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Annual Performance Review Process: Merit Increase Program

Merit

Merit pay is directly connected to an employee’s performance of job responsibilities and achievement of goals for the year and reflects Tufts’ pay for performance philosophy. The overall merit budget is set according to the competitive market and the university’s ability to pay. Managers/supervisors have discretion to recommend an employee’s pay increase based on the employee’s performance rating and university merit guidelines. School or division senior management will review and approve pay increases for their organizations.

2025 Merit Increases

The university has established a merit program with distribution guidelines that will be posted in the Merit system for easy access and reference. Managers have the discretion to use the increase ranges to recognize their employees based on their performance by recommending higher increases to those with the highest levels of performance. Managers must ensure spending is within their allocated budget.

When making merit increase recommendations for employees, managers should consider their performance based on the university’s five Performance Categories and use the merit increase guidelines.

Annual Merit System

Annual merit increases will be processed through the merit system that will be available through the Manager Portal in eServe from Monday, May 5 to Friday, May 16, 2025. The Manager Portal is found in a dropdown menu in the upper left of eServe. The system will allow you to:

View your direct report employees and their current annual pay rates.
View the merit pool for your group of employees.
Enter and save ratings for your direct reports that match the rating entered into the Performance Review system.
Enter and save your merit increase recommendations for each direct report and view the new pay rates based on your recommended increases.
View how much you have allocated for increases against the total for your direct reports.
View the performance ratings and merit increase recommendations for any indirect reports you may have.

2025 Merit Process Timeline

May 5–16	Annual merit system is available for managers/supervisors to enter performance rating and merit increase recommendations. May 16, 2025 — deadline for managers/supervisors to complete entry of merit increases for their direct reports.
May 19–30	School/division senior management reviews merit recommendations for all direct and indirect reports to assess budget and make edits if necessary. May 30, 2025 — Deadline for school/division senior management to complete final review of recommended merit increases.
June 2–13	HR Compensation completes audit, approval, and preparation of merit data for transfer to payroll.
June 16–20	HR notifies school/division senior management that audits are complete and merit increase communications can begin. Pay increases are effective the first pay period in July.

The Office of Budget and Planning will analyze the impact of approved merit increases related to grant funded positions.

For More Information

For questions about the Annual Performance Review and Merit process, please reach out to your Human Resources Business Partner.

Provided by Human Resources