Year-end bonuses for UAE employees: What will decide if you get one or not

The Santa at office may be deciding who will get what by the end of this year but good news may be awaiting most employees in the UAE.

Year-end bonuses may be on your way as companies take stock of their businesses, and for the majority of the workforce 2012 should mark a sweeter ending than the year before.

There is no hard and fast rule when it comes to doling out bonuses as the amount maybe tied to performance metrics, seniority of the individual and can vary depending on the milestones met by the company.

But cheer on as many who didn’t get it last year can expect now and those who did manage being rewarded in 2011 may see bigger amounts being transferred to their bank accounts this time.

Economy is in a much better shape and businesses are doing better with higher confidence levels.

“Most companies decide on bonuses by the end of the year and it is paid either with January or February salary,” said the HR manager of a local company in Dubai.

“The approach to bonuses varies wildly between companies across different sectors. For most companies we are seeing a return to profits, so at a senior level bonuses would vary between 15-100 per cent of salary, with a norm being around 25 per cent. At a mid-level, we will typically see a token one months’ salary very often being the case, with a few enlightened firms having a much more measured approach to performance-related compensation offering up to 30 per cent of salary,” Toby Simpson, managing director at The Gulf Recruitment Group told ‘Emirates24|7’.

Agrees Konstantina Sakellariou, Partner, Marketing & Operations Director at Stanton Chase: “Bonuses depend on the sector, the performance of the company and the performance of the person. So, depending on the situation, people can expect bonuses. The size of the bonus also depends on the sector.”

Expectations are high as employees expect bigger bonuses this time. “[Our] salary survey (of March 2012) revealed that 63 per cent of UAE professionals expect to receive a raise by December 2012, of which 25 per cent look for a raise of more than 15 per cent. This is also reaffirmed by our latest consumer confidence index survey (November 2012) where 49 per cent of UAE professionals believe that their personal finances will become better in a year’s time,” added Suhail Masri, VP of Sales at Bayt.com.

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