Bonus payments

The average bonuses of UK insurance industry executives over the period March 2000 - February 2001 were in the region of £4,000. This figure could be misleading however. The median bonus over the same period was less than £1,000. Once again, the average is skewed versus the median due to a limited number of executives who received substantial bonus payments. The breakdown of bonus payments (March 2000 - February 2001), across all respondents, is presented graphically in figure 6.Virtually three quarters of respondents' bonuses for the past year were less than £2,500. The average forecast bonus for the coming year (i.e. March 2001 - February 2002) is approximately £5,000, a projected increase of 25 percent on the previous year. The median forecast bonus for the same period is in the range £1,000 - £2,499. Table G highlights the median bonus payment for the previous year and forecast bonus for the coming year by position held within respective organisations.Company benefits and perksThe majority of respondents are entered into a company pension scheme (80 percent). Approximately half have access to free private medical cover and life assurance. Nearly 40 percent of respondents have a company mobile phone. Three of every ten respondents have a company car or a laptop or both! A listing of company perks and benefits is presented in table H. Training There is a distinct lack of recognised, official training within organisations operating in the insurance industry. There appears to be a propensity to consider `on-the-job learning' sufficient for the ongoing development of personnel within the company. Significantly, a third of respondents reported having no official training days per annum. Furthermore, 37 percent of respondents have only 1 - 5 official training days per annum. The dearth in official training is most apparent at director and administrative level. Perhaps more alarmingly, official training at junior executive level is minimal for a large percentage of respondents - 71 percent have only 5 official training days per annum or less (see table I).Respondents were asked to identify their main training requirement needed in order to sustain their ongoing personal development. Of those who stipulated a specific training requirement (22 percent stated that they had `none' !), the following were deemed the most important:

• General on-the-job skills (26 percent)
• None (22 percent)
• People management (11 percent)
• IT skills (11 percent)
• Sales skills (6 percent)
• Time management (6 percent)
• E-commerce training (4 percent)
• Presentation skills (3 percent)
• Other - including marketing, insurance qualifications, industry knowledge (11 percent)