Memo: Merit Program

On September 23, a UBC Bulletin was issued regarding the decision to provide the annual merit program for eligible staff in the following employee groups: Management and Professional (AAPS), Executive Administrative Staff, Non-Union Technicians and Research Assistants, and Farm Workers.

The Bulletin also highlighted that the implementation of Workday, in November, will affect the timeline for implementation of any merit increases.  The process for applying and calculating the retro from merit in Peoplesoft is highly manual.  The retro calculation this year will also require assessing data in two systems (July to October in PeopleSoft, and November forward in Workday).  In addition, implementing a large number of salary changes during the three month Hypercare period after the Workday go-live date on November 2nd is not recommended.

Based on all considerations, the proposed tentative implementation date for the ongoing merit salary increase is late February 2021, and April 2021 for the associated retroactive payment.  We will confirm these timelines after Workday implementation in November. While the implementation of merit will be delayed, the actual merit will be backdated to July 1, 2020. 

The central Compensation team will be sending the usual spreadsheets of eligible staff members to departments/Faculties in early November.  Specific details about this year’s process will be provided along with the spreadsheets.  Please note, even though departments/Faculties are proceeding with performance conversations, they should not enter merit increases into HRMS/Peoplesoft, nor Workday.  This year’s process for implementing merit increases may differ from past years, and further information about this will be provided along with the spreadsheets.

Performance-Based Increases (PBIs) for Excluded Management & Professional (XMP) staff and Service Unit Directors (SUDs) will be implemented along the same process and timelines as merit.

Questions may be directed to compensation@hr.ubc.ca.