How do you handle End of Year Bonuses?

[Joe Marconi]

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[mspecperformance]

This year I am giving away things that have take home value as Bob Cooper likes to call it

 

One of my techs loves going to the movies so one of his bonuses will be a gift card to the movies. Every time he goes to the movies and use the gift card he'll think, "hey my boss is a pretty good guy"

 

One of my techs has a new born baby, I'm probably going to give him among other things a Babies R Us gift card. Also he really loves his professional as an auto tech and has a passion for the business. I saw him eyeing a nice jacket from Mac Tools. I may get one of those for him too. Maybe get some of his patches sewn on for him since he likes to walk around with his ASE and shop patch.

 

Money is a great bonus however its fleeting. Its seen once and its gone whether they use to to buy something or they put it in there bank account they will hardly ever think about it again.

[flacvabeach]

The bad thing about money bonuses is that there is no way to evade the taxman, so a $100 bonus is $70 in your employee's pocket and about $117 out of yours, but we do money because that is what most of our folks need at Christmas time. We put it in their check a couple of weeks before Christmas so they can spend it as they please. I like the gift card idea, but (call me paranoid) I don't like things I would have to explain in an IRS audit.

[alfredauto]

How much bonus is appropriate if giving cash? A weeks pay?

[thetireshop]

Unfortunately, the owners stopped giving bonuses. We used to get them and they were appreciated. The owners say they apply more money to our 401k plans, but not everyone participates in the program. I know the younger guys, the ones with little kids and all the expenses thereof could certainly use the additional cash. I've been around for a long time, but even I appreciate the money and the gesture more than a 401k contribution. I don't know, it just feels like a thumb in the eye.

[Aftercrashman]

Salaried, hourly with or without an incentive tied to it we seem to cover the gamete when it comes to compensation plans at our facility seeing how we run a collision repair division along with a preventive maintenance general repair center and the easiest thing we seem to all agree on is that year end holiday bonuses are done based upon a percentage of gross income regardless of who you are on that food chain. This year we did a 1.5% so on a 80K they received a gross check of $1,200.00 and a 20K helper picked up $300.

 

These percentages do have targeted numbers tied to them within the operation that each person in each department has complete access to and within your area of the operation you have control over with obviously the seasoned staff members begin watching on January 1st.

[328ijunkie]

Took everyone on a Ski trip!