At this Chinese company, employees must ‘run’ to make bonuses

According to Dongpo Paper, ‘a company can last long when its employees are healthy.’

Dongpo Paper, a China-based paper-making company, has devised a novel policy to determine bonuses for its employees – it cancelled its traditional performance-based annual bonuses, and replaced these with monthly ones that are handed out on the amount of ‘exercise’ undertaken by a staffer.

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What does the policy say?

According to South China Morning Post, the new policy states that an employee is entitled to a 100% monthly bonus if they run 50km in a month, 60% for 40km, and 30% for 30km. For 100km, meanwhile, the bonus will be an additional 30% over the full monthly one.

The scheme takes into account mountain hiking and speed walking as well, with these accounting for 60% and 30%, respectively, of the total exercise required.

Also, to calculate the distance, Dongpo Paper, has installed an app on the employees' smartphones.

Why this policy?

“A company can last long when its employees are healthy,” Lin Zhiyong, the boss, told the paper.

The firm's official WeChat account shows Lin ‘practices what he preaches,’ having climbed Mount Everest twice, the English-language daily further said.

And, as per Lin, all the staffers qualify for their full bonuses.

What employees say?

While one remarked that the scheme ‘kills two birds with one stone,’ as ‘we can get both health and money,’ another noted how it helped him reduce his blood sugar.