It's Bonus Time! (Or not)

Outside of Wall Street, holiday bonuses are on the wane, says the Christian Science Monitor. But that could change if the job market stays tight:

John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, finds that, increasingly, employees have an edge because of the tight labor pool. Noting that this has been a good year for performance, he says, "We expect more companies will be sharing more of that with their employees." Even so, he adds, "Companies are much more careful today about keeping the bonuses in a reasonable frame. There's some caution out there, because the economy is slowing. Next year might not be as strong."

Still, Bob Kustka, president of CHR Partners, a human resources consulting firm in Norwell, Mass., expects changes: "Bonuses are going to come back into vogue in the next few years as the war for talent heats up," he says. "The new workers entering the workforce, the millennials, will be harder to keep. They don't have the same level of loyalty [that] previous generations had. Therefore organizations will be looking for innovative ways to keep those workers." Already he sees gaps in accounting, engineering, and nursing.

For companies that do give bonuses, staffers want a little clarity in how their amounts are determined. Employees, said one outplacement specialist, "want to be treated fairly and have clear expectations."

The vanishing holiday bonus [Christian Science Monitor]