[protonimitate]

My workplace recently started tying yearly bonuses to "performance goals" which are set throughout the year. I think the intention was to get employees more "invested" in their performance and value contributions. However, all it's done is make goal setting another set of hoops to jump through for HR. You can pretty set any goal you want, and as long as you have something on paper, management sees it as "good enough" and you still get your bonus.

I really loathe hr-mandated performance/improvement goals. Tying it to bonuses just created another level of stress to the whole process, and doesn't really add any value for anyone.

[roland35]

I have experience with the same setup - quarterly goals split between project goals and some training/process improvement type goals.

Most of the time it seems people just write down what they should be doing anyways, which defeats the purpose! In school "bonus" always meant going above the regular work (not that I am advocating tying additional money based on working more than your normal job - that seems like it would negatively effect morale over time!)