Performance Management and Salary Review: Salary review process

The Institute’s annual salary review (ASR) is conducted one time per year for each payroll category.  (The Libraries currently have two payroll categories – support and administrative). The ASR is made up of two components, the performance review and the merit increase.  

Merit pools are set by the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation.   These pools have been 2.5% for the past several years.  Departments are encouraged by MIT Compensation to distribute merit pool funds in a thoughtful way to recognize and differentiate performance among staff.  
 

Merit Increase:

The Libraries’ distribute the merit pool based on the performance ratings assigned to employees during the annual performance review process.  In order to maintain the highest possible increases for top performers and to create the pool for premium distributions, the number of (EX)ceptional ratings is capped equally at 25% in each directorate. It is the Libraries practice to assign as close to the merit pool allocation percentage as possible to (ST)rong ratings and to assign a higher percentage to (EX)ceptional and a lower to (EF)ffective.  Staff rated at the IPR (Improved Performance Required) level do not receive an increase.
 

Premium Increase:

The Libraries assigns a small percentage (< 10%) of the merit review allocation to library departments for distribution among eligible staff as premiums.  The purpose of this premium is to recognize special achievement in any area of a staff member’s work, local or system wide. Standards by which departments distribute premium funds are determined by the department head in consultation with the appropriate Associate Director.
 

1. Premium fund dollars per department are calculated on the basis of department headcount. The per capita premium amount is constant across all staff in the salary review; it is not based on the actual salaries in a department.
2. Premiums are permanently added to base salaries; they are not one-time bonuses.
3. Staff rated EF (Effective) or higher are eligible; staff rated at the IPR level are not eligible.
4. Examples of accomplishments which might justify a premium would include (but not be limited to):
   • significant project leadership or participation
   • exhibiting outstanding skills in a single area (communication, interpersonal, organizational)
   • taking on significant extra work due to staffing shortages, etc.
5. Department heads will determine premium distribution among their staff. Premiums can be distributed in various ways, such as:
   • dividing it equally or unequally among several staff
   • giving the total to a single staff member
   • electing to waive local distribution in favor of returning the funds to the central library benchmark pool.

Departments are not required to use the full premium allotment assigned, but it is required that department’s stay within the allotment. If premium dollars are not warranted in particular cases, department heads may elect to return some or all of the premium dollars to the Libraries’ central merit pool.

A small pool is available to departments with less than 5 staff members to afford those department heads the same flexibility as others in assigning premiums should they need it.