When a target bonus is not a promise

Start with the payment mechanism

A recruiter may describe a package as “€70,000 plus 10% bonus,” while the draft says only that the employee may participate in a discretionary scheme. Those descriptions are not equivalent. One sounds like a target tied to performance; the other may preserve broad employer choice.

Find who sets the goals, when they are set, whether personal and company components are weighted, and what happens if you join partway through the year. If the contract refers to separate plan rules, reading the contract alone may not answer these questions.

Watch the leaving provisions

Some plans connect payment to being employed—or not under notice—on a particular date. That can matter even when the performance year has finished. Also check whether payment is prorated during probation, parental leave or other absence.

Turn uncertainty into questions

Ask for the current plan, an example calculation and confirmation of the first-year target. If a figure materially influenced your acceptance, consider whether it should appear in binding wording rather than only a presentation or chat message.

Variable-pay clauses are fact-sensitive. The useful objective before signing is to know which elements are fixed, which depend on measurable conditions and which remain genuinely discretionary.