Hi, we are a small IT consulting company that relies heavily on a small
workforce that tends to be in college (part-time). These guys are eager
and ready to learn. If you can deal with them being missing for a few
hours every day, it works great.
That said, I want to provide additional money to them without tying
myself to potentially high salaries that could hurt us when business
turns slow now and then.
I'd like to get your thoughts on my strategy.
First, are bonuses just a bad idea? Are higher salaries the way to go?
Right now we give them bonuses for writing articles, presentations,
referrals, after-hours work, a $1000 yearly educational allowance, and
15% self-directed study on-the-clock.
My goal is to have a company that can pay market rates for our salary,
and help our employees with other benefits. Once we grow larger I'd
like to pay above-market salaries. (Again, maybe a bad idea. Perhaps I
should dump bonuses and fringe benefits and just bump up salaries a
bit.)
So, we are doing well. Right now we have two junior-level consultants.
One tends to work on more overhead/internal work (not billable) and the
other we bill out for a high percentage of his hours.
If I want to pay a bonus, how would I go about it? Quarterly, yearly,
per-project? Should I base the bonus on an objective "hours work"
basis, or on a subjective "your overall impact on me and the business".
The fact that one guy does a lot of overhead work makes it hard to do a
bonus based on effect-on-profits.
Thoughts? I'd love to hear them!
|
