Limited corporate Santa sightings - Bonuses largely flat this Xmas
Published:Sunday | December 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Steven Jackson, Business Reporter
A top investment house shelled out bonuses to some staff equivalent to 11 months pay in one of the most generous yearend reward schemes found within and without the financial sector, well-placed sources say, but for most companies there was no Santa surprise, Sunday Business checks show.
An executive at the New Kingston-based company, who commented on condition of anonymity, said the payouts follow a "good year" for the financial firm, though he refused to officially confirm or deny the size of the bonus packages.
So favourable that the entity's parent benefited from a 400 per cent rise in its profit on investments in associates to J$2.4 billion year on year.
Otherwise, bonuses for companies that paid them were mostly flat. Few, however, were willing to publicise the details of reward schemes for employees.
Interestingly, more Jamaican workers were expecting higher incomes - augmented by bonuses - this year than in the last two years, reflecting an expectant rise in consumer and business confidence.
Specifically, the June second-quarter 2011 Consumer Confidence survey produced by the Jamaica Conference Board revealed that 39 per cent of households were expecting their income to rise, up from 31 per cent in the previous quarter and the highest level in two years.
The big banks, which make the biggest profits among listed companies - J$13 billion for National Commercial Bank, and J$10 billion for Scotia Group Jamaica - did not respond for this story. NCB disclosed J$1.07 billion in profit share distributions to employees wrapped inside a staff bill that tops J$9 billion for year ending September 2011 - a drop from J$1.18 billion of profit share in 2010.
GraceKennedy Limited generous to staff
Large conglomerate GraceKennedy Limited is among the more generous to staff this year. The company, which employs around 2,400, announced that it too would pay most of its staff a larger bonus this year resulting from its 24 per cent jump in nine-month profit to J$2.14 billion. GraceKennedy staff also benefited from hitting sales targets in the year.
"With the exception of our food retail business, the division paid out higher incentives as the performance exceeded 2010's. The second scheme is our yearend incentive scheme that exists in corporate offices and the companies in our financial services division, these companies will also see a higher payout for 2011," said Chief Executive Officer Don Wehby.
GraceKennedy's bonus policy expanded from a yearend scheme to include a monthly scheme in an attempt to incentivise performance, said Wehby. Both schemes are based on the company's return on equity, but also individual performance, he said.
"Our policy is not cast in stone, so is ever evolving as we strive towards a performance-driven culture across the GraceKennedy group," said the CEO.
Chips and juice conglomerate Jamaica Producers Group expects flat bonuses.
"The performance bonus at Christmas time to general workers and staff is expected to be in line with last year," said Managing Director Jeffrey Hall.
Family-owned Wisynco Group, which has been hurt by new taxation on its energy drinks costing over J$100 million and a harsh economy, said the expected fall in profits in 2011 would result in less profit share for his staff.
"When the company has a good year the staff benefits. We pay 10 per cent of after tax profit to employees," said Managing Director William Mahfood. "In some cases, it is equivalent to three months of annual salary."
Wisynco "discontinued bonuses" and replaced it with a profit-share scheme years ago, he said.
Telecoms firm Digicel refrained from revealing specifics but said it operates a performance-driven bonus policy.
"Digicel's bonus structure is based both on the achievement of individual performance metrics - and on the achievement of company performance metrics. In the ongoing creation of a high performance culture, these metrics are typically quite stretching - but we find that our fantastic staff always rises to the challenges we set them as they seek to deliver the very best mobile experience to customers day in, day out," stated Antonia Graham, head of group public relations.
Lossmaker and rival telecoms firm LIME did not respond for this story.