What to Know About Staff Merit

With staff performance reviews well under way, it’s time to start thinking about the next step in the university’s pay-for-performance model: staff merit.

Process

The staff merit process will officially begin on Monday, May 6. The merit process is designed to recognize and reward employees for their past performance and contributions. Because of that, we strongly encourage managers to differentiate merit allocations based on individual performance.

Managers across all levels will receive merit worksheets, which will be used to assign merit percentages to their direct reports. These worksheets are aligned with the hierarchy in Ignite, making it crucial to ensure the manager listed in Ignite are accurate. 

Eligibility

Regular employees hired as of May 1 will be included in the merit worksheets. Departments have the discretion to determine if an employee is too new to receive a merit increase. However, keep in mind that merit adjustments take effect on August 1, providing employees an additional three months in their current roles before any increase is implemented. Employees who do not receive a merit increase this year will need to wait until the following August to be considered for eligibility again.

Blackout Period

As in previous years, a “blackout period” for all staff changes will be observed from May 1 through August 1, when merit adjustments are effective. Since merit is based on a specific point in time, any changes to staff pay or position during the blackout period could result in inaccuracies in the merit worksheet. Such discrepancies might lead to merit being awarded based on an incorrect salary and generate incorrect pay change statements after the process concludes.

Additional Resources

For additional resources including a job aid on how to navigate the system, please refer to the Compensation page on the HR website.