Common Merit vs Anniversary Date Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Common Merit vs Anniversary Date - Essay Example Company practices of granting merit increases are usually pre-defined in compensation and performance evaluation policies and procedures, which indicate the frequency of performance reviews; evaluation standards, criteria, measures, and rating scale; and equivalent percentage increases according to ratings. The merit date is the date at which an employee is eligible for a performance evaluation and a merit increase (Chesterfield, 2008). There are two popular ways for administering annual merit increases, either using a common merit date for all employees or o common ways or by using by using the employee’s anniversary date of hire. One practice for administering the annual merit increase is by using the employee’s anniversary date of hire. This means that one year after the employee was hired, he/she becomes eligible for a performance evaluation and a merit increase, and then every year thereafter, on his/her anniversary date. The advantage of using the anniversary date of hire as against a common merit date, is that it ensures that an employee has been given a full 12-month period to exhibit the job performance he/she will be evaluated on. Considering the length of the period, the employee would be able to improve performance over the course of the months or remedy any bad performance exhibited within ample time till the evaluation date. For the company, planning, implementing and monitoring the evaluation process and the granting of merit increases using the anniversary date would mean a lot more work as anniversary dates would be different from employee to employee. Schedules of performance evaluatio n have to be pre-defined for each employee according to his/her anniversary date, tracked, and monitored for completion, usually a joint responsibility of the HR department and the immediate manager. The greater the number of employees of a company, the more work it would entail. For managers with a number of subordinates to evaluate, it would also mean