IBM suddenly ends an incentive program that awards 180,000 yen to employees for their achievements, causing dissatisfaction within the company due to confiscation of unused points
The British news site The Register reported that the American technology company IBM has ended its incentive program that celebrates employee achievements such as acquiring patents and publishing papers. IBM has launched a replacement program, but employees are complaining that unredeemed points from the old program are not carried over.
IBM ends inventor reward program, cancels points for patents • The Register
Reportedly, IBM has been implementing an ``Invention Achievement Award Plan'' to encourage employee innovation for many years. This is a program that awards points to employees who apply for patents or publish papers that counter a competitor's patents, and rewards or cash rewards when the number of points reaches a certain level.
By participating in this program, you will be awarded 3 points for filing a patent application, and 4 points for particularly valuable patents, reaching a level known as a 'plateau' when you accumulate a total of 12 points. Each time this plateau is reached, the employee receives a reward of $1,200 (approximately 180,000 yen).
'For every 12 points an inventor earns, they reach an invention plateau, and for each inventor who achieves a plateau, IBM pays them $1,200 in recognition of their efforts,' according to an internal IBM document seen by The Register. is written.
However, IBM is discontinuing this program at the end of 2023 and switching to a different point system called BluePoints.
In an internal FAQ, IBM states, ``The previous invention achievement award system will end at midnight on December 31, 2023.As this will abolish the plateau award, you must have achieved the plateau level before December 31st. 'Existing and unredeemed Plateau Points will not be converted to BluePoints.'
Points from the old system that have not yet earned rewards will be confiscated, but the review process for acquiring points will take several months. As a result, when employees heard about the abolition of the system, they hurriedly applied for their results, but it seems that they were unable to make it in time and it went to waste.
The sudden change sparked an outcry from users of the program, and multiple inquiries were sent to upper management in the company's Slack channel.
One employee cited the notice of change and asked, ``Can you forgive a customer who unilaterally cancels the payment schedule after the work has been delivered?'' Another employee asked, ``If the customer unilaterally cancels the payment schedule after the work has been delivered, can we forgive them?'' Is it appropriate to treat an employee like this who was working outside of normal duties in order to do so?''
These inquiries received the most upvotes of any question posed at the CEO's monthly meeting, but the company did not respond.
IBM did not respond to a request for comment from The Register, but one former IBM employee said, ``In my opinion, the original program had bugs a long time ago. 'The system was designed to reward scoring. Former CEO Ginni Rometty made the situation worse by proposing this program to stimulate young talent's desire to achieve fame.' He expressed the view that the reason for its abolition was that it had become a mere facade.
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