A Biblical profit-sharing plan

We’ve talked about bonuses here before. The subject came to mind again one morning as I read 1 Samuel 30. You may not normally think about the Bible offering advice about profit-sharing plans, but of course it has advice about practically everything.

If you’re not prepared to go read the whole chapter right now, here’s a quick recap:

Photo by Janine Chance

While David was on the outs with Saul, Ziklag was his base of operations. While he was away, the Amalekites raided Ziklag and carried off everyone and everything in it. David went after them with 600 men. By the time they reached the Besor Valley, 200 were so exhausted they couldn’t continue. So they remained there while David went on with the 400. They fought the Amalekites, recovered what was stolen, and took the herds of the Amalekites as plunder. When they returned to the Besor Valley, the 400 did not want to share the plunder with the 200. But David said, “The share of the man who stayed with the supplies is to be the same as that of him who went down to the battle. All will share alike.”

Remember how flummoxed we all were at the stories of investment bankers and CEOs getting outsized bonuses, even when their companies saw losses for the year? That happened because the bonuses weren’t tied to corporate profits, they were tied to individual performance.

The lesson I see in David’s Besor Valley decision is that generosity across the board is to be preferred. That it’s better to give 100 employees each a $100 bonus than to give one top salesperson a $10,000 bonus.

Does your profit-sharing plan or bonus structure reward all employees, or only those who directly generate revenue? Are bonuses based on corporate performance, individual performance, or a combination?