The number of top UK companies offering annual bonus plans to executives on purely financial measures has fallen by half over the past year, according to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The research found that there has been dramatic growth in the number of such reward packages offered on a combination of financial, non-financial and individual measures.

It found that the average maximum bonus opportunities available for chief executives in the FTSE 100 companies has risen to 123% of their salary from 103% last year.

The study also found that chief executives in FTSE 250 companies have seen a smaller rise of 5% in the average maximum bonus opportunities to 100%, from 95% last year.

Duncan Brown of PricewaterhouseCoopers says: “We are seeing a continuing shift towards variable pay in UK plcs and a growing emphasis on long-term performance when determining executive pay.

“Additionally, the broader corporate stakeholder and corporate responsibility agenda has stimulated growth in the use of non-financial measures in bonus plans alongside those more traditional measures focused on financial and shareholder return. Some of the most popular new measures are operational performance and customer-related ones, which mean that if customer service levels fall then so could executive bonuses.”

* See the Recruiter Salary Survey out 22 August