Entering a merit increase

Propose a merit increase for each person on your team. You need your open while it’s In progress or Returned — see The manager worksheet, explained.

Accept the guidance

The Guidance column shows the guidance the cycle’s suggests for each person, from their rating on the cycle’s review and where their pay sits in their : a guidance range in a cycle that plans ranges, or a percentage in any other cycle. A person who isn’t rated is planned from the Not rated row of the matrix, in its own guidance.

In a cycle that plans ranges, every row starts blank: nothing is filled in until you apply the guidance or enter a number. In any other cycle, each row starts with its guidance percentage filled in under Merit (%), and the = mark reads Guidance accepted.

To take the suggestion, select the arrow beside it (Apply guidance). In a cycle that plans ranges, the arrow applies the range’s midpoint, and turns into = (Inside the guidance range); the midpoint fills Merit (%). In any other cycle, the arrow turns into = (Guidance accepted), and the guidance’s percentage fills Merit (%). The amount it comes to sits beside it in Merit ($). In the person’s details under their row, Reset to guide does the same, and reads At guide once it’s applied.

Enter your own number

Enter the increase as an amount or as a percentage, whichever you have in mind. Type an amount in Merit ($), in the person’s , or a percentage in Merit (%), or step the percentage up or down in tenths of a percent with the arrows. The row is the one place you enter merit: the person’s details under the row don’t repeat it.

When the row saves, the other field fills in beside the one you typed, so the row always reads both. The figure you typed is the one that holds. Type 2,000 and the amount stays 2,000 while its percentage is worked out from it; type 2.5% and the percentage stays 2.5% while its amount is worked out from it. The amount uses the decimal places of the person’s currency.

Merit is measured on the person’s base after any promotion, so the two interact. For someone on a $95,000 base, a merit of $2,000 reads 2.11%. Add a 5% promotion and the amount still reads $2,000, while the percentage reads 2.01%, because the same $2,000 is now a share of a $99,750 base. Had you typed 2.11% instead, the percentage would hold and the amount would grow with the promotion.

To take a merit increase back, clear the field you typed in and leave it: both fields go blank.

The Merit ($) and Merit (%) fields start empty on anyone you haven’t decided, and their Status reads Not reviewed until you do.

When it saves

Your change saves when you leave the field, and Saving… then Saved appears beside the worksheet’s status at the top of the page. Picking a , ticking Promotion or stepping the merit up or down saves as soon as you do it, and the same status confirms it. If a change can’t be saved, the field goes back to its saved value and a message says why. If you close the tab with a change still in a field, your browser asks before it closes; if you go to another page, the change saves first. The exception is a promotion’s amount or percent and its grade: they wait for the promotion’s title, and they aren’t saved until you give one. Mitratech Comp then works out everything that follows from it — the other merit figure, the Increase, the Proposed base, the new and the verdict — and the row shows the result. Your budget, in the summary strip above the table, moves with it.

The whole increase goes into base pay, even when it takes someone above the maximum of their pay band. The band is there to read a proposal against, not to cap it.

What it draws from your budget

Your budget counts amounts. The merit pool is charged each person’s merit amount, and the promotion pool their promotion amount. On someone you also promote, the merit amount is the merit that lands on their promoted base, so the merit pool is charged all the merit that lands in base, and the promotion pool only the promotion. See Creating funding pools.

Check where each person lands

Select a person’s row to open their details under it and see where the increase leaves them: the compa-ratio and the after the increase, each drawn on a rail, the range penetration against the band’s minimum, midpoint and maximum. The row’s Status gives the guardrail verdict. A proposal outside the guardrails is still saved; see Reading the guidance and guardrails for what each verdict means.