Annual Evaluation following a Promotion

JAM · May 2002

I've got an HR dilemna and would appreciate any input. I have an employee who received a promotion and an increase of $1.50 with that promotion...Just four weeks later her annual eval became due. Her new Supervisor didn't want her to receive a merit increase because the raise she had received with the promotion was an overall increase of 6.25%. However, she had scored highly on her eval and an employee generally receives a 5% increase with this type of annual eval.

What are your organizations' policies/practices regarding annual increases and promotions? If she does get an increase, should I base it on her current rate of pay or the rate of her former position. Or should I consider 11 months at the former rate and 1 month at the new rate?

Thanks for your help!

Rockie · May 2002

There are several different ways to do this. Since her eval was so close to her promotion, it appears that she was "shorted" on the good evaluation she would have gotten on her former job. In a case like this, you can do two things:

1. You can give a full evaluation on the former job (and the former rate) using the 11 month formula and then give the promotion on top of this. (Probably the fairest way to go); or

2. If you don't feel comfortable giving this large an increase, you can roll the eval and the increase all together into one increase. I would make the new evaluation date effective from the date of the promotion.

From past experience, most employees want the merit increase (on their old jobs) and then a full promotional increase on top of this. In this case, I would go with this formula since the employee was so close to a yearly eval.

Carol CA · May 2002

Whenever we promote someone we always look to see where they are in their review cycle. If they just had their increase, they would only get a promotional increase. If their review is coming due soon, we would give them a bigger bump to incorporate both the annual increase and the promotional increase. A promotion always changes their review cycle, so their next review is one year from the date of promotion.

In your situation, the employee received a 6.25% promotional increase, but would have received a 5.0% increase anyway for the good review. That means that really they only received a 1.25% promotional increase. I would give them the addtional 5%.

Don D · May 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-14-02 AT 12:25PM (CST)[/font][p]In my opinion, the ee should come away from it all realizing both the benefit of the annual increase she would have received and the promotion that she got because she deserved it. The last thing you want is a system that actually penalizes a person who has done good work the past year and has gotten a promotion. The wording of your question indicates that you do have some flexibility in arriving at a decision. I would give the person the raise they would have gotten for the year of good performance plus the standard percentage for promotions in your organization. In every eval system I've been associated with, it has also been a piece of the policy that a new supervisor who has not supervised the ee for at least 90 days does not have a role in the evaluation. Our current policy is that 10 months equals a year in terms of an eval period (for periods like promotions or FMLA that for any reason have to be cut short). The system should also automatically start the clock over in cases of promotions, i.e., the year starts over for review purposes upon promotion.

JAM · May 2002

Thanks eveyone for the great input!

Annual Evaluation following a Promotion

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