Insurance firm Kennedys is to abandon its bonus scheme in favour of salary rises for all, The Lawyer has learned.
Insurance firm Kennedys is to abandon its bonus scheme in favour of salary rises for all, The Lawyer has learned.
Senior partner Nick Thomas (pictured) wrote to all staff on Friday informing them of the new arrangement, which will come into force next year.
He wrote: “While it’s appreciated when effort above and beyond the call of duty has been recognised and rewarded after the event, the thought of a possible bonus payment does not motivate during the year.”
He added: “We’ve reached the decision that as the real impact of the present system is to reward sustained effort, this would be better reflected, going forward, by salary increases”.
The firm’s chief executive Rick Martin said Kennedys would put bonus cash aside in 2009-10 to give all staff a salary increase at the end of the year.
“It is nothing to do with the recession, Kennedys is doing very well,” he said. “It’s time to take a grip of this and reward properly rather than making it a massive bonus issue.
“The bonus system isn’t working for us and isn’t consistent with out ethos. We’re not a sweat shop designed to grind people down.”
What’s a firm’s biggest liability?
How can CC become the world’s top internationa law firm merely by ensuring that PEP is enhanced? By that logic, no firm with any international aspirations will ever be amongst the top firms – the white shoe american firms like Wachtell and Cravath are profitable because they don’t focus on overseas markets but that is a completely different mentality that is not what any of the English firms (with the possible exception of Slaughters) are about. CC has now a global reputation an an extremely chaotic and mismanaged firm. Just ensuring that partners make more will not add to any goodwill or rankings.