There are so many posts asking "how to get more pay" or "a better role" which repeatedly were answered with "move job" that the conversation is getting monotonous. It's time to add something to the dialogue:

What would you like us to do?

I'm one of those managers that you might love to work with/for and I'm one of those managers that you eventually might leave because of a tempting offer from somewhere else.

I hear the cautious excitement when employees leave, and discover later that they moved jobs into a company that paid better but was short-lived. That the new manager was a narcissist. That the new job was a collection point for psychopaths (culture!) or had a bonus system that promoted a toxic and hostile environment.

Moving jobs evidently isn't always the solution. 

So instead of this idiotic idea that "moving jobs" is the fix-all solution, I want to nail the question which this forum is designed to address:

Pay level.

- Sales have their contract bonuses which often results in toxic competition for leads.

- Legal have their settlement bonus, which means nobody wants to deal with losses.

- Software engineering have ... nothing?

So please tell me: What would you include into a policy that remunerates brilliant engineering and encourages collaboration at all levels? 

Smart people almost always add value, but how do we recognize this beyond a fixed salary contract? I ask because that's really the only tool in the textbook.

Corporate due diligence requires that results must be measurable (savings, new revenue streams) and logically allocated.

Corporate America is bound by customs to have a written bonus system to avoid discrimination.

Corporate reward systems are designed to give managers influence in the allocation of rewards, that may or may not be fair.

What are the key clauses in the policy that you would put in place that would create a mutually respectful (A) reward of your value to the business relative to (B) YOUR contribution to the business' objectives?

I know that no reward policy or system will fill everyone with enthusiasm and I know that all well functioning systems eventually become infested with parasitic individuals. That's just a part of the nature of collectives of individualistic members. So whilst all policies will be exploited, some policies would be fairer than others. What do these policies say?

What does GREAT look like to you? What should employers change? What should managers change?