Monday, June 13 2016

TO:      Business Officers and PPS Preparers/Reviewers
FR:      Cynthia Señeriz, Director, Human Resources
RE:      Important Update: Balancing to the Merit Fund Pool                    

Two important updates are included in this communication that impact the accuracy of the merit fund pool reported in the Cost Summary within the Web Merit application.

A programming error has been discovered in Web Merit that will overestimate the merit fund pool for departments with active ERIT*participants.  The Web Merit incorrectly adds the ERIT reduction to the payroll base.  As a result, the totals reported in the Cost Summary under the columns titled “Current Salary Base” and “Merit Allocation” have been overstated by the ERIT reduction.  A total of 31 departments have been identified with an overstatement in their Merit Allocation dollars as reported in Web Merit.  The divisional control points will be provided a list of active ERIT participants and the corresponding excess merit allocation overstatement for each of the impacted departments. 
In addition to ensuring that the sum of all salary increases do not exceed the merit fund pool, the control figure for “Core” funds cannot be exceeded.  The control figure for “Non-Core” funds can be exceeded, however this would require a decrease in the amount of Core funds to be used since the sum of all salary increases cannot exceed the merit fund pool calculation. 
EXAMPLE                                                            

CORE

NON-CORE

TOTAL

Total Department Payroll

600,000

300,000

900,000

Merit Control Figure

3.00%

3.00%

3.00%

Maximum Dollar Amount

18,000

9,000

27,000

One additional item to report includes a correction to the Merit Program Administration Instructions.  In instances where the Performance Rating should be entered as “X” (no performance evaluation conducted), an Evaluation Date of “06/16” should be entered.  The business rules in Web Merit prevent a future date from being entered.  The original Instructions incorrectly stated “07/16” as the date to be entered.

Additional Questions:

Please contact Amy Arnold, Senior Human Resources Analyst: extension 4068, or email at amy.arnold@hr.ucsb.edu

Reference Links to the HR web site are provided below.

June 2 Memo regarding Merit Program Administration Instructions

http://www.hr.ucsb.edu/memos/2016/merit-program-administration-instructions-policy-coverednon-represented-staff-fy-20162017

June 1 Memo regarding Merit Program Guidelines

http://www.hr.ucsb.edu/memos/2016/merit-program-guidelines-non-represented-policy-covered-staff-fy2016-2017

*Employee-Initiated Reduction in Time (ERIT) is a program which provides the opportunity for eligible career staff (except Senior Management Group members) to voluntarily reduce their appointment percentage and corresponding pay.