BC347 During its deliberations the Board observed that for a target to constitute a performance condition it needs to be both ‘within the influence’ of the employee and in the interest of the entity. Consequently, the Board proposed that the definition of performance condition should make clear that a performance target is defined by reference to the entity’s own operations (or activities) or the price (or value) of its equity instruments (including shares and share options).

BC348 In response to the ED, some respondents indicated that the reason why the performance target needed to be within the influence of the employee was unclear and found it to be contradictory to the proposed definition of performance condition. This is because in the proposed definition, the performance target was defined by reference to the performance of the entity, that is, by reference to the entity’s own operations (or activities) or the price (or value) of its equity instruments. Some other respondents also raised some difficulties that they expected to encounter when applying the proposed guidance. In this respect, the respondents stated that determining whether a performance target is within the influence of the employee would be difficult to apply in the case of a group of entities; for example, the profit or share price of a group of companies could be seen to be ‘remote from the influence of’ an employee of a particular subsidiary of the group.