Half of Companies Can't Supply Bonus Comp. Paperwork

June 1, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Many organizations are good at communicating how bonus awards are computed and most share employees' progress against their performance goals, a new survey found.

A news release by Workscape Inc., a Marlborough, Massachusetts-provider of outsourced benefits and talent management services, and the Human Capital Institute (HCI), a think tank, said about one in five surveyed organizations failed to share this progress information. Sixty-five percent of companies share their bonus computation methodology.

Only half of the organizations stated that they have an “easily accessible history for all incentives and the decisions that were made to award them,” and 34% stated it would take days or weeks to put together documentation supporting each employee’s compensation plan, the announcement said.

“The results of our research are a bit disconcerting – while many companies know how to calculate bonuses based on performance, many cannot provide the corresponding documentation – at least not without considerable manual labor,” said David Turetsky, Workscape’s Director of Talent Management Strategy, in the news account. “In our experience, many of these reporting challenges can be addressed with a comprehensive, automated total rewards solution supported by a robust compensation planner that can track annual performance review-based salary increases and rewards as well as off-cycle compensation changes. With the appropriate programs in place, employers can more easily identify, reward and motivate top performers, drive higher performance, and strategically deal with unanticipated business fluctuations.”

The study was based on interviews with 10 “thought leaders” from across the country as well as a survey of HR professionals from 129 organizations.

More information is available at www.workscape.com/HCIsurvey .

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