Technology consultancy Bluefin Solutions has implemented a combination of individual and team-based elements to reward staff and ensure everyone benefits from the overall prosperity of the business.
HR director Gemma Bullivant says most employees take part in a profit-share bonus scheme, but those working in sales-related functions have their own arrangements.
"We have quite a tailored bonus structure for our marketing team, who are targeted on a team basis for the number of sales leads that they achieve through the marketing activity that they do," she explains.
"That's a shared approach, and we then have to think about what we do with their individual KPIs, so things that they are individually responsible for, over and above the team target. That just would not work in finance or HR because it's very specific to an output that they have."
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Do performance incentives work?
This also applies to the senior consultants, who take on more of a business development and client-handling role in the absence of a specific sales team.
"We don't have salesmen with shiny shoes knocking on doors and selling a great idea and then handing it over to a team; the people who talk to the clients are those who actually start working on the project," she says.
Everyone else in the organisation, though, gets their share of the overall pie, and Bullivant believes the simplicity of that is essential. "Bonuses can get incredibly complex," she says.
"The moment people just don't understand what they're doing it for is when they can serve the wrong purpose."
She admits that this has on occasion caused some tension, however.
"We have had one of two who believe they shouldn't be held back by others who aren't performing. But we're extremely focused on teamwork and collaboration so it makes sense that we're all in it together."
Further reading:
How to strike the right balance between team and individual rewards
