Asos plans to change management incentive plan

Asos is planning to change the way it rewards top employees through its management incentive plan

Asos-Office-2014

The online fashion retailer’s current scheme, which awards bonuses to management based on its share price, is due to run until 2016.

However, its share price has fallen by 63% over the last year making it hard for senior staff to hit a threshold for bonus payouts for delivering above-average returns for investors over the three years to August 2015.

The organisation has also been exposed to a strengthening of the pound that has made its products expensive outside of the UK.

To counter these challenges, the organisation is proposing to look at what the next three years will look like for the organisation and planning an incentive scheme around that.

Nick Robertson, chief executive of Asos, said: “Management put together a scheme a couple of years ago, which was appropriate at the time.

“The share price was what it was and when the market and world we operate in looked a bit different, in regards to stocks, sterling and all the rest, clearly now it is underwater and we need to go back.

“The board is very conscious [of this] and has held a number of meetings over the last few months. It is all about what the next three-year plan will look like and anchoring a management incentive plan around that.

“It is a priority, certainly for me to look at it. People in the business have been disappointed about it and I cannot hide that our job now is to retain and incentivise them, and get them on board for the next scheme.”