“Your bonus system creates mistrust?” I repeated.
“It’s weird. You think if you give someone a bonus, that it will make them work harder. Like they weren’t going to work hard in the first place. Do you remember that contract that Joe has with his crew. When he explained, it almost sounded silly.
My contract is simple, my team comes to work every day and does their best.
“But if I pay a bonus, it destroys that. If I pay a bonus, it’s like I am saying, ‘Come to work every day and do less than your best. And if you do your best, I will give you a bonus.'”
Depending on what kind of bonus system one is utilizing, this thought may be correct. However, it is my understanding that a bonus would be to reward individuals who’ve worked hard and achieved certain financial goals for financial successes that the organization cares to share in, or the bonus would perhaps be another kind of reward for goals other than financial in which a team’s success is celebrated. Celebrating good work makes work fun, and I do not come from the old school where work should be work, something to suffer through and endure.
If you participated in team sports, you may recall working hard to achieve your goals (and learning how to do that). Sometimes you achieved a milestone that was deserving of a celebration, such as meeting up at the pizza parlor. Sometimes your team did not do their best and your coach made you run extra laps (I was in track) for an extended period of time, or something similar. And, sometimes you did your best and still got your butt kicked. Your coach was supportive and praising in spite of your defeat. If you learned anything, you did extra laps on your own. Othertimes, you just shouldn’t be in the position you are in. Is the problem the team, or is it the coaching?
Bonuses allow team members to feel they are a more integral part of an organization rather than just a number on an expense report. I guess it all depends on how your bonus system is set up. Of course, there is always the option of a ‘just be glad you have a job’ system too.
The sales team is out creating the backlog so everyone still has a job. I do understand why the sales team received bonuses. I just saw yesterdays post, so, I want to add to my comments, and I agree wholeheartedly that you should not overly reward a team for doing their regular job. The job is to deliver the product or service in an efficient and timely manner with the best quality and service. A bonus opportunity might be because you’ve asked your team to do that same job in half the time for a specific client, or maybe you’ve asked them to ramp up production operating at a higher level than normal performance for a specified period of time. However, if you ask them to operate at those levels all the time, you are going to burn them out. Problems will happen and the system will start to fail at some point.