Could your next bonus be decided by your colleagues

Every company has an unmotivated employee that consistently that does not pull his or her weight, often dragging the team down.

One way to engage these indifferent staff could be to change the traditional bonus structure. A start-up called Bonus.ly uses a Web platform to offer a different approach to employee recognition, reward and collaboration.

“When workers feel recognised, they will perform better, work harder and are more motivated,” said Raphael Crawford-Marks, co-founder Bonus.ly, told the Los Angeles Times.

The model works like this:

To begin, employers decide on a bonus budget for the peer recognition programme, with companies being able to use financial incentives like an overseas trip instead of hard cash. Once it is set, each team member gets a monthly allowance for granting peer bonuses.

Each member then reward each other for their work in the form of peer bonuses and praise. The  bonuses come in set levels, starting from $20, with increments of 10% of the employee’s total  budget.

At the end of the month, employers pay out employee reward bonus balances. With the bonuses given by peers, there is a sense of transparency as employees know exactly why they got the award. The top performers can also be highlighted.

Bonus.ly was piloted by Oracle in November. Of the 78 team members involved, 78% engaged in giving and 94% engaged in receiving.

“The employees competing for peer rewards are motivated by the recognition itself," Crawford-Marks said. “The praise I give is almost equal to the praise I get from a manager or someone in senior position.”