As lawmakers continue to debate legislating corporate pay reforms, a handful of companies have pledged to implement the recommendations of a task force calling for firms to voluntarily adjust their compensation practices to better link pay and performance.

Companies that have agreed to adopt the recommendations issued by The Conference Board Task Force on Executive Compensation include AT&T, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard Co., and Tyco International.

The Task Force, co-chaired by Rajiv Gupta, the former chairman and chief executive of Rohm and Haas and a Trustee of The Conference Board, and Robert Denham, a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, issued a report this week calling for companies to adopt five guiding principles for setting compensation:

1. Compensation programs should be designed to drive a company's business strategy and objectives and create shareholder value, consistent with an acceptable risk profile and through legal and ethical means. A significant portion of pay should be incentive compensation, with payouts demonstrably tied to performance and paid only when performance can be reasonably assessed.

2. Total compensation should be attractive to executives, affordable for the company, proportional to the executive's contribution, and fair to shareholders and employees, while providing payouts clearly aligned with actual performance.

3. Companies should avoid controversial pay practices-such as multi-year employment agreements providing for generous severance payments, overly generous golden parachute payments or benefits, gross-ups for tax consequences of parachute payments or perquisites, and golden coffins—unless special justification is present.

4. Compensation committees should demonstrate credible oversight of executive compensation, should be independent, experienced, and knowledgeable about the company's business.

5. Compensation should be transparent, understandable, and effectively communicated to shareholders. When questions arise, boards and shareholders should have meaningful dialogue about executive compensation.

The task force, convened in March by The Conference Board Governance Center, is comprised of corporate directors, shareholders, academics, and experts in compensation, governance, and law. Other signatories to the report include The California State Teachers' Retirement System, NASDAQ OMX Group, and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

The full report is available here.