Incentive Compensation for Contractors - Audience Questions: Edge Cases?

There will always be people in the organization working at the edges of your performance bell curve and that must be addressed with your incentive compensation program.

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Contributors Sue Weiler-Doke David Brown

For example: One Project Manager may be contributing 2X or more of the profits than their next closest peer. Do you reward them in their compensation based on that performance level? For the PM that is at the bottom of that bell curve, how do you reward them?

First of all, look at several criteria when evaluating. Here are five broad categories as an example:

  1. Current production within the the scope of their current role, as in the example above.
  2. Contributions outside the scope of their current role. Are they anticipating needs, helping others, and stretching themselves?
  3. Is there future runway for growth in their current role and beyond?
  4. Team player: Do they integrate well with others?
  5. Team developer: This is the ultimate multiplier. Are they building others that can meet or exceed their own high production standards within the role?

When assessed across all five of these criteria. the bell curve narrows significantly. Too frequently, the person that is the highest performer at #1 may be the best at the others. If they aren’t developing others or if they are alienating the rest of the team, their incentive compensation should reflect that.


In this video series, Courtney Stearns, Sue Weiler-Doke, and David Brown discuss the most common questions we get from contractors about incentive programs, including a bunch of great questions from the audience.

This is Part 17 of a 20-Part Series


Topics Covered in the Series Include:

  • Mitigating the Talent Shortage
  • Calculations
  • Culture
  • Behaviors
  • Alignment

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Incentive Programs for Contractors
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Incentive Programs for Contractors
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