Bonuses may be awarded by a company as an incentive or to reward good performance. Typical incentive bonuses a company can give employees include signing, referral, and retention bonuses. Companies have various ways they can award employee bonuses, including cash, stock, and stock options.

An annual bonus is usually based on overall company performance. This means you may get a large or small bonus (or no bonus at all) depending on how successful your organization or specific department was that year, as well as how big a part of that success you were. This can also be considered profit sharing.