Introducing The Top Performers Bonus - Our Secret Sauce For Employee Rewards & Retention

Summary

• We’re announcing our Top Performers Bonus for our Innovators! This bonus constitutes an additional month’s (“13^th”) income granted each year to those who qualify
• The only qualification criteria is the team member’s engagement calculated by the number of hours spent on active client work and internal projects!
• The bonus vests over 9 months, with an initial cliff of 1 year, similar to the most common form of stock vesting at startups (ESOP) and equity bonuses in publicly traded companies
• While the bonus vests, the team member will already be working toward next year’s bonus

Why did we implement the Top Performers Bonus systems?

We designed a unique compensation program for our team members who decide to stay with ITMAGINATION for longer. We wanted to reward those whose performance makes a significant impact on ITMAGINATION’s growth and who are very engaged with the company.

Implementing the bonus system was done in careful coordination between our People & Finance departments. We decided to go for this very unique approach after studying different types of compensation plans that are on the market in both private and public companies.

We understand how important it is for our team members to feel rewarded for their commitment to staying with ITMAGINATION in the long run. This bonus comes to reward our top performers and to make sure we retain the knowledge, expertise, and best practices we build in-house for the long term.
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We wanted to implement a system that resembles ESOP in earlier stage startups or equity divestment in post-IPO companies, but with the employee’s best interest in mind.
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This is why our cliff is 1 year but our vesting schedule is over 9 months rather than the typical 3-year vesting period (post-cliff). This bonus program is one of a kind in privately held companies.
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Daniel Arak, Co-founder & Board Member

How does the Top Performers Bonus work?

Each team member working on providing services to our clients, e.g. Analysts, Developers, Designers, Engineers, Scrum Masters, or Quality Auditors is eligible for the bonus. You can find the “Top Performers Bonus” tag next to each job opening that qualifies for it, and a “Bonuses” tag next to each job opening that qualifies for performance-based bonuses.

The only requirement to qualify for the Top Performers Bonus is a minimum number of 1,848 working hours worked over the past 12 months (a typical calendar year has 2,088 working hours on average). That means all hours that are spent working on client projects, internal projects, and training & certifications will count towards the total number of hours that need to be fulfilled to qualify for the bonus. The bonus system takes into account time off and is adjusted for it.

The Top Performers Bonus is worth one month’s remuneration and is divided into 4 installments:‍

• 10% is paid at the end of the 12-month period,
• 20% is paid 3 months later,
• 30% is paid 6 months later,
• 40% is paid 9 months later

Naturally, while our team members collect their vesting Top Performers Bonus, they are already working towards the next bonus.

Here is a graphical represenation of how the longer-term bonus system looks like in practice:

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with our team! Go to the job opportunity you're interested in and contact the recruiter responsible for that role with the details that are available on the job openings page.

How does this benefit our team?

Our team can be assured that their additional efforts are being rewarded and they have the chance to earn an extra month’s income every year by fulfilling very simple and straightforward criteria as highlighted in the previous section.

A major driver and confirmation of our decision to implement the Top Performers Bonus is the feedback we had from our team through the Great Place To Work survey. While 73% of the team members are happy with their income, 40% team felt that there is room for improvement when it comes to sharing profits with them.
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We feel that the Top Performers Bonus addresses this point in an ideal way where we are able to recognize our most engaged team members and reward them very well!
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We’re sure that this kind of perk which is unique will build long-term engagement among our current employees and also attract more people to join us at ITMAGINATION.
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Dawid Łaziński – Co-Founder & Board Member

Grzegorz Kroczek, Senior Software Development Engineer had this to say about our new program:

I have been working in IT for many years and I have never seen such a great approach to employees on so many levels (bonuses, training, great programs for employees) as ITMAGINATION does. I have a lot of respect for the company and board for these initiatives.
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Above all, we have an amazing approach to employees as human beings. Every day I wake up and I like to get to work with a lot of eagerness and enthusiasm thanks to this 🙂

If you’d like to learn more about our benefits, learning & development programs, and more, don’t hesitate to check out our Careers page and get in touch with our team! You can also find more information about how people find working with us at ITMAGINATION on Glassdoor.

Not looking for a job yourself but know someone who would be a great fit? Make sure to check out our talent referral bonus program where you can recommend talent and earn!