At Teal Unicorn, we coach our clients to share bonuses.
You can only measure transactional workers not knowledge workers. Let me say that again: it’s impossible to measure an individual knowledge worker. All output is collaborative. (There may be exceptions but they only prove the rule. I’m keen to hear them.) So any bonus is inherently unfair.
You *can* measure an individual transactional worker (labourer, clerical, factory…), but it’s counter productive to bonus them too. You wreck takt, overproduce, and ruin collaboration and morale.
As if that weren’t enough, performance bonuses can be counterproductive.