Originally Posted by
Waterhorse
I mentioned the PM's pay to highlight the fallacy of the argument over CEOs and city bankers and others pay being down to their level of financial responsibility. Given that many who post here earn more than the PM yet feel fully justified in their bonus and salary levels while telling others they are not worth it, I thought the hypocrisy worthy of highlighting.
The bonus pay issue was again to highlight that given record levels of profit no All Colleague Bonus was paid. The whole purpose of a bonus is to incentivise the workforce. There is no right to a bonus but the point is that given record profit levels and no bonus, the scheme serves to disincentivise and demoralise the workforce - hence the first pilot strike in BA history. We are not dealing with stellar quality management. Irrelevant, obviously, for this year but serves to illustrate how poor management thinks - record profits but dont let the workers share in that success.
I'm in two minds of bonus schemes that share wider company success with employees rather than indiviual/team achievement bonuses. Often one has no relation to the other and in some sectors (e.g. public sector) things such as profit/financial success do not exist anyway.
Genuine question. Are there no share schemes within BA/IAG? This to me is maybe the best way of enabling staff to buy into the company at favourable rates (or recieve # free shares) and share in that success. If the company is doing well than maybe set the discount higher. This is also a cheaper way for the company to improve the renumeration package as a whole as it doesn't cost actual money, it also gives staff a greater attachment to the company.
IMHO, most bonuses should provide incentives to do a better job. In some jobs it's irrelevent (e.g. flight crew) and as such a bonus system is probably inappropriate, in some it is noticeable but less tangible (e.g. cabin crew - a proper bonus for golden tickets/good customer feedback would be a great scheme), in others it can be directly measured as someone performing better than their peers or exceeding targets.