How much of your compensation should be performance-driven?

Our reader poll today asks: How much of your total compensation are you comfortable having tied directly to your performance as variable compensation?

– 80% to 100% — I want almost everything tied directly to my performance: 5%

– 50% to 80% — I want a base salary but prefer that the majority of my compensation be tied to my performance: 17%

– 20% to 50% — I like predictability, but having some performance upside is attractive: 57%

– Zero to 20% — I prefer completely predictable compensation: 21%

Predictability matters. Clearly, people want something they can count on from month to month. Almost 80% of you want the majority of your compensation to be predictable and also desire some performance-based upside. The small minority of respondents who want to take bigger bets on themselves are clearly more comfortable sacrificing predictability for upside. It will be interesting to ask this question again when the economy recovers because there’s probably bias toward predictability these days, when simply having a job is all most of us could wish for.

Do you agree with these poll results?  Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.