Merit

The Employee Merit Cycle (EMC) Workbook will open for entry on Monday, February 3, 2025

Merit schedule

Operating within the Employee Merit Cycle (EMC) Workbook

  • Employees hired after January 1, 2025, will appear in the workbook only if they have a Workforce Compensation Manager added in iO. We have also added the ability to create models and review them in Excel or apply them to your workbook.
  • Training guide resources are available on the iO Evolution training catalog to help you work through navigation and the new models functionality.
  • The Employee Merit Cycle Workbook will refresh Assignment titles, Grades, and Salaries nightly.
  • Please note: If you remove the Workforce Compensation Manager from the employee’s assignment, they will be removed from your workbook overnight during the workbook refreshes.

Transferring Data to Human Resources

  • The proposed base salary is what will be entered as a salary change on 07/01/2025.
  • IMPORTANT: To ensure the employee merit cycle workbook successfully loads salary records or bonuses, avoid submitting or processing compensation change actions during the last week of June.
  • If an employee’s assignment has an end date on their existing salary record (other than 12/31/4712) the Employee Merit Cycle Workbook will not load an entry effective 07/01/2025.

Options are:

Either remove the end date from the salary record via Salary History or Change Salary

Or

Add 07/01/2025 record via Salary History or Change Salary.

  • Error reports will be shared with the Workforce Compensation Manager in June for review and to take action on salary actions or promotions that did not load.

Annual Merit Increase Process

Merit Increases

  • The annual merit increase process is not a cost-of-living adjustment, but rather an opportunity to recognize the performance and contributions of your staff.
  • Merit increases are based on performance and the pay raise pool is determined each year by University leadership.
  • The pay raise pool is determined by considering market trends, University financial resources, and overall University strategy and goal achievement.
  • Merit increases are effective July 1st of each year.
  • Merit increases outside of the July 1st merit increase cycle requires the approval of a Vice President, Vice Provost, Dean, or the Provost (or their designee).
  • Staff promotions proposed for July 1, 2025, require that a position profile be submitted to compensation@rice.edu for review to HR no later than April 25, 2025.
  • Annual salary adjustments should be based on performance and not made across the board increases
  • Staff fully supported by research grants, gift funds or other sources should follow these guidelines as well.
  • IMPORTANT: For new staff, the first six (6) months of employment at Rice University are the probationary period. Current staff who apply for and are promoted, demoted, or transferred to a different position also must complete a six (6) month probationary period. Probationary Period Policy
  • Please see detailed Salary Administration guidelines from the Budget Office for FY26 as well as the FY 2026 Annual Budget Information.
  • The compensation team is available to provide additional advice about rewarding performance and making the best use of available dollars for base adjustments and bonuses. Please contact the HR compensation staff to discuss staff salary planning and one-time payments. The compensation team will review all staff salaries for consistency with Rice’s compensation practices and consistency with performance assessments.

Performance Rating

Merit-Based One-Time Payments and Bonuses

During the annual merit process, one-time payments and bonuses may be used in the following ways:

  • One-time payments may be provided to employees in lieu of a base pay increase. This is commonly used for employees whose current annualized salary exceeds the maximum for their position’s pay grade.
  • Bonuses are used to reward extraordinary performance and/or contributions of employees during the year.
  • The following chart provides guidance on determining whether a bonus or a one-time payment is appropriate for a given situation.

Merit2

Resources: