hatchet said:
Here's another way to look at it if you base it on company wide profits - if one job loses money is it fair to the jobs that made money to get their amounts reduced?
It depends...
I think bonuses should serve to reinforce the bonusee's desire to accomplish what the bonuser wants to get done - in the strongest way possible. I also think the bonuser needs to take into account what it is the bonusee has control over. I think it's counterproductive to tie bonuses to criteria that a bonusee can't affect in a practical and direct way.
For instance, does my backhoe operator have control over company wide profits? The answer is clearly, no. If you ask the same question about the estimator then the answer begins to get less clear. In my mind, a bonus based on company wide criteria is one that serves, primarily, to promote teamwork. After all, is there really a single individual that has control over that result?
Some of the things my back hoe operator has control over include: his work attitude; the condition of the backhoe; the extent to which things that he digs around do, or do not, get damaged; the safety of workers in the trench, etc. Some of the things the estimator has control over are accuracy of cost estimates; frequency of awards; timeliness of bid submissions; volume of estimates submitted, etc.
I'm not sure what it is that a "seasonal" bonus promotes - respect for humanity?