Staff & Faculty Merit Increment - Manager Guide

Annual Increment encompasses a general increment (distributed to all employees) as well as a Merit Increment awarded to employees who consistently meet and/or exceed expectations and who demonstrate the appropriate knowledge, skill and ability in meeting their job requirements. This TDX Guide will aid executive officers and their direct reports in the management, allocation, and submission of the Annual Increment. You can also view this interactive and narrated Sway presentation, for step-by-step instructions on the processes outlined in this TDX guide.

Contents

• Section 1: Annual Increment Responsibilities and Timeline
• Section 2: Workforce Compensation: Basic Navigation
• Section 3: Executive Officer Reviews & Manages Increment Budget
• Section 4: Worksheet Owners Review & Manage Increment Allocations
• Delegating Responsibilities & Worker Data
• Section 5: Executive Officer Finalizes and Submits the Annual Increment Plan

Section 1: Annual Increment Responsibilities & Timeline

2023 Annual Increment Timeline

Section 2: Workforce Compensation App: Basic Navigation

Logging In:

• Go to Apps.Ithaca.Edu, and select IC Finance and HR Cloud. Log in using your Netpass credentials.
• Once you've entered the IC HR Cloud, select My Team and then select the Workforce Compensation app. This is where you will complete all tasks associated with the Annual Increment.

Workforce Compensation Basic Overview & Navigation:

Figure 1: A screenshot of the Workforce Compensation workbench that executive officers and their direct reports will see. 

1. View Plans: If there are multiple plans you are a part of, you can move between plans in this section.
2. Task: This section allows you to view/manage workforce compensation data, including allocating budgets to your team, annual increment worksheets, approvals, and compensation change statements.
3. Your Team Plans: The dropdown next to your name will route you directly to the plan pages for your direct reports. You can also access all increment worksheets by selecting the Annual Increment tile (in # 2 above).
4. Reports/Plan Information: Use this section to roll out Models, view compensation reports for your Team, or to view important plan information about this increment cycle.
5. Plan Submission: Once you have confirmed that all data has been entered, you will select Submit For Approval, and the plan will be submitted to your manager. (For President’s Council approving Workforce Compensation Plans for their division, the workflow will route to Michelle Hammond and then Kirra Franzese.)

Section 3: Executive Officer Reviews & Manages Merit Increment Budget

The Manage Budgets section of the Workforce Compensation Plan is where executive officers can control the Merit budgets distributed to each team within their division. Likewise, executive officers can redistribute a percentage of budget from one team to another through this section. A Merit Budget of 0.5% has already been distributed to each department. If no budget changes are necessary (i.e. all teams within the Division should receive the 0.5% increment), then skip this section and go directly to Section 4. For help with completing Section 3, refer to this Sway Presentation: Manage Budgets During Annual Increment

Overview:

Each division receives an increment budget that can be distributed to employees during Annual Increment. There are two budgets in the Staff and Faculty Annual Increment:

1. General Increment: This budget is controlled and distributed to all employees by Human Resources.
2. Merit Increment Budget (0.5% for 2023): This budget is managed and dispersed by department heads and executive officers.

To Change Merit Budget Allocations in Workforce Compensation:

In the Workforce Compensation app, select Manage Budgets.

2. Select the budget you are updating. There should only be one: Merit 2023.

3. Once the Merit 2023 budget has been opened, select Budget Method and click ‘I’ll pass down budgets to all of my lower managers.’ This means that any updates to the budget will be applied to all teams within your division, not just to the teams managed by your direct reports.

4. To adjust the budget amounts allocated to each team, adjust the Distributed Amount or the Distributed Percentage  column accordingly. For example, you may change the Distributed Percentage to your direct reports to 0.2%, and redistribute the remaining 0.3% to other Teams.

5. As you redistribute percentages or amounts, the Available to Distribute field at the top right of the budget worksheet will increase/decrease to show you the remaining budget available to distribute.

6. Once all budget distributions have been set, select Publish to Managers and select Publish All Budgets.

Delegating Responsibilities & Worksheets

Executive Officers and Worksheet Owners can delegate their roles to other individuals, if increment allocation should be completed by someone other than the Vice President or their direct reports. This is a 2-step process. First, the user will delegate their responsibilities (granting an employee access to Workforce Compensation and to the actions that VPs and Worksheet Owners complete. Second, the user will delegate their workers (granting them worker data for the individuals on their Team who are eligible for increment. 

Step 1: Delegate Responsibilities:

To delegate Executive Officer or Worksheet Owner Responsibilities follow the below steps. (Alternatively, an employee can request access by completing the HR Access Form and requesting "IC Compensation Representative".)

1. Click the Roles and Delegations button under the Me tab.
2. Click the Add button in the Role Delegations section.
3. In Role Name type IC Compensation Representative and select it from the drop down.
4. Enter a start date for when the role will take effect.
5. In the Delegated To search box type in the name of the person this role will be delegated to and select them from the drop down.
6. Click Save to complete the process.

Step 2: Delegate Worker to Someone Else

1. While in the compensation worksheet, find the employee that you would like to delegate to someone else.
2. Click on the row containing the employee and click Actions > Manage Delegations > Remove Delegations. Note: By default an employee is assigned to their primary manager so you have to remove that assignment before they can be assigned to someone else.

3. Click Submit on the Remove Delegations pop-up.

4. Click on the row containing the employee again and click Actions >Manage Delegations > Delegate Workers.

On the Delegate Workers pop-up, click the drop down button next to Review Manager then click Search and search for the person who will be the delegate and click Submit.

Viewing Workers that have been delegated to you:

1. On the workforce compensation home screen, click the highlighted text next to Viewing plan and make sure that you are on Other Plans for Review. Click the relevant plan under this tab.

2. Click Annual Increment to open the worksheet to see all the workers that have been assigned to you. (Note: This will also show all the workers who you are the line manager for.)

Section 4: Worksheet Owners Review & Manage Increment Allocations

Once all budget changes--if any are necessary--have been made by the Division's executive officer, worksheet owners will enter the Merit Increments for their team. (For purposes of Annual Increment, your "Team" means your direct reports and all employees reporting below them.) Please follow the steps outlined below to review/make changes to the Merit Increment allocations for your team.

Step 1: Navigate to the Compensation Worksheet

1. In the Workforce Compensation app, select Annual Increment. The Annual Increment compensation worksheet will be displayed. (Refer to the green info box below for information about what's displayed in each column of the compensation plan.)

Step 2: Adjust Display Settings in the Compensation Worksheet

The below listed tools will help you navigate through the compensation worksheet for your team. 

1. Summary: The summary section at the top of the screen provides information about the salary, budget, and increment percentages available for all components within the Annual Increment.

1. View Columns: There are 25 columns displayed on the Annual Increment compensation worksheet; however some of these may not be used by you. You can add/remove columns by select View > Columns and checking/unchecking () the columns that are most useful. (Refer to the green info box below for information about what's displayed in each column of the compensation plan.)
2. Save: As you make changes to the worksheet, click the save tile (). Any changes you make to the worksheet will be available when you return.
3. Filters: Select the filter icon  () to filter the worksheet
4. Export to Excel: You can export the compensation worksheet to excel by selecting the Export - View in Workbook tile (). Please note, edits made in the Excel export are not updated in IC HR Cloud.
5. Team View: When you select the dropdown that says "Direct Reports", you will see options for the data that will display on the compensation worksheet. Because you are entering increments for all workers below you on the Organization Tree, you will want to select All Workers. However, you can also select the Team for each of your direct reports and make changes by Team.

Step 3: Worksheet Owners enter the Increment in the Compensation Worksheet

As noted above, many of the columns on the Compensation Worksheet have been provided as a reference for making decisions about Merit Increment amounts. However, the main columns that you will use are Merit Amount and Merit Percentage. The Merit Percentage field lists the percentage that has been allocated to the employee, while the Merit Amount field reflects the merit percentage calculated from the employee's current annualized salary. 

Step 4: Worksheet Owners Submit the Compensation Worksheet to Executive Officer

Once you have reviewed the Merit Amount and Merit Percentage fields for all employees on your team (your direct reports, and all reports below them), you are ready to submit the Compensation Worksheet for approval by your Division's Executive Officer. 

1. Select Submit for Approval.

2. A notification will display asking for confirmation. Add any comments that you'd like to share with your executive officer, and select Submit. The workflow will route to your manager for approval and next steps, as outlined in Section 5.

Section 5: Executive Officer Submits Workforce Compensation Plan

Once all Worksheet Owners (Executive Officers direct reports) have submitted their workforce compensation worksheets for approval, the executive officer should follow the steps below to submit the Division's compensation plan for HR review/approval.

Step 1: Executive Officer enters compensation increment for direct reports

• Executive Officer for division will repeat steps as outlined in Section 4 to award the merit increment to their direct reports.

Step 2: Executive Officer submits the division's workforce compensation plan to HR for approval

Once you have reviewed the worksheets submitted to you by each of your direct reports, and you have entered the Merit Amount and Merit Percentage for your direct reports, you are ready to submit your division's compensation plan to HR for review/approval. Please follow the steps below, and contact your HR Business Partner if you have any questions/concerns.

1. Select Submit for Approval.

2. A notification will display asking for confirmation. Add any comments that you'd like to share with your executive officer, and select Submit. The workflow will route to your manager for approval and next steps, as outlined in Section 5.