2024 NREP Staff Admin Merit Process
The dates and deadlines for the 2024 NREP Staff Admin Merit Process are as follows:
| Action |
Dates |
| Position Evaluation Requests Due for Regrades & Promotions |
October 21, 2024 |
| Merit Pool % Announced |
(Usually in the 4th week of October) |
| FLSA increases effective* |
October 31, 2024 |
| Inactive period for processes regrades, promotions transactions** |
November 1 – January 5, 2025 |
| SAP Form Workflow Completion for NREP Staff updates |
November 5, 2024 |
| Requests for changes to Organizational Structure |
November 5, 2024 |
| ECM Eligibility Report available to users as of |
November 6, 2024 |
| ECM Eligibility Corrections due back to Comp |
November 13, 2024 |
| Deadline for managers to upload completed performance evaluations into OnBase |
November 15, 2024 |
| ECM Merit System Open for Planning & Approvals |
November 21 – December 4, 2024 |
| Approved Merit payments are reflected in employees’ paychecks: |
Non-Exempt: January 10, 2025
Exempt: January 15, 2025 |
**FLSA increases will be included in the salaries for planning merit on the ECM worksheets.
**any received and approved will become effective as of 1/16/25 or later.
Merit Process Training
Quick Reference Guides for the Staff Merit Process are available in the Annual Merit Cycles (ECM) section of the Process and Help Guides. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact HR Compensation by sending an email to hrcomp@bu.edu.
Staff Merit FAQs
Q: How should I determine how much to recommend for merit for each of my employees?
A merit increase is intended to be an opportunity to reward and recognize staff for their performance during the evaluation period. This year’s merit pool is competitive with similar institutions, reflects the University’s fiscal strength, and represents a major commitment to rewarding staff for their accomplishments and contributions to the institution’s mission. Merit increases should clearly recognize your staff for their individual performance, with special attention to differentiating salary increases for high-performing staff (those with performance evaluation ratings of “4” or “5”).
Q: What if I am missing an employee, or employee data appears incorrect in the worksheet?
Q: When I log into the system, no employees appear, or only those employees who report directly to me appear. How can I display all employees within my area?
When you log into the system, only your own direct reports will be displayed. If you are planning for a whole area, including for employees who do not report directly to you, you will need to proxy to another manager. Instructions for proxying to another manager can be found
here.
Q: I see the Guideline is distributed according to Organizational Unit. Do I need to adhere to the Guideline by Organizational Unit?
Although the guideline is calculated and displayed in ECM by organizational unit, you may allocate the guideline for your entire area across all organizational units, provided you do not exceed the overall total.
Q: How can I add or remove access to ECM for someone within my area?
- Your section’s DSA must make the request to add or remove access through the DSA request function on the BUworks portal. If you are unsure who the DSA for your area is, please contact IS&T Information Security at buinfosec@bu.edu.
- To request access one of the following roles must be requested:
- Recommender: E.HR.ECM_MERIT_RECOMMENDER
- Approver: E.HR.ECM_MERIT_APPROVER
- The DSA must also add the org # of the highest org for which a person should be recommending or approving.
Q: Are employees over the maximum of their salary grade eligible for merit?
Yes, but in these cases the Dean or VP for the area is required to sign off on the increase. This should be done at the time that the Dean or VP signs off on all increases for their area when planning is complete. In the email that is sent to Compensation, the Dean or VP should specifically include the name, increase amount, and increase percentage for the employee in question and indicate approval.
Q: I calculated the guideline for my area by multiplying the annual salaries of all included employees by the guideline percentage. The result was slightly lower than the total guideline that I see in the merit system. Why? Which is correct?
If the difference is small, it is most likely due to rounding. The merit system calculates the guideline using a roundup formula. If your calculation rounded instead of rounded up, this will account for the discrepancy. If the difference is significant, please contact
hrcomp@bu.edu.
Q: An employee will be terminating but has not been terminated in SAP yet. They are included in the merit system and the guideline. How do I plan for this employee? Do I need to underspend the guideline by the amount this employee's salary contributed?
ECM was loaded with data in SAP as of October 31, 2023. Eligible employees still appearing as active at that time will show in the system and contributed to the guideline. In order to plan, please enter an evaluation score if you have one. If not you can enter”98″ as the evaluation score, which indicates “Not Available”. The increase can be entered as zero (either amount or percent). You must then indicate in the Notes field in the planning worksheet that the employee will be terminating along with the effective date of the termination.
Guidelines are static and remain in place once the process begins. There is no need to underspend your guideline to account for terminated employees. You may fully spend the entire guideline, allocating the amount contributed by this employee across your area(s).
Q: Some employees within my area do not appear in the org unit where they reside in SAP. Why is this?
In ECM, managers appear in the next org unit up for planning purposes rather than the org where they reside in SAP. This allows their own manager to plan for them as a direct report.
Q: In the Planning Overview, I see a total number of employees for my area that does not add up to the employees in each or the org units below. Why is this?
There may be employees residing in the top org only. To accurately calculate the number of employees for an area, those in the top org must be factored in.