No Bonuses for Simmons Partners
So their new bonus scheme was scrapped before salaried partners went home and fetched their Winchesters…
Last year Simmons introduced a bonus scheme for salaried partners that was dependent on the firm hitting budget. Since the firm failed to reach budget, none of the firm’s salaried partners qualified for a payout in 2008-09. A neat result for the FD perhaps but a nightmare for the managing partner.
Having dozens of pissed-off partners burning the ears of recruitment agents all over the City, is not ideal. So, recognising the potential difficulty, the firm has changed its policy to ensure partners get a fairer crack of the whip this year.
Not put off by that one, Simmons is now planning to implement a new associate pay model for 2010.
The firm is to abandon the post-qualification experience system in favour of a merit-driven regime and it also intends to review its associate bonus payment system. Currently based on billable hours, the firm is considering including a broader range of factors in the assessment, such as client relationships.
The potential pitfalls of qualitative criteria replacing quantitative criteria are pretty obvious – we discussed them here. And whether or not billable hours will actually become a less influential factor for progression/remuneration seems dubious, see our earlier post Billable Hours Survey Shows the Bleeding Obvious.
One thing is certain though, Simmons had better get this one right.
January 27, 2010
What on earth is a Winchester?
January 27, 2010
it’s a shotgun, i wasn’t aware of Simmons’ country squire rep.
January 27, 2010
in another post: anyone who has actually worked in a commercial firm can tell you that your partners only give a toss about your ’soft’ skills when you actually become one of them and have to bring in clients. Unless you are some kind of super associate with the rainmaking skills of an old hand; taking your foot off the billable hours gas in favour of other activities will only result in one thing. Consider any extra requirements as just that – extra!
January 28, 2010
looks like a scheme to control costs worked a bit too well. if the same happens to associates i can’t see them changing another new policy quite so readily