Employees deserve meaningful recognition beyond their paycheck. From sign-on bonuses to year-end, spot bonuses, holiday bonuses, and more -- here's everything you need to know about employee bonus programs.
Bonuses are an additional form of compensation, beyond salary, given to employees to recognize and reward them. Bonuses can be cash, gift cards, allocated to perk stipends, or other gifts like movie tickets.
There are multiple kinds of bonuses. They can be awarded as a signing bonus, a one-off incentive for a job well done, or celebrating important milestones as an employee, such as a work anniversary.
Also, it's important to acknowledge that while bonuses are an excellent method of recognizing and rewarding team members' efforts, they do not take the place of effective leadership and intentional company culture.
What comes to mind when you hear "employee bonus"? Lots of things may come to mind as there are many different types of bonuses that can be given to employees.
Sign-on bonus
A bonus given to employees for signing as an employee to your company.
Referral bonus
A bonus given to employees who have referred a candidate who was hired by your organization.
A bonus given to employees "on the spot" or ad hoc for various reasons including winning a competition or a job well done. According to Salary.com, spot bonus awards are typically $50 and up.
Retention bonus
Also known as a "milestone bonus," it's a bonus given to employees recognizing work anniversaries, birthdays, or significant life milestones such as getting married or becoming a parent.
Year-end, holiday, or year-end bonus
Usually made up of year-end lump-sum payments used to reward an individual for hard work and goals achieved.
As with any form of compensation for employees, it's important to account for taxes when giving bonuses to employees.
No longer a bonus reserved for just the c-suite or Wall Street, sign-on bonuses are being used by tech companies to fill the roles which are most difficult to hire. If you have a candidate or a particular department where prospective candidates are often on the fence (due to hyper-competitive industry), a signing bonus might be the extra nudge your candidate needs.
As discussed by Jason Pankow in The Art of the Sign-On Bonus, companies might consider offering a sign-on bonus for the following reasons:
To bridge a gap. If what the candidate is asking for and what you are willing to offer is off by a few grand, this is a swell way to make up the difference.
To be competitive. If the candidate is considering another offer that is comparable or even higher than yours. Some money up front can be enticing.
To cover a performance bonus. Often, when interviewing, candidates won’t want to leave their current company until a certain time so that they can first collect their annual bonus. If we throw out a sign-on, we don’t have to wait for that.
Lost stock. Candidates may be hesitant to leave a company because they have stock that hasn’t vested yet. Sign-ons can help with this."
Read on: Why might an employer pay a signing bonus?
Often, when talent is scarce, many employers use recruiters to find candidates. These recruiters typically make 20 to 30% of the new hire's first-year pay. Instead of paying this money to an outsourced recruiter who may not know your culture or business model, employ your employees to help provide referrals they know to work at your organization.
Referral bonuses can range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands, depending on the difficulty of hiring the role and the seniority of the hire.
Read on: Are employee referral bonuses worth it?
Spot bonuses are excellent for "on the spot" incentives.
The example situations where a spot bonus would be fitting is typically tied to exceptional employee has performance on the job, such as if they filled in for a struggling colleague, achieving a very challenging but important goal for the business, or even by living the company's values. The average spot bonus amount highly varies depending on multiple factors such as the reason for the bonus and the seniority level of the recipient, but it can typically be anywhere from $50-$300.
Looking for an employee spot bonus software solution? Compt can help!
Often referred to as a bonus given to employees who either reach a specific milestone anniversary at your organization, or given to employees to keep them at your organization after an acquisition, merger, or organization restructuring.
Culture thought leaders (like HubSpot) are combining retention bonuses with more than just money, some companies are partnering them up with sabbaticals so that they can create highly attractive reasons for employees to stay at their company longer.
Read on: Retention compensation plans -- Please stay!
As people operations professionals become more strategic partners of the business, the ability and desire to innovate on old or out-dated HR practices have grown tremendously.
A new type of bonus emerging is a concept that is a mixture of bonuses and perks -- called perk stipends or lifestyle spending accounts. These stipends combine the two concepts to give employees money to put toward important life goals, needs, and anything that helps them live their best life. Examples of these include Qualtrics giving employees $1,500 a year to "try something new" and Microsoft giving employees $500/year as a "Stay Fit" perk.
According to PayScale’s 2018 Compensation Best Practices Report (CBPR) report, nearly three-quarters of organizations give some of their variable pay. If you're not yet offering some sort of employee bonus, it might be worth adding to your people strategy. Below are some of the reasons so many companies are adopting bonuses so that you can set up bonus programs that work:
People-first companies are moving to flexible perk stipends as a flexible way to support and reward diverse employee needs, without the HR administration work.
As with many compensation best practices, it's critical to begin with the right intentions in mind. Just like offering perks that keep your employees in the office longer is a maleficent approach to offering perks, the same thing applies to bonuses.
The list of do's and don'ts for bonuses best practices a long one, but we've compiled a list of the most significant things to consider when instituting a new bonus program at your organization below:
Don'ts:
Do's:
Before creating a bonus program for your organization, it's important to gather the most important elements
Collect the following data points to guide your bonus program creation:
The items above are the basic elements you'll need to begin drafting a bonus program. If you want help, connect with a Compt team member to talk through what a bonus program might look like at your organization.
Read on: How to Structure Your Bonus Program
We're here to talk through your company's current goals and challenges with keeping your employees engaged, and see if bonuses can help your company achieve greater success.