About half of employers (45 percent) plan to alter their executive pay programs this year to strengthen the link between pay and performance, according to a new survey by Towers Watson, a global professional services company.

Another 55 percent of respondents are introducing or sharpening the focus on performance-based equity, and 50 percent of respondents are modifying metrics that determine incentive payouts. Although these changes are being implemented, only 2 percent of respondents report that they did not attain majority shareholder support regarding their most current say-on-pay votes.

"While companies have generally received strong shareholder support during the first two years of say-on-pay voting, most are far from complacent as we head into year number three," says Andy Goldstein, leader of Towers Watson's executive compensation consulting practice for the central U.S. "Even companies that received overwhelming shareholder support in 2012 are considering fine-tuning how they pay executives, and we're seeing the most activity among those receiving less than 90 percent say-on-pay support. That's a very high standard."