On behalf of the partners, I would like to thank all of you for your efforts and commitment over the last financial year.
We have now finalized the discretionary Standard Bonus for the Bangkok office for the FY16 and the amount of your bonus will be viewable via My Self Service on 21 July. The bonus will be paid with your July payroll on 22 July.
As in previous years, our available discretionary bonus pool reflects the financial performance of the office over the last financial year and your allocation of that bonus pool is basically determined by your appraisal rating as a result of the moderated annual appraisal process (so is largely determined by your performance based on the appraisal criteria relating to clients, know how, financial management, partnership (etc.)) as well as your busyness and other economic indicators (for example, your salary multiplier). We also take into account the extent to which lawyers have made a particular contribution to the office and firm (for example, by business generation, showing versatility (by seconding or transferring to other offices, groups or clients) or by consistently exceeding expectations through out the year).
We introduced a minimum chargeable busyness threshold (of 75%) for the payment of associate bonuses for this year so as to be in line with practise in other offices. We are, given that this is something of a transitional year, going to pay a lower bonus amount to associates who are below 75% busyness and who have ratings of 3 and below rather than excluding those associates entirely from the bonus pool.
We are though going to impose a requirement for bonuses for associates in FY17 of an 80% minimum busyness level over the financial year. There will be some flexibility on this so, for example, if lawyers are less than 80% busy for the year due to specific reasons, for example, maternity leave or involvement in valuable business development or particular internal chargeable work, or if they have performed in an outstanding way, this will be taken into account. However, in the absence of these types of factors, you will need to have been at least 80% busy this year to be eligible for a discretionary bonus next year and this requirement will be strictly applied.
You should also please note that (i) the expectation is that lawyers will remain engaged in business development and know how activities (which is important for appraisal ratings) as well as meeting the minimum busyness requirements for bonus eligibility and (ii) over recording is obviously not acceptable.
Once again, thank you for your hard work over the last year.
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