ROC Recruitment & Retention Bonus Policy

ROC Recruitment and Retention Bonus Policy

ROC may provide bonuses to recruit or retain employees in hard-to-fill positions or in times of mass vacancies.

A recruitment bonus is a lump-sum payment, which is not a part of an employee’s base salary, paid to recruit a new employee into a hard-to-fill position. A recruitment bonus may be a sign-on or hiring bonus paid to a new employee or a referral bonus paid to a current ROC employee with tenure of six months of good-standing, in-agency employment, to recruit a new employee. Recruitment bonuses are subject to state and federal taxes and withholding.

Recruitment bonuses must be used only in circumstances where there is a need to fill a position or positions and usual recruitment methods are demonstrated to be unsuccessful. The following factors will be used in determining whether a recruitment bonus is appropriate:

• Description of recent efforts to fill the position(s) or substantially similar position, including the number of qualified applicants, recruitment methods utilized, why job offer was declined, etc.;
• Turnover history, number of existing vacancies, frequency, length of vacancy;
• Labor market data factors such as information indicating the availability in the labor market of the skill level/professions being recruited, current market rate of pay of occupation and unemployment rate;
• Special qualifications such as education, experience, skillset, or licensure/certification, which make the position more difficult to fill;
• Availability of salary dollars within the agency to be utilized for this purpose; and
• Fiscal standing may be improved by implementing such efforts.

New Employee Sign-on Bonus

Before a sign-on bonus will be paid to a new employee, the sign-on candidate must sign a written agreement to complete a specified term of employment with ROC. Should the new employee fail to complete the specified term designated in the agreement, the sign-on candidate must repay the portion of the bonus attributable to the incomplete period. [For example, if the specified term of employment is one year, and a new employee completes only six months, the new employee who received the bonus would be responsible to repay fifty percent of the recruitment bonus.] The new employee having received a sign-on bonus will only receive credit for complete (whole) months of services.

*Rates are subject to change based on program need.

Current Employee Referral Bonus

Before a referral bonus will be paid to a current employee in good standing with ROC, the new employee must complete a specified term of employment with ROC, paid to a current ROC employee with tenure of six months of good-standing. The standard time-period approved is six months following the new employee’s official hire date; however, this time period may be altered by the CEO, depending on the nature of the situation and need of the organization. The time period designated may be no longer than one year following the new employee’s official hire date. The referring employee’s proposal must also be approved by the CEO. The new employee must provide written documentation, designating the full name of the current employee by which they were referred for initial employment. The referring current employee must also provide written documentation, designating the full name of the applicant/new employee to whom they are referring. Both documents must reflect corresponding names in order for the bonus to be paid to the current employee. Additional and more specific guidelines for referral bonuses are outline below:

• Hiring of a referred new employee must occur within 90 days of the initial referral date of the current employee.
• Directors are excluded from receiving referral bonuses.
• The referral must represent the candidate’s first contact with our organization. Temporary contract, current, and former employees are not eligible candidates for referral.
• To be eligible for an award, the New Employee Referral Form must first be submitted to Human Resources. An employment application must also be submitted to HR, both of which are posted under HR/forms online at www.rocoh.org.
• Only one employee may be eligible to refer a new employee. Typically, the first employee to refer a candidate will be the only referring employee eligible for payment. One match will be determined and must be in correspondence. i.e., the new employee must specify the referring employee’s full name in writing on the New Employee Referral Form AND the referring employee must specify the new employee being referred on a separate New Employee Referral Form.
• All candidates will be evaluated for employment consistent with the organization’s policies and procedures regarding hiring and confidentiality.
• The limit an employee can receive under the referral program is $2500.00 in one calendar year, or within the time frame the referral program is operational. Employees receiving awards for referral must understand that any amount awarded over $600.00 in a calendar year will be reported by the agency according to tax reporting guidelines.
• Questions regarding the application of this program will be resolved by the CEO and/or Executive Team and cannot be considered a grievance under any organizational grievance policies.

Follow-up and Monitoring:

The CEO and Executive Team will maintain the effectiveness of the Recruitment and Retention Bonus policy and update the Board of Directors as needed.