Unachievable KPI's that effect bonus

ghutchison14078

ghutchison14078

ghutchison14078

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15 Apr 2010
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Hi folks,

Looking for some consensus on this:

My employer has recently overhauled the KPI's used to calculate performance, and in particular my bonus.

I am part of a 14 member field based service team (office print / production print equipment), our employer has brought in a new KPI that is activities per day (jobs per day basically).

In order to hit the KPI I must average out 4 jobs completed per day, however there is not enough work consistently available for every engineer in our team to make that target; the equipment has gradually became far more reliable over the years so doesn't require the same amount of maintenance also my company has also failed to win many large contracts recently so the number of devices under our care has dropped.

The way the other KPI's are weighted means that just a small dip in jobs per day has a dramatic effect on those other KPI's linked to it, for example not fixing a device first time, having to order a part to fix it or or taking longer to fix a particular model than my employer thinks is necessary.
A small dip in jobs per day will have a large impact on these other figures due to these not being "diluted" by doing lots of jobs per day.

In a nutshell, is it right/legal to KPI an employee on something that will all the hard work and skill in the world they cannot hope to improve due to external factors, and when such KPI has the ability to severely hinder their bonus earning potential?

Cheers
 
If you signed the new contract then you're a bit stuck.

When one company tried to do something similar, I refused to sign the new deal and when they tried to apply to new scheme to me - I fought back.

If you've signed it, you've agreed... you didn't have to sign it.
 
I’ve got site kpis, business kpis and additional kpis set by a team in Switzerland. Each level getting stricter and harder to achieve... so I feel your pain.

TBH I can see why people hate this target driven methodology but then I’ve also experienced work where there are no targets beyond keeping the boss happy and it’s no wonder those without targets end up dawdling, so to speak.

It sounds like they’ve gone too aggressive and need someone to flag the issue. In fact I bet they’ll already know if that many people are dropping below the requirement.
 
In a nutshell, is it right/legal to KPI an employee on something that will all the hard work and skill in the world they cannot hope to improve due to external factors, and when such KPI has the ability to severely hinder their bonus earning potential?
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You agreed to it!

Good lord, you aren't entitled to a bonus as a god given right. If you aren't doing enough work to be paid a bonus why should you be paid one? It's hardly your employers fault that business has slowed down. Would you rather your employer be forced to pay bonuses instead and become insolvent? :confused:

kindai said:
And probably grinning that they arent having to pay out to the scum of the company and the elite overlords get to pocket instead.
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Yeah because they're really gonna be lining their pockets when they are paying tens of thousands in unnecessary salaries...
 
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Do football players complain that they have bonus clauses for things like winning the Champions League when they have no chance?
 
Energize said:
You agreed to it!

Good lord, you aren't entitled to a bonus as a god given right. If you aren't doing enough work to be paid a bonus why should you be paid one? It's hardly your employers fault that business has slowed down. Would you rather your employer be forced to pay bonuses instead and become insolvent? :confused:
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Bonuses have turned into something different though. There are many reasons why companies offer bonuses now and depending on how and why they have been paid previously, it may have been an extension of his salary - so he would have had a right to it.

However, signing to agree to the change takes that away... unless OP wanted to argue that he was forced to sign it under threat of losing his job... but that's a much worse kettle of fish and only something you'd want to play if planning to leave the company.
 
I think unfortunately you’ve stitched yourself up by agreeing to it all. The time to voice concerns that KPIs were unachievable due to there being a lack of work to do was during that negotiation.
 
In my 'old' job (I start a new one next month) we had KPIs similar to this and they were changed several months ago to make the bonus harder to reach. This was bad enough in itself, but what I thought was worse was the target was frequently missed due to things outside of our control. A simple case of a customer forgetting about the appointment: so when you turn up it's now inconvenient, or they've gone to work, or gone out shopping - would hit your productivity, completion rates and therefore bonus.

You'd think it'd be random, but it'd often occur several times in a week, or even a day and then be ok for a while, but the net result was a massive hit on your quarterly bonus for something we had absolutely no control over.
 
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Thanks for the feedback an opinions fellas, I realise that I probably signed the new contract a tad hastily but when you've a wife with a new born at the time all I was really thinking about was job security.
I've no issue with being kpi'd on my work performance, just seems unfair that the most important kpi is utterly unachievable through no fault of my own.
 
Energize said:
You agreed to it!

Good lord, you aren't entitled to a bonus as a god given right. If you aren't doing enough work to be paid a bonus why should you be paid one? It's hardly your employers fault that business has slowed down. Would you rather your employer be forced to pay bonuses instead and become insolvent?
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Erm, ok. No I absolutely do not think a bonus is a "God given" right, however I do believe that the bonus targets should be in the realm of achievable.
Trust me when I tell you there is not an iota of a possibility the company paying out bonuses to the engineers would result in insolvency, my employer is a huge multinational company, a very very well known brand.
 
I once had a job running a team where one of my KPI's was based on the attendance of my staff. I had one female who was off work for months at a time due to various issues, HR refused to sack her so I never got a bonus.
 
My bonus is linked to lost customer hours, which i have 0 control over. It was recently changed to this, obviously as a way to stop paying the bonus which was always previously paid when it was linked to something else.

Do I like it? No. Can I do anything about it? No as it's just a bonus. Nothing to do with my actual pay.
 
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