Merit Increases to be Pro-Rated Based on Review Date

The end of the PACE system for performance reviews at Cook Children’s Health Care System comes with a related big change: Pro-rated merit increases effective Nov. 19.

That means employees in good standing will receive a portion of your 5% merit increase based on when your last review occurred. If it’s been almost a year since the review, the merit increase will be close to 5%. If the review was more recent, the merit increase would be smaller. As an example of the way it’s calculated, if your last review was conducted between the pay periods beginning 3/12/23 and 3/25/2023, your pro-rated merit pay will be 3.46%. 

Letters from Human Resources Compensation are going out Tuesday, Nov. 21, and Wednesday, Nov. 22, for directors to start handing out to staff in our departments. These individualized letters include your last review date and the merit increase you should expect.  

Please understand that not everyone is receiving the same amount in November. Again, that’s because it will be pro-rated based on each employee’s last review period.  For those employees who received a promotion, the review period will be based on the promotion date.

Now that PACE has been phased out, Cook Children’s is moving to a common date review cycle for most of the 9,000 employees in our system. Beginning in 2024, regardless of when you were hired, everyone except physicians and Child Study Center teachers will now have your review completed in August or September every year going forward. Merit increases will be processed in the second pay period of November.

Employees still must complete your annual education and occupational health requirements.

By moving to a common date evaluation model, we’ll be better able to measure the performance of our employees against the same fiscal year system goals and initiatives. That’s the “cascading of goals” term you’ve been learning about. This model enables leaders to assess employees in the same job code/role with more consistency and fairness. In addition, top performers can be identified more easily.

Here are a few more practical advantages:

• Prompt administration of salary increases
• Better budgeting and cost control
• Alignment with our goals and objectives as a system
• Condensing the process into a short timeframe rather than going all year long

We have already had a question about next year’s merit pay percentages and we will not know that amount until next October, because the budget for fiscal year 2025 has yet to be finalized.

For answers to our most frequently asked questions on merit increases, click here.

If you have any questions about this topic, please email CCcompensation@cookchildrens.org.