Friends Provident has restructured employees' annual bonus scheme to increase the potential rewards given, and improved the way targets are communicated. Under the new scheme, introduced to the workforce in July, the maximum bonus each employee can achieve has been increased by 20%.
Previously employees' bonuses primarily depended on the company's financial results with a small percentage based on individual performance. They have now been restructured to put more emphasis on individual performance and to include targets around the meeting of strategic goals and delivering customer service standards.
Employees will receive their first new bonus for the year 2008 in March 2009. However, this will based on their performance under the new measurements for the period July to December 2008. Friends Provident has also introduced quarterly updates online enabling employees to monitor the extent of their entitlement to an annual bonus.
Guy Holden, reward and benefits consultant at Friends Provident, said: "This information will let employees know where they are against targets and where they can expect to be at the end of the year so they have a better expectation of the range of the possible bonus they will get."