By using Apprenticeforums services you agree to our Cookies Use and Data Transfer outside the EU.
We and our partners operate globally and use cookies, including for analytics, personalisation, ads and Newsletters.

  • Join our UK Small business Forum

    Helping business owners with every day advice, tips and discussions with likeminded business owners. Become apart of a community surrounded by level headed business folk from around the UK


    Join us!

Staff Bonuses?

Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
For those of you who are in charge of deciding wages etc, do you give bonuses to your staff?

My staff are paid an hourly rate (a fair amount) and then a bonus for each project that they complete, depending on the feedback that they receive from the client. It isn't the best system, because some clients are more harsh than others, but I can't think of any other way to do it at the moment!
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
Our staff earn per lesson. I won't disclose the exact amount, but say they earned £10 per lesson (they don't) they would give £2 to us for the running costs of the building. We also sell refreshments and musical equipment which helps boost our profits, and our staff get a good hourly rate.

Bonus wise, I like to set certain "challenges" for our staff. They seem to find it fun! Such as the person who has the most exam passes gets a bonus, or the person who recruits the most new players (they all go into schools and give little concerts) gets a bonus. The "bonus" is receiving their lesson fee back for the term. Considering they can give 50 half hour lessons a week, that's £100 a week, 10 weeks in a term.. so whoever wins the challenge of the term gets quite a nice bonus! Sometimes they're silly things, but that's the kind of company I run. They make plenty of money from the lesson fees alone, I teach myself so am not looking for profit - we only take a small amount to cover the running costs of the building and that alone. So the bonuses work very well!
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
Our staff earn per lesson. I won't disclose the exact amount, but say they earned £10 per lesson (they don't) they would give £2 to us for the running costs of the building. We also sell refreshments and musical equipment which helps boost our profits, and our staff get a good hourly rate.

Bonus wise, I like to set certain "challenges" for our staff. They seem to find it fun! Such as the person who has the most exam passes gets a bonus, or the person who recruits the most new players (they all go into schools and give little concerts) gets a bonus. The "bonus" is receiving their lesson fee back for the term. Considering they can give 50 half hour lessons a week, that's £100 a week, 10 weeks in a term.. so whoever wins the challenge of the term gets quite a nice bonus! Sometimes they're silly things, but that's the kind of company I run. They make plenty of money from the lesson fees alone, I teach myself so am not looking for profit - we only take a small amount to cover the running costs of the building and that alone. So the bonuses work very well!

It sounds like you run a really fun place over there. I expect it makes the staff quite competitive so they perform better, too, right?
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
It sounds like you run a really fun place over there. I expect it makes the staff quite competitive so they perform better, too, right?

Yes, they do tend to. But the great thing about it is that it is really friendly. For example, whoever wins the bonus always takes the rest of the staff out for a meal at the end of the week, so they all benefit from it. I can't even remember how that started, but it's a bit like an unwritten rule now, I can't remember the last time that wasn't done. I certainly do very well out of it anyway!
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
Yes, they do tend to. But the great thing about it is that it is really friendly. For example, whoever wins the bonus always takes the rest of the staff out for a meal at the end of the week, so they all benefit from it. I can't even remember how that started, but it's a bit like an unwritten rule now, I can't remember the last time that wasn't done. I certainly do very well out of it anyway!

Sounds fun. It's interesting to try & think of ways that something similar could work in our office, but everyone has slightly different jobs so I don't know how I'd quantify the successes.. if that makes sense.
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
Sounds fun. It's interesting to try & think of ways that something similar could work in our office, but everyone has slightly different jobs so I don't know how I'd quantify the successes.. if that makes sense.

You'd have to set specific aims that would relate to everyone. You're in publishing, right? So maybe the person who secures the highest number of publication deals in a month.. I don't know, I don't understand your business entirely, but there must be something that you could do.
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
You'd have to set specific aims that would relate to everyone. You're in publishing, right? So maybe the person who secures the highest number of publication deals in a month.. I don't know, I don't understand your business entirely, but there must be something that you could do.

Yes it's editing rather than the publishing side of things. We don't choose what gets published. Some smaller publishers use us to edit their books, or authors who plan to self publish will use us. But because the books and the projects vary so widely I'm not sure what we'd be able to do.
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
Yes it's editing rather than the publishing side of things. We don't choose what gets published. Some smaller publishers use us to edit their books, or authors who plan to self publish will use us. But because the books and the projects vary so widely I'm not sure what we'd be able to do.

Do you ask for feedback from the clients when the work is done? You could reward for the feedback, or percentage of positive feedback if not everybody has the same number of jobs to do?
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
Do you ask for feedback from the clients when the work is done? You could reward for the feedback, or percentage of positive feedback if not everybody has the same number of jobs to do?

We do send feedback forms, but they don't all bother to send them back, there's nothing in it for them, so I'm not sure that would be the fairest way to go about things.
 
R

Robert Frost

New Member
Hadn't thought about bonuses, but as a hotel I'm thinking it won't work that way per say we'll work more on tips from the clients if they feel generous enough to leave any. Actually may start a slight different thread with the question I have on this
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
Hadn't thought about bonuses, but as a hotel I'm thinking it won't work that way per say we'll work more on tips from the clients if they feel generous enough to leave any. Actually may start a slight different thread with the question I have on this

Tips will work well, as I am sure that a lot of people leave money in the room for the cleaners, or will tip the waiting staff in the dining room etc. You would have to decide how to deal with the tips though, like who would get them. The people who they are handed to, or would they be put in a pot and split up? If the former, people like the chefs wouldn't see any of it, which would be a shame.
 
M

Mike Turner

New Member
I have a little bonus system but we're quite a small business really. My staff (all two of them) get a wage, and then a small bonus of whatever work they complete during the day. So if profit after expenses are £40 on a job, they will get £2 of it. It might not sound like much, but they get their wage as well, and it always adds up. I pay them in November so that they can put it towards Christmas . Or if a member of staff leaves they'll get whatever they're owed there and then.
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
I have a little bonus system but we're quite a small business really. My staff (all two of them) get a wage, and then a small bonus of whatever work they complete during the day. So if profit after expenses are £40 on a job, they will get £2 of it. It might not sound like much, but they get their wage as well, and it always adds up. I pay them in November so that they can put it towards Christmas . Or if a member of staff leaves they'll get whatever they're owed there and then.

I do think that's a good idea, because it gives your staff the motivation to work hard and get things done as quickly as they can. And, of course, that would mean that your customers are more than happy because they would be getting their vehicles back much quicker than they might have done if there wasn't that incentive. Even a few pounds a day would add up over time to make quite a nice, attractive bonus by the time Christmas comes around, so that's definitely a good idea.
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
I have a little bonus system but we're quite a small business really. My staff (all two of them) get a wage, and then a small bonus of whatever work they complete during the day. So if profit after expenses are £40 on a job, they will get £2 of it. It might not sound like much, but they get their wage as well, and it always adds up. I pay them in November so that they can put it towards Christmas . Or if a member of staff leaves they'll get whatever they're owed there and then.

I like the thought of awarding your bonuses just before Christmas, as there are a lot of people who suddenly realise that it's going to cost them a fortune yet they haven't managed to save up anything through the whole year so far, so this must come as a bit of a welcome relief to them. Do you find that you struggle for business a bit over Christmas? Surely people wouldn't book their cars in Christmas week as they would have too much to do? So it would help things to tick over a little as well!
 
L

Lauren Turner

New Member
I sometimes hire people to help me with my stalls on a weekend if I think it's going to be busy. If I'm making personalised items it's great to have a helping hand to write down the orders and things like that, so that's good. I usually just ask one of my nephews to do it. The oldest one is 12 so the chance to earn £10 pocket money for a couple of hours (which is fun for him anyway) is great, and I always let him make something that he can take home, too. If I had actual staff I would be much more likely to offer performance based bonuses than anything else, because it gives them something to work towards. Not easy in all businesses obviously, as it depends what you do, but on the whole I'd think that it would work.
 
Gemma Rowlands

Gemma Rowlands

New Member
I sometimes hire people to help me with my stalls on a weekend if I think it's going to be busy. If I'm making personalised items it's great to have a helping hand to write down the orders and things like that, so that's good. I usually just ask one of my nephews to do it. The oldest one is 12 so the chance to earn £10 pocket money for a couple of hours (which is fun for him anyway) is great, and I always let him make something that he can take home, too. If I had actual staff I would be much more likely to offer performance based bonuses than anything else, because it gives them something to work towards. Not easy in all businesses obviously, as it depends what you do, but on the whole I'd think that it would work.

Oh it must be so good to be able to have your family help you with the things that you love to do! And that amount of money is great for a child of that age, it must feel as though they're rolling in it by the end of the day :). Performance based is good I agree, just so long as all staff members have the same level of chance to pull the performance levels in, if that makes sense.
 
P

Pete Brindle

New Member
I sometimes hire people to help me with my stalls on a weekend if I think it's going to be busy. If I'm making personalised items it's great to have a helping hand to write down the orders and things like that, so that's good. I usually just ask one of my nephews to do it. The oldest one is 12 so the chance to earn £10 pocket money for a couple of hours (which is fun for him anyway) is great, and I always let him make something that he can take home, too. If I had actual staff I would be much more likely to offer performance based bonuses than anything else, because it gives them something to work towards. Not easy in all businesses obviously, as it depends what you do, but on the whole I'd think that it would work.

Family businesses are the best way to go. And it also means that they would be able to get some kind of work experience, even though you probably don't think it's all that much. It's something he could put on his CV in the future, at the very least on college applications and things like that. They can be useful!
 
M

Mike Turner

New Member
I do think that's a good idea, because it gives your staff the motivation to work hard and get things done as quickly as they can. And, of course, that would mean that your customers are more than happy because they would be getting their vehicles back much quicker than they might have done if there wasn't that incentive. Even a few pounds a day would add up over time to make quite a nice, attractive bonus by the time Christmas comes around, so that's definitely a good idea.

It does; and it makes them want to get hold of more jobs as well, so they'll take the time and effort to advertise the business a little bit, getting mates to come in and get their cars done with us, etc. So as far as we're concerned it's a great thing and it works well, for us and for them.
 
Top