Now, companies dole out staff bonus for anniversary, holidays

While a bonus payout for staff at Indian companies before Diwali has been in practice for years, some companies are now doling out hefty bonuses to celebrate significant milestones, such as anniversaries, of their existence. Besides, bonuses are being paid to celebrate festivals like Holi and Christmas, as also the year-end holiday periods.

At least two large MNCs (multi-national corporations), consumer durable major LG Electronics and technology giant IBM have decided to give birthday bonuses or milestone payouts to their respective employees here.

IBM said it will give USD 1,000 worth of stock bonus to each of its over one lakh employees in India as part of its centennial celebrations. The US-based company which will celebrate 100 years of existence on June 16 this year.

On the other hand, LG Electronics is also giving a birthday bonus to Indian staff. The South Korean major is celebrating its 53 years of existence in May. The birthday bonus will work out to be in the range of 200 per cent and 700 per cent of basic salary and would be given to all its over 4,500 employees in India.

In total, the company is giving six bonuses in a year. Apart from birthday bonus, the company is rewarding its employees by giving two half-yearly performance incentives, a Diwali bonus, a post-Diwali bonus and a retention bonus.

Earlier in December, internet major Google announced bonus for its 20,000 employees across the world. The announcement was made not to observe its birthday but to celebrate the year-end holiday season.

As a part of the bonus, Google staff received a USD 1,000 in hard cash as a holiday bonus -- totalling in total payout of USD 20 million for about 20,000 employees. According to HR experts, giving out bonuses to employees is a type of reward for them which even help companies in lowering attrition level. In this highly competitive environment, such an incentive will boost the morale of employees and motivate them to perform best to their ability.

The milestone bonuses are mostly given by the companies to their shareholders in form of special dividend or bonus shares. Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Capital will issue bonus shares to its shareholders this year to celebrate its 25 years of operations.

Earlier in 2009, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries had also announced a special dividend and bonus shares to reward its shareholders for successful completion of two of its projects.