The end of sign-on bonuses: boon or bad move?

The end of sign-on bonuses: boon or bad move?

Sign-on bonuses are disappearing from the UAE’s employment contracts. Gasp of horror or sigh of relief? Kipp weighs the pros and cons.

June 19, 2011 4:03 by kippreport

Apparently, not all of us have moved on from the frivolous pre-2008 salary packages and are having withdrawal syndromes like no other. Certain executives in certain employee brackets are throwing hissy fits at the trend that companies are now unwilling to offer sign-on bonuses to candidates in this post-slash-mid-recession era—investment banking and private equity executives, we’re talking about you.

Now that markets are more robust, in certain cases sign-on bonuses are being paid, however, only if candidates can prove that by joining their new firm they will lose out on a certain guaranteed bonus or tangible stocks,” Hasnain Qazi, Middle East Business Manager at Huxley Associates was quoted in an Emirates 24/7 article.

Although sign-on bonus, media bonuses and blue chips may be a norm elsewhere, is the drying up of bonus wells in the UAE a boon or a potential cause for brain-drain? Here’s what our opposing teams think: (click the image to view a larger size)