1. Dan Zambonini

    Technical Director at Box UK

    30 July 2003 11:41am

    Dan Zambonini

    What's the fairest method for rewarding internet designers, developers, project managers, etc.?

    We currently have a 'project related bonus' scheme, where, upon each large contract being signed, we (subjectively) estimate how effective/useful/commited each staff member has been since the last bonus, and reward each member accordingly.

    However, this has proved problematic - nobody is happy with the large subjective element.

    Ideally, we'd like a completely transparent scheme, where effort obviously (and measurably) contributes to reward. However, this only appears to be easy to measure for sales related jobs. We'd also ideally like to tie-in some kind of profit-related sharing, but this appears to limit rewards to once a year, or to the previous year's profit (and hence the amount of effort isn't immediately rewarded).

    I'm sure this has been solved many times over, so can anyone provide a tried and trusted solution?

    Thanks very much

  2. darrell wilkins

    co-founder at specialmoves

    31 July 2003 10:55am

    darrell wilkins

    Finantially rewarding some more than others is always problamatic. If not handled very delicatly it can lead to resentment and be counter productive. Subjective elements don't help your cause here because you can be sure that some of your people will believe they have worked much harder than they have.

    We've found that rewarding everyone equally and by lavishing praise on those that worked partially hard, everyone stays happy. We make it abundantly clear the reason that everyone is being rewarded is because Sarah, John and Sue have worked partially hard. This leads to everyone in the company congratulating them from the management through to the most junior of staff.

    If someone is consistently outperforming their peers then they can be rewarded through their salary rather than bonuses.

    Not exactly what you were looking for but that's what we do if it helps.
    -darrell

  3. Dan Zambonini

    Technical Director at Box UK

    31 July 2003 11:08am

    Dan Zambonini

    Hi Darrell,

    Thanks very much - that's very interesting. We had assumed that if everyone was rewarded the same, then the harder, more commited workers would resent being given the same as the not-so-hard workers. But as you say, that's what salary differences are for.

    Thanks very much,

    Dan

  4. Ashley Friedlein Staff

    CEO at Econsultancy

    31 July 2003 16:47pm

    Ashley Friedlein

    I'd agree with Darrell that trying to orchestrate complicated financial rewards as incentives is not the right approach. I think you can make an exception for Sales/Accounts people who might earn basic + commission - most people accept and understand the logic of this.

    For everyone else I think salary + appropriate praise and congratulations is the best. You could also add - for everyone - a yearly bonus which is based 50% on the company making its targets and 50% on the individual making his/her targets as agreed between him/her and his/her manager. These are often likely to be "soft" targets rather than financial ones.

    Job title used to be used as a non-financial carrot in the heady dotcom days when no-one really knew what job role was called what, or what each did. Even now there is no standard set of job roles with corresponding salary bands but it is a little clearer. And I don't think people are likely to be fobbed off with 'Senior Vice President of GIF-cutting-up' these days...

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