ICANN Bonuses Not Tied to Long Term Revenue, Fresh TLDs
Bonuses mostly based on short term milestones.
When ICANN released its compensation ideology and information regarding the top five salaries last month, I wasn’t all that taken aback by the salaries. What got me curious was the bonus structure. Bonuses drive behavior, and bonuses tied to poor goals drive poor behavior. I have a patent related to goal alignment, so it’s something I’m familiar with.
During an exchange at ICANN’s Cairo meeting between Michael Palage and ICANN VP Kurt Pritz last year, it became clear that some ICANN employee bonuses were tied to fresh TLDs. That would result in pushing forward with something even if the community didn’t approve.
So here’s the good news: the bonuses are tied to results in a good way; not one that will encourage employees to move forward down the wrong path when perhaps it’s time to switch directions.
The prior week I talked with Doug Brent, ICANN’s COO, who explained how goals are created and tied to the bonuses.
First, ICANN takes the three year strategic plan and the annual operating plan based on that.
“We then take that plan and break it into specific deliverables within a fiscal year,” explained Brent. The year is further divided into three units, often tied to ICANN meetings.
“We break it down into goals for each individual group,” stated Brent. “What is that group as a whole suppose to deliver in the next time period? Then we break that down into 5-6 individual goals.”
These short term goals may include creating a draft note on a particular subject or analyzing community feedback. But they aren’t based on long term goals such as introducing fresh TLDs, and they take into consideration the fluid nature of the ICANN process. To get an idea of what the goals are based on, go to ICANN’s dashboard and click on “PM Summary”.
Brent has heard the rumor that someone at ICANN will get a big bonus when fresh gTLDs are launched. He states that’s unequivocally false.
Brent has not read ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom’s contract, but he stated for at least every other employee, there are no long term bonuses tied to growing revenue, number of employees, etc. Of course, there are goals for creating efficiency and reducing costs.
