Christmas Bonuses?

An anonymous reader asks: "I run a small startup company who was able to turn a buck during this past year. To say 'Thank you' to the employees who put in so much time and effort to get us financially stable I would like to give them a Christmas bonus. However, I've never received one before, so what is appropriate? I have 5 employees and I want to give them all the same bonus, but while I can afford about $1500 a person, is that too much? Would gifts be more appropriate then money? What are some bonuses the Slashdot crowd has received in the past?"

Comments

My company

[Anonymous Coward]

At the engineering company where I work, Christmas bonuses are usually between 0.5x and 3x a full-month's pay, depending on performance (of the individual and the company). $1500 does not sound unreasonable to me.

happy, happy, joy, joy

[Anonymous Coward]

I happen to work for a great place that has, for years, given a flat 5% of yearly salary for christmas bonus for all employees. I return the favor with my loyalty and hard work.

Good for you!

[penguin_punk]

As a lowly emplyee, I highly respect the fact you are doing this. Congrats!

I've been at the same job for 3 1/2 years and three years ago I received about $400 I believe, and then $0 and $0, even though I got 'promoted' and we're making more money. It's a small company and I feel like shit because I also probably haven't received a raise in that long as well. Anyways, /end rant

$1500 sounds awsome!

Sales sharing

[the_other_one]

The company I work for has a sales sharing plan paid out every two quarters. Of course one of these coincides with Christmas. A portion of the revenues are shared equally among all employees with over a year of service. Employees under a year of service get a half share (prorated for the first half year). Fortunately we are having one of our best years ever and the summer bonus was excellent. The X-mass bonus is predicted to be even better. In the past the bonus has been both below and above $1500.00 CDN. Therefore the amount suggested by the story poster is in my opinion quite respactable. I do suggest that in the future the poster should tie the bonus to the company's performance by a mathematical formula so that there is a definite motivational reason for the employees to put forth that little bit extra.

The perfect gift!

[cybermace5]

Here's a real winner! Give each employee one of those round cookie tins with the different kinds of butter cookies. I really like the flat ones with crunchy sugar crystals on top. Since you give it to them at work, they can keep it there all for themselves and not have the kids inhale them within five minutes. The decorative tins also add a truly festive air to the office, well into July.

If that's not an option, then hand out bulk Christmas cards containing a $25 certificate for a small local restaurant. If they haven't ever heard of "Ma's Pasta Shop" so much the better, they'll welcome the push to get out and experience new things! They may even go back, having discovered a new favorite restaurant; the gift that keeps on giving!

Seriously though; employees really do appreciate a generous gift, and will remember it for the rest of the year. I'd suggest giving part of the gift in cash, maybe $750 to $1000. Also have some seasonal gourmet foods sent to their home address; Honeybaked Ham gift packs are always fantastically delicious, and Pittman & Davis oranges and red grapefruit are the largest and sweetest you'll ever see. Remember, it's not all about the employee's reward and morale boost. This is an opportunity to show his family that you care about both him and his family, and the workplace isn't just where Daddy stays late and comes home tired and grumpy.

Also remember to give the cash bonus well in advance of the actual holiday. Not only do you catch the potential celebrators of other religious holidays, but you give them a welcome shot of cash for the gift-shopping season, which is often very stressful for tight budgets.

Re:in Holland

[Pete (big-pete)]

According to my dutch friend, they give you at least 1 months wages.

Hmm - it might be the same as things are in Belgium though. Here we get paid a 13 month year, and the 13th month is at the end of November. It's not a bonus, it's part of our salary...

(Actually it's about 13.9 months a year, because we get a similar "holiday pay" in the summer - effectively we get paid double for holiday time, with half of the double pay being paid as if you're working during your holiday, and half in a lump sum in May or June...)

Bonuses are seperate to that...and at least for me are not paid around Christmas as we already have the boost from the 13th month. Do a web search for more info.

-- Pete.

Christmas Bonuses

[kb1cvh]

While once employed by a large financial company,
I've received and also allocated bonuses that were:
1) a percentage of my salary
2) a percentage of a pool allocated to my department
3) an extra paycheck
for percentages, a 5-10% of the monthly salary is was not unusual.

Money is much more useful then other gifts.

Thank you for being kind to your employees.

heh. I thought $1500 was kind of skimpy.

[Kevin Stevens]

Maybe I have just been lucky, but every company I worked for was big on bonuses. Like up to 40-80% of salary type bonuses. Most very successful firms that I have heard about work in this manner. Interestingly enough, these companies were also very successful and had workers that frequently worked 60+ hours a week somewhat willingly. *If* you are willing to be this forthcoming, I would establish bonuses distributed as a percentage of profit(which you would have to reveal to your employees). The system works so much better IMHO if they can directly equate hard work and profitability with money in their pocket in a guaranteed way. Parties, gifts, etc.. yeah those are nice tokens too, but come on now, cash is cash, whether its taxed to death or not. If your employess understand that the success of the company is directly linked to financial gain, your workers will love you, love the company and wont mind putting in longer hours when it counts.

Other thoughts on distribution:
Make it quality based- Good workers get more, bad workers get less.
Give more to the rank and file than to the managers, these things always get around somehow, and alot of faith is lost in the company when a worker feels that a manager, on top of already stealing their recognition for work done, is also getting a bigger share of the profits because of it.

Good xmas bonuses, bad xmas bonuses.

[gumbright]

Good bonuses I have received: 1) $1000 2) $5000 3) $10000 4) $25 grocery store gift certificate 5) Nothing (see below, as nothing is certainly better then the bad bonuses) Bad bonuses: 1) a box of the ugliest flowers (I use the term loosely) I have seen. They were from Hawii and had to be at least $100, I did a little research. 2) A (wait for it) small dietetic fruit/snack basket. And bad, sugarless, flavorless snacks at that. There are others, but the bad ones really stand out. The were both from a company that "Flip" used to run and sold to CA. I found them insulting and incredibly stupid. Better to have gotten nothing. To the original poster, $1500 is a very nice bonus. Its enough to make a dent in bills or to buy something nice. That makes it a good indication of appreciation.

Other ideas

[anomaly]

1001 ways to reward employees
by Bob Nelson, ISBN 1-56305-339-X is a good resource that might help you determine what to give.

Amazon link

Regards, Anomaly

Re:Give whatever you feel they deserve.

[Grotus]

I wouldn't call that a double standard. Power tools are generally a hobby for those husbands who recieve them as gifts, whereas vacuuming is a chore.

If it was considered OK to get the husband an iron so that he could iron his own pants/shirts, then yes, it would be a double standard.

Of course if there was someone who made a hobby out of vacuuming, a nice sporty vacuum cleaner would be an appropriate gift.