year. Further, shareholders can express their opinion on the remuneration principles and structure through a consultative vote on the remuneration report.
  • Additional amount for payments to members of the Group Executive Board appointed after the vote on remuneration at the General Meeting:
    for the remuneration of members of the Group Executive Board who have been appointed after the approval of the maximum aggregate remuneration amount by the General Meeting, and to the extent that the maximum aggregate remuneration amount as approved does not suffice, an amount of up to 40% of the maximum aggregate remuneration amount approved for the Group Executive Board is available without further approval of the General Meeting.
  • Loans, credit facilities and post-employment benefits for members of the Board of Directors and of the Group Executive Board:
    no loans or credits shall be granted to members of the Board of Directors or the Group Executive Board.

The provisions of the Articles of Incorporation have been kept broad in order that the Board of Directors has sufficient flexibility to make amendments to the remuneration programmes in the future, if so necessary. The remuneration principles currently in place are more restrictive than the provisions of the Articles of Incorporation and are aligned to good practice in corporate governance; for example, the independent members of the Board of Directors are not eligible for any variable remuneration or retirement benefits (see also Remuneration architecture, Board of Directors).