From the Dean: Merit raise update for FY26

Last week, the University approved merit raise recommendations for faculty and staff members and approved the College to notify those who will be receiving merit increases. On Thursday, Aug. 28, each person receiving a merit increase will get an email with specific information about the dollar amount and percentage of their raise; unit heads will be copied on the communication. Those who are not receiving an increase will not receive any notification.

The parameters for merit raises were (provided verbatim):

  • Faculty and staff must be regular, fully benefited with 30+ standard hours
  • Staff must have completed their 180-day probationary period
  • Faculty and staff with an approved retention, counteroffer, market adjustment, or related salary adjustment that was submitted or effective in FY25 (July 2024-June 2025) to address external market demands are not eligible for this merit-based increase

The performance requirements for merit eligibility were (provided verbatim):

Faculty

  • An overall score of 4 or 5
  • Faculty who received a score of 1 “does not meet expectations” or 2 “needs improvement” in any category of assigned effort or overall, thus triggering a performance remediation plan (PRP), are not eligible

We had more than 31 faculty members who received a score of 5, and more than 15% of faculty in each unit who received a score of 5. Thus, I sent unit heads a list of faculty who had a score of 5 and asked them to rank order the list. Most unit heads used weighted scores to rank order the list. I calculated the number of faculty required to constitute 15% in each unit to determine how far down each ranked list to go. In all cases where there were ties, all individuals who were tied with the same ranking were included in the merit pool.

Staff

  • An overall score greater than or equal to 3.5
  • At least one competency average with a score of 4 or greater, or multiple KSAOs (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics) with a score of 4 or 5
  • Staff who received the equivalent of 1 “needs improvement” in any KSAO are not eligible
  • Staff must be free from any kind of progressive discipline or performance improvement plans

I calculated that the number of staff constituted 15% in each unit and selected that number of people in ranked order based on overall score. Where there were ties, all individuals in the same unit with the same score were selected. I shared these lists with unit heads for their input.

Additionally, the guidelines stated that the average percent increase for all staff in the College and the average percent increase for all faculty in the College had to be 2% with a range of 1%–4%. Note that the average of 1% and 4% is 2.5%, so that means that it generally took two scores below 2 to balance out one score above 2. For example, if there were two people in a unit who could be recommended for a raise, possible scenarios included:

  • 3% and 1%
  • 2.75% and 1.25%
  • 2.5% and 1.5%

Thus, very few people received a raise over 3% as I tried not to give raises below 1.25%.

The full guidelines can be found on the UHR website.

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