Goals People Can See, Reviews That Finish, Incentives That Match
Appraisals get done late, ratings drift upward and bonuses are decided by whoever the founder trusts. We set goals people can read, a review cycle managers can finish, ratings that are checked against each other, and incentives, including sales incentives, tied to what the business actually needs.
What is performance management and incentive design?
Performance management and incentive design is the work of setting clear goals for each role, running a review cycle that actually finishes, calibrating ratings across managers so they mean the same thing, and designing the bonus or incentive so it rewards the behaviour you want. The output is a written cycle, a rating guide and an incentive scheme.
The starting point
When businesses ask us for this
- Appraisals are done once a year in a rush, and people are surprised by their rating.
- Almost everyone is rated 'meets expectations' or above, so the rating tells you nothing.
- Two managers rate the same performance differently and the stronger team gets the weaker rating.
- People do not have written goals, so a review becomes a conversation about how they feel.
- The bonus is decided by the founder, and the people who did not get one cannot tell why.
- Your sales incentive pays for volume and you are losing margin, or it pays for the wrong product.
- An incentive you introduced last year is now an entitlement and you cannot withdraw it.
- You have a performance tool but nobody uses it because the cycle around it was never agreed.
What the work covers
GullyHR designs the whole loop: goals at the start of the cycle, check-ins during it, a review at the end, calibration across managers and an incentive that follows from the rating. We start by recording where you stand: how many employees have written goals, how many reviews finish on time and how ratings are spread. We then design the cycle and the scheme, test the incentive against last year's numbers so you see what it would have paid, and hand it over with the forms, the guide and the routine. You choose what to reward. We make the scheme work.
Goals are written for every role, in a form people can read.
KRAs or OKRs, whichever suits the business, with a small number of goals per person and a measure beside each. We write goals for the roles that have none and tighten the ones that exist, and we explain how a goal differs from a task.
The review cycle has a calendar, owners and a deadline.
When goals are set, when check-ins happen, when reviews open and close and who chases. A cycle managers can finish is worth more than a more sophisticated one they cannot.
Ratings are calibrated, so they mean the same thing across managers.
Managers meet to compare their ratings against a rating guide before ratings are final. Outliers are discussed and adjusted. This is the step that most small businesses skip and the one that makes ratings fair.
Incentives and bonuses follow written rules.
What triggers a payout, how it is calculated, who approves it, what happens with a partial period and when it can be changed. We design the scheme so you can explain it to the person who did not receive it.
Sales incentives are designed with the margin in mind.
Targets, territories, the payout curve and what is and is not counted. We test the scheme against your own last-year numbers before it is announced, so you see what it would have paid and what it would have cost.
Underperformance has a route.
What happens after a poor rating: a coaching conversation, an improvement plan, a review date and a decision. The route is written down so it is applied the same way to everyone.
The process
How it runs
Record the baseline
We count how many employees have written goals, how many reviews finish on time and how ratings are spread across managers. This is the starting point for every later report.
Agree what the business needs to reward
We settle what matters for the next year, so goals and incentives follow from it rather than from last year's habits.
Write goals for each role
We draft goals with measures for each role family, review them with the managers and settle a small number per person.
Design the cycle
The calendar, the forms, the check-in routine, the review conversation and the owner for each step.
Write the rating guide and the calibration routine
What each rating means in your business, with examples, and the meeting where managers compare ratings before they are final.
Design and test the incentive
We build the scheme and run it against last year's numbers, showing what it would have paid and what it would have cost. You adjust it before it is announced.
Launch, support the first cycle and report
We brief managers, support the first cycle and report against the baseline: goal coverage, completion and rating spread.
What you receive
- A goal framework and goals for each role family, with measures.
- A review calendar with owners and deadlines.
- Forms for goal setting, check-ins and reviews.
- A rating guide with examples for each rating.
- A calibration routine: who meets, what they compare, what is decided.
- An incentive or bonus scheme with its rules written down.
- A back-test of the scheme against last year's numbers.
- A manager briefing pack for the first cycle and a baseline-versus-result report.
Who it is for
- Founder-led businesses that run appraisals once a year and want a cycle that works.
- Companies where ratings are bunched at the top and nobody trusts them.
- Businesses with a sales team and an incentive scheme that no longer matches what the business needs.
- Teams that have introduced a performance tool and need the cycle to match it.
- Companies where bonuses are discretionary and people have started to ask why.
- Businesses adding a second layer of managers who will be rating each other's teams.
Why GullyHR.
A performance scheme fails when the pieces around it are missing. GullyHR also writes the job descriptions your goals depend on, benchmarks the pay structure the incentive sits inside, trains managers to run the review and configures the cycle in the HR platform. For sales hiring and sales incentive design in depth, our sister company GullySales works on the sales side of the business.
Design the process
Map how the work runs today, then write the procedure, the forms and the approval route it should follow.
Strengthen management
Settle the structure, the roles and the decisions each level can take without the owner.
Develop people
Train the managers who have to run it — the review, the difficult conversation, the handover.
Automate HR
Configure the agreed process in software, so the document and what people actually do stay the same thing.
The difference
What changes
- Every employee knows what they are measured on before the year starts.
- Reviews are completed on time and the conversation is about the goals, not about impressions.
- A rating means the same thing whichever manager gave it.
- People who did not receive a bonus can be told why, in the scheme's own words.
- The incentive pays for the behaviour you wanted, and you can see what it costs before you launch it.
How we are measured
Before work starts, we record where you stand. Every later report compares against that baseline.
We choose the measures with you at the start, from the list on this page, and only the ones your data can support. We do not promise a result. We promise a baseline, and a report that shows the change against it, whichever way it went.
This engagement is measured on
- Share of employees with written goals
- Review completion rate
- Spread of ratings, before and after calibration
- Sales incentive payout against margin, where a sales scheme is in scope
The measures we choose from
Time-to-hire
Days from approved vacancy to accepted offer.
90-day attrition
New joiners who leave in their first three months.
Annual attrition
Leavers over the year, by team and by manager.
Payroll and statutory errors per month
Corrections after the run, and returns filed late.
Open compliance gaps
Obligations without an owner or a due date.
Employees with written goals
Share of the team that knows what it is measured on.
Review completion rate
Reviews finished on time, not just started.
Manager training coverage
Managers who have been taught the part of the job they were promoted into.
Where the software fits
Where you run the GullyHR platform, goals, check-ins and reviews are configured to follow the cycle we design, so reviews are tracked and completion is visible without chasing. Where you use another system, we design the cycle so it works in a spreadsheet and specify what the system needs to do.
Ways to engage us
- Performance cycle design
- Goals, calendar, forms, rating guide and calibration, delivered for the next cycle.
- Incentive and bonus design
- A written scheme, back-tested on your own numbers, for sales or for the wider team.
- Cycle and incentive together
- The whole loop designed as one, so goals, ratings and payouts follow from each other.
- First-cycle support
- GullyHR stays through the first cycle, supports managers through reviews and reports against the baseline.
Part of GullyGroup
- GullySales
Sales incentives and sales hiring, from the sales side of the business.
Good to know
Questions we are asked
It is the cycle of setting goals, checking progress, reviewing results and acting on them. Done well, every employee knows what they are measured on, reviews finish on time and ratings mean the same thing across managers.
It is a meeting where managers compare their ratings against a written guide before the ratings are final. It catches the manager who rates everyone high and the one who rates everyone low, which is what makes ratings fair.
It depends on the business. KRAs suit roles with steady responsibilities. OKRs suit teams that change direction often. We recommend one for each role family and explain why, and you decide.
Yes. We design targets, the payout curve and the rules, and we test the scheme against last year's numbers so you see what it would have paid and cost. For the sales side of the business more broadly, GullySales, our sister company, works on sales.
No. A scheme rewards the behaviour you write into it. We design it so it rewards what you want and does not reward what you do not, and we measure against the baseline. We do not promise a result.
The share of employees with written goals, review completion, the spread of ratings before and after calibration and, for a sales scheme, payout against margin. We record the baseline before the work starts and report against it.
Often yes. A tool records a cycle but does not define it. We design the cycle, the rating guide and the incentive, and configure the tool to follow them.
A route that is written down: a coaching conversation, an improvement plan with a date and a decision at the end. It is applied the same way to everyone, and where it touches an employee's terms we coordinate a qualified professional.
It depends on the number of roles and managers. We agree the scope after a first conversation and give you a timeline in writing before work starts.
Prefer to talk first? +91 80958 58589 · hello@gullyhr.com