Bonus Compensation Template - General

When creating a bonus type compensation template, the Compensation Template administration page is separated into two pages, the General page and the Layout page. The General page displays template details such as components, budget rules, eligibility rules, proration rules, etc. All layout details appear on the Layout page.

Components

Click the plus icon to the right of the Components heading and select the components that are included in the template. Then click Save. Each selected component is added to the template.

Budget Type

From the Select Budget Type drop-down list, select the appropriate budget type for each component. The available options are:

  • % of Base - The budget is a percentage of the employee's most recent base salary within the period end date.
  • Fixed Amount - The budget is a fixed monetary amount.
  • Cascaded - A cascaded budget is cascaded from the top-level manager down to the lower-level managers. This means that the top-level manager creates their compensation totals from the budget and passes the remaining budget to the next lower manager, and so on.
  • Sum of Targets - This indicates that the budget is dynamically set to be a sum of the employee's target values for the manager's task. Note: This option is not available for Target components.
  • None - No budget associated with the component.

Amount

In the Amount field, enter the allocated budget amount for each component. Note: If the budget type is None for the component, then the Amount field is not available. Compensation tasks that use a template with None selected as the budget type have the selected components as part of the task, but a budget is not associated with the component.

Save As

For Target components, you must select how the target is saved for a user's individual target. The options are to save it as a fixed amount or as a percentage.

Availability

To set the availability for a component budget, follow these steps:

  1. From the Availability drop-down list, select an OU type. A Select icon appears to the right of the drop-down list.
  2. After selecting an OU type, click the Select icon and select the appropriate OU. Note: You cannot select the same OU twice for a single budget component.
  3. After selecting an OU, a second line item is added for the component budget.
    1. The first line item has an Availability set to OU: Default. This component budget serves as the default budget for this component and cannot be deleted unless there are no other budgets for this budget type. Note: For Equity templates, if multiple budgets are available for a budget component, the payout method for all of those budgets matches the payout method for the default component budget.
    2. The second line item has the availability set to the selected OU. This OU specific budget can be deleted by clicking the Remove icon to the left of the component budget. If multiple OUs were selected, then each OU is set as a single line item for the budget component.
  4. Click the plus icon to the right of the default budget component availability to add another budget for the budget component.

Note: If no availability is selected for a component, then that component serves as the default component budget.

Non-Monetary Components

This section enables administrators to select which non-monetary components are included in the template. When a non-monetary component is selected, this automatically includes the component in the Display Columns field on the Layout page.

Budget Rules

Determine the budget rules for the template. The available options are:

  • Total must be on or under budget - Select this option if the actual compensation totals from the compensation task must be on or below the set budget.
  • Total may be over by - Select this option if the actual compensation totals from the compensation task may exceed the set budget. You must then specify the percentage by which the total may exceed the budget. One to three decimals may be entered in the percentage field, depending on the decimal precision. The decimal precision for percentages in compensation is controlled by a backend setting.

Allocation Rules

The Allocation Rules section allows the administrator to specify how compensation managers will enter Bonus allocations for their employees. Select one of the following options:

  • Fixed amount or percentage of Base Salary - When this option is selected, the compensation manager allocates the employee's bonus as a fixed amount or a percentage of the employee's Base Salary for each Bonus component included in the template.
    • When this option is selected for a Bonus type template that is included in a compensation task, the Bonus component column is editable, allowing compensation managers to allocate by a fixed amount or a percentage of the employee's Base Salary. The % Attained column is read-only and the value in this column is dynamically updated based on the Bonus component allocation.
  • Percentage of Bonus Targets - When this option is selected, the compensation manager allocates the employee's bonus as a percentage of the employee's Target Bonus for each Bonus component included in the template.
    • When this option is selected for a Bonus type template that is included in a compensation task, the % Attained column is editable, allowing compensation managers to allocate by a percentage of the employee's Target Bonus. The Bonus component column is read-only, and the value in this column is dynamically updated based on the % Attained allocation.
    • When this option is selected for a Bonus Type template, an Adjustment Guideline must be associated with the Individual Target component.

Eligibility Rules

Determine the employees that are eligible to be included in the compensation task using this template. If an employee does not meet the eligibility criteria, then that employee can not receive an adjustment for the template type.

When specifying multiple eligibility criteria, the administrator can use either intersecting logic (AND logic) or combining logic (OR logic) to create the eligibility.

To set the eligibility for the template, follow these steps:

  1. Click the plus icon to the right of the Eligibility Rules heading.

  1. This adds a Select Criteria drop-down list and hides the plus icon. From the drop-down list, select the appropriate metrics to use to determine the template eligibility. Then, click the Select icon to select a specific criterion. The available drop-down options are OU, Group, or User Fields and Metrics. The User Fields and Metrics option includes performance and succession metrics and hire date.
  1. After selecting a criterion, the criterion is displayed in the Eligibility Rules section with AND and OR options. If a User Fields and Metrics option was selected, you must set the operator values for the field. See User Fields and Metrics Options below for additional information.

  1. To add an additional criterion, click either the AND link to use intersecting logic or click the OR link to use combining logic. Intersecting logic makes the template available to only the employees that match all of the criteria. Combining logic makes the template available to all employees that match at least one of the criteria. When you click the AND or OR link, an additional criterion is added to the Eligibility section. Note: When you add an additional criterion, the logic that is selected must be used for all eligibility criteria.
  1. After selecting another criterion, the new criterion is displayed in the Eligibility Rules section with the option to add another criterion. If you previously clicked the AND link, then another AND link is available, and if you previously clicked the OR link, then another OR link is available. If a User Fields and Metrics option was selected, you must set the operator values for the field. See User Fields and Metrics Options below for additional information.

User Fields and Metrics Options

From the drop-down list, select the appropriate operator for each metric (Greater Than, Less Than, Equals, Not Equal To, Greater Than or Equal, Less Than or Equal).

In the field, enter the appropriate value for each metric.

For example, if the employee must have scored higher than 60% on their performance review to be eligible for a compensation adjustment using this template, then select the appropriate performance review as the metric. Select Greater Than as the operator. In the field, enter 60.

See Performance Review Section Score Metrics.

Proration Rules

Proration enables an organization to prorate compensation if the employee has not been with the company or in the position for the entire compensation period. For example, if an employee is hired in April and the compensation period is the calendar year, then the employee has only been in their position for 75% of the compensation period. The organization may choose to prorate the compensation adjustment based on the shortened compensation period.

Proration may be based off of the employee's Last Hire Date, their time in an OU such as Position or Division, or Last Salary Change Date. Bonus and Equity components can be prorated by Individual Targets. Proration can also be based off an employee's time in a specific group. All adjustment recommendations are prorated on the selected components. Note: Base components cannot be prorated by Individual Targets. See Proration with Individual Targets.

Components - Select the components that are prorated on the compensation plan. Only the components that are selected in the Components section appear in this section.

Criteria - For each selected component, you must then select the appropriate proration criteria for the selected components. Note: The Criteria drop-down list does not appear until the component is selected. The following options may be available:

  • Last Hire Date
  • Last Salary Change Date - See Proration by Last Salary Change Date.
  • Time in OU
  • Important: Administrators can only prorate components within a template by one criterion. Multiple criteria cannot be used in the same template.

Retroactive Proration From - This option is only available if Last Hire Date is selected from the Criteria field. This option enables administrators to retroactively prorate the component. See Proration by Last Hire Date - Retroactive Proration.

Next or Cancel

Once all fields are completed, click Next to proceed to the Layout tab. See Bonus Compensation Template - Layout.

Otherwise, click Cancel to discard any unsaved changes.