Merit Increases

Shari Turner

Hello Everyone,
First time poster to the forum, been reading for several months.
Our organization is looking into implementing a Merit Increase
Program, I am looking for your feedback. Does anyone use this
type of program and are you willing to share your process?

sonny

Hi Shari, welcome to our world. We have a merit increase system and simply, how much you get is based on the points you get on your performance evaluation. There are of course pros and cons and would guess you will hear more from folks more expert than I, but for what it is worth. . the cons are that that ee feel different supervisors rate differently, hence there is subjectivity, not objectivity. (Search other topics here on performance evaluations. .there is some great food for thought.) Where I once worked, we were unionized and the FIRST thing they negotioated was no more merit increases. Everyone got the same across the board. Pro.. folks feel they get something for their extra efforts and that slouchers don't get the same as the stars. In 20+ years my astute observation has been that employees will complain no matter how it is done, there is no definitive system and if I (or whoever) could ever figure one out I (or whoever) could make a fortune consulting and then retire to that island. .

Gillian

The desert island, where Don is going to be?

Don D

Did I hear my name? When I worked for the State in a prior life, someone at the state personnel board who was no doubt recently put in office by the governor came up with and implemented merit raises. Dismal failure, even after 7 years of trying to manage the implementation. I agree that there is really no way to properly have it work, unless there are only two people in the organization. If there was a way to design such a program totally without any input or manipulation from a human being, it might work well. Personalities, favorites, un-favorites, Halo-rating, inability to think critically by some supervisors, slants and biases will wreck it every time. My personal feeling is that you can toss out the window ALL of the think-tank gibberish and focus-group B.S. about how to implement and manage such programs. I also wrote a book on how to build a Swiss Watch, and had no business doing that either. Good luck. x:-)