Non-consolidated payments can be a useful way of rewarding high performance, provided that people are know what is being rewarded and what they have to do to earn them. Their advantage is that, unlike basic pay rises, these rewards need to be re-earned.
Bonus schemes need to be sophisticated enough to improve desired performance, yet be clear enough to be easily explained and understood. As well as recognising past achievements they should also provide an incentive for future performance and keep people engaged.
We have set up incentive schemes in a variety of settings, for executives and professional staff and for clerical and manual workers.
We aim to design schemes that meet these objectives without the need to create complex and costly systems to operate them. Your bonus scheme should be self-financing and ideally be set up so that if targets are exceeded, both the organisation and employees should benefit from the increased performance.
We will test and model the costs and benefits of the scheme before you launch it so that you can consider the impact not only of expected performance, but also in best case and worst case scenarios. Well-designed schemes will ensure that organisations are not committed to payments that they cannot afford in a downturn; they will also guard against excessive rewards when things have gone unexpectedly well.
Schemes can be linked to individual, team or organisational performance – it depends on what behaviours and performance you are looking to encourage and reward. As long as there are ways of objectively measuring the performance to be incentivised then we can design something suitable that dovetails with the other aspects of your reward strategy.
Finally, remember that reward doesn’t have to be about money. You can acknowledge success either through a formal recognition scheme with gifts such as cinema vouchers or dinner out, or more informally with employee awards.
We can help to design whichever approach suits your organisation. We can also help to communicate it to your staff and to those who will operate it.
