Christmas Bonuses

Do you guys do anything for a year end bonus? We throw out some fair bonuses considering the average wage around here, usually about a weeks pay. I was thinking about buying something they can use that won't cost me on the work comp end. Maybe gas or Walmart gift cards?

What do you guys do, or if employed somewhere, what do you get or want?

..... then Wednesday, my son and I will go shopping for our Christmas Dart Party, that's always held on the last work day before closing for the Christmas break.

There's around $3,000 stapled to a piece of ISO, in 100's, 50's, 20's, 10's and 5's.

Every $5 bill will also have something special attached to it. Maybe it's a folded 50 or 100 taped to the back, or a number written on it. If it's a number, then it goes to a door prize.

Door prizes vary from nice tool kits, flat screen tv's, gift cards, knife blade packs, crock pots, blenders.... whatever moves us when we are shopping. You cannot touch a door prize before picking it. There might be two identical ice scrapers on the table, and one might have a 100 taped to the under-side, one might have nothing.

Some years, guys can choose prizes in order of the number written on the bill. Other years, I have the prizes numbered too and you get the prize that corresponds to the number on the $5 bill.

I order a bunch of pizza, rent a conference room at a local hotel. Office staff comes and sometimes a supplier or two might show up with some door prizes. Everyone gets to throw darts. I pass around a can with numbers in it each round, and they throw in order of the number drawn. I have three darts, each one weighed differently, or with different fletching. Office and guests always throw for the hourly employee that has the number after theirs.

It's a LOT of fun, and everyone always looks forward to the "Dart Party". After the 2nd or 3rd round, I start moving fringe bills to the center to make for an easier target. Once it gets down to just 5 or so bills on the board, rather than draw for a full round, I'll start asking roof related trivia questions, and the first person to answer gets a throw.

Got the basic idea from someone on this forum years ago. I think was "Ansel".

Chipper1 Said:

Mike H Said: The bonuses are split into 3 segments: Seniority (7 years gets you to 100% credit) Attendence ( 100% for perfect down to 0% for 7 or more, if youre still employed) Strait hours worked, fair to everyone

So does your formula come up with a lump sum payment the employees? Say Joe qualifies for a $100.00 bonus. How do you pay that $100.00? Do you run it thru as a payroll check so that all deductions are covered? Do you do gift cards? Or other method?

Chipper,

The amount is paid through our payroll as a "bonus" which has a little higher tax rate, and is subject to be fully attached by child support and other court ordered withholdings. Early on in the program, I had guys that would have an entire bonus check eaten up in back child support. Now we have that completely gone. Only one guys with any, and I think it was only 400 some dollars remaining.

Was a crazy year. In August I was having doubts I'd even be open in October.... then it was like every outstanding quote in file got awarded in September and our guys just ROCKED the last three months of the year. Some bonuses for guys with seniority and and perfect attendance, while not our best ever they were pretty darn good...more than $3.50/hour worked over the year. I never would have dreamed we'd end the year as strong as we did.

PS: I also have a column for "discretionary" where I can add a little kicker to a particular forman/crew/individual that might have done something particularly contributory to the bottom line, but it doesn't get used much. I prefer the "we all sink or swim together" approach to our year end bonuses.

We do ours as a percentage based on company profits of coarse and length of service. The percentage amount we base on years with the company. We think it is more fair to give someone with five years with the company a higher percentage than someone with one year.

GKRFG Said: People should not take their job for granted or think that they are not replaceable. Long story.

It probably is a long story, but I replaced it with a story of my own which ended in a similar way. Later down the road, I'm happy to have him(and others) gone.

Mike H Said: The bonuses are split into 3 segments: Seniority (7 years gets you to 100% credit) Attendence ( 100% for perfect down to 0% for 7 or more, if youre still employed) Strait hours worked, fair to everyone

So does your formula come up with a lump sum payment the employees? Say Joe qualifies for a $100.00 bonus. How do you pay that $100.00? Do you run it thru as a payroll check so that all deductions are covered? Do you do gift cards? Or other method?

My son just finished up an eleven month electrical upgrade project which came in under budget so he asked his company's project manager if he could order some jackets for gifts for the crew. He convinced the project manager to just give him the catalog so the crew could pick their own style and size of jacket. It was more personalized and everyone got something that they will wear instead of letting it get dusty in their closet.

As for a Christmas bonus, I preferred the Jelly Bean Of The Month Club 😄

Woody: That's about what I give out, but a bit more for my guys who have been here a while. This year I'll probably throw a gift card and gas card in the mix.

Mike: I like it. I'd been thinking about setting up some type of system that the guys would know that absences have a direct impact on their bonus, but then we had a bunch of turnover. Two guys picked up a bad drug habit and I booted them, one being a foreman in training, another good one had to move to Cali. That put me down to only having two guys that worked here a year ago(plus me and Dad.)

It was a rough year as far as employees go, but now I'm happy with the last few hires. I'm thinking about getting a retirement plan to increase my retention rate, and probably will if next year starts looking as good as this year.

Shirleydavis: So what do you get?

Chuck: Last year I got some quickdry athletic socks. Now that's all I want for the 8 months of the year. Same with my quickdry(Underarmor knockoff's) type shirts for summer.

The wife writes a list of what the young ones want for Christmas, then looks up the cost of said items and writes it beside each item. At which time she hands it to me and I give it a good look over, choosing which items Santa will be able to deliver on. ( Mainly going by Mom's advice ).

Upon final inspection of said items, I come up with a total dollar amount and then the cost of Mom's Christmas gifts are added along with a new pair of socks for me. :laugh:

The amount that these totals equal is then computed and I write myself a bonus check in that amount! Which I cash and then of course hand directly over to Mom in it's entirety. :dry:

I do not get nothing for Christmas bonus.

Totally based on profits.

As of Nov. 30, I set 3% of sales aside as untouchable.

1/3, or more, of everything over that 3% goes to employee bonuses.

The bonuses are split into 3 segments: Seniority (7 years gets you to 100% credit) Attendence ( 100% for perfect down to 0% for 7 or more, if you're still employed) Strait hours worked, fair to everyone

I also use a divisor based on the number of weeeks a person was on payroll. ie: it's not fair to give the same bonus for perfect attendence to a full year employee as a 1 month employee.

For people with perfect attendence, full year on payroll, full seniority, the bonuses can be VERY NICE.

We are stringently drug free, fully safety compliant, have full family health insurance (carried through winter layoffs), a good 401K, and right now, I think over 60% of our workforce has been here 7 years or longer. All in all, it's a decent package if we're working 9 months of the year.

I give out Christmas bonuses of around $500. Usually about $200 of it is gift cards to Winco, a regional discount grocery chain. They are like the Costco for groceries and they sell the cards for 10% less than face value, so we buy a couple hundred dollars worth for us as well.