Setting guardrails for managers

Set the your managers plan within before the cycle launches. You need the System Admin or Total Rewards Admin , and a cycle in the Setup phase — see Creating a cycle.

A guardrail bounds one employee’s increase with two ranges, a inside a . Merit, Promotion and Bonus each have their own, and managers are checked against them when they submit. The guidance managers start from is the , which the guardrails sit directly below — see Building a merit matrix or pay guidance.

In a cycle that plans ranges, the Merit soft range is each employee’s guidance range from the matrix, so the matrix sets it and only the hard range is entered here. See The merit range.

Turn the guardrails on

Open the cycle, choose the Setup tab, and select Edit on 3. Guidance.
Below the matrix, switch on Use employee-level guardrails. A new cycle starts with the switch off and shows no guardrail row; with it off, no row is checked against a guardrail.
On the Merit, Promotion and Bonus rows, enter the Hard minimum, Soft minimum, Soft maximum and Hard maximum you want. On Merit in a cycle that plans ranges, the soft minimum and maximum read Each employee’s guidance range and are not entered.
On Merit and Bonus, choose what a row outside the soft range needs: , Note, both or neither.
Select Save at the foot of the section.

Every bound is optional. Leave one empty and the guardrail sets no such bound: empty is not 0%. Where you set both ends of a range, the hard range must contain the soft range, or the save is refused and nothing is stored.

Switching the guardrails off and saving keeps the rows’ values. Switch them back on and the rows return as you left them.

Promotion offers no Reason code or Note choice. Every promotion needs a reason code and a whatever the guardrails say, so a promotion outside its soft range is marked and needs nothing more.

The merit range

In a cycle that plans ranges, the guidance range each employee is given in the 3. Guidance section is the Merit soft range. Its low and high are the employee’s own, so a merit increase inside that range is within guardrails with no explanation owed. Only the Merit hard minimum and hard maximum are set on the guardrails card. Any other cycle, including a Flat cycle, keeps the Merit soft minimum and soft maximum inputs.

What each range does

Merit is checked on the merit percentage alone, so a promotion increase does not count against the Merit row. A promotion is checked on its own row, and a bonus on its own. A proposal exactly on a bound is inside it.

Inside the soft range, a proposal needs nothing more.
Outside the soft range but inside the hard range, a proposal is allowed and flagged Justification needed. The manager adds what the row needs, and the flag becomes Above guide or Below guide. The cannot be submitted while it is missing.
Outside the hard range, the proposal is flagged Above maximum or Below minimum, and the worksheet cannot be submitted until the number comes back inside.

Reason codes

The Reason codes list, in the Setup tab’s 4. Worksheet section, is what a manager picks from to explain a proposal outside the soft range, or a promotion. A new cycle starts with eight: Retention risk, Market position, Promotion, Sustained performance, Internal equity, Pay compression, Budget constraint and Other. Select Edit on 4. Worksheet, then enter a new one under Add a reason code and select Add, or switch one off under Active to hide it from the picker without erasing it from proposals that already cite it. Then select Save at the foot of the section.

Guardrails after launch

The guardrails stay editable after the cycle launches, until it is or cancelled. Managers are already planning against them, so a save on a running cycle first shows what the change would send back to managers or flag, and asks you to confirm. See Changing a cycle after launch. Once the cycle closes, the Guardrails card shows Fixed — cycle is closed and accepts no changes.