How is bonus determined?
How is bonus determined at your company? Your individual performance or the company's performance? My employer doesn't do bonuses so I'm curious to know about how it works in the private sector
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Microsoft plkfcbu Sep 5, 2018
Performance based bonus at MS of which percentage and target bonuses are based upon your level. What you receive is based upon your individual performance. No bonus or stock if your performance is rated 60% of target, also if it's zero rewards, you better start looking for a new job. 180%+ of target usually equates to max stock and being considered a rockstar. At a previous company it was purely a bonus based on company performance and everyone got the same percentage up to 25. At another company, no bonuses, ever.
We have 2 bonuses - one paid every quarter based purely on company profitability. Another paid annually based on a combination of company financial performance and your business group goals. The quarterly payment is calculated in "days of pay" (e.g. everyone in the company gets 5 days of pay this quarter) so your bonus goes up as your pay does. The annual payment is calculated as a multiplier based on the goals set (e.g. client group has a 3.2x multiplier, data center group has a 2.9x multiplier - they should all typically be around 3 +/- a few tenths of a point). That multiplier is then applied to your individual target, which will range from 1% of your base pay for an entry employee to ~15% for a senior individual contributor or manager. Your target increases with both grade level and performance and is adjusted each year along with your annual raise. It typically only gets adjusted up, not down (much like base pay) but the size of the increase is tied to performance. It's not like you will be 5% one year 7% the next and 3% the year after... you will typically move up the scale on small-ish increments every year.
If you consider stock awards a bonus, then you get those annually based on performance. You either get 0, .25x, x, 1.5x or 3x depending on performance - with view toward long term performance as opposed to short term deliverables. X is based on your grade level (and typically not a very exciting number until you get to senior levels). Lower grades can only get 0 or x.