Compensation guidelines
Salary increase and promotion rules
After clicking Add guideline, select the type of guideline you want to set:
Minimum Increase
Maximum Increase
Promotion recommendations: provide guidance for initial review suggestions.
Select the review type between promotion and salary increase.
Enter the eligible population. Here is how to Create populations in Figures.
Select the amount and type of guideline between:
Amount: A fixed currency value (e.g., "1000 euros")
Percentage: A percentage of current salary (e.g., "5%")
Range penetration: Based on the new salary range of the employee (e.g., "50%" for midpoint)
Compa-ratio: Relative to the midpoint of the new salary range
Choose between enforcing your guideline or keeping it flexible.
Click Save. Add other guidelines if applicable.
Reviewer general guidelines and information
Use the Reviewer General Guidelines and Information section to provide additional context or instructions. This free-text field allows you to enter rules or information that will be displayed to managers during their review process.
Budget
Choose your method
Quick budget estimation: Set a percentage of total payroll or a predetermined sum for all employees. The system calculates the total budget based on your input.
Upload your budget spreadsheet: Import a pre-defined increase budget by uploading a spreadsheet. Useful for organizations with complex budgeting processes.
Budget calculation
Enter either:
An average increase percentage
A total budget amount
The system will automatically calculate the other value based on the employees' salary mass.
Budget distribution
Choose from three distribution methods:
Proportional distribution
Each reviewer’s budget is a percentage of their team’s total salary, matching the percentage you’ve set for the overall salary mass.
Targeted distribution
Budgets are allocated based on criteria like Business Unit, country, or team. Reviewers receive a budget based on their division's assigned percentage.
Click Distribution criterion in the Budget Distribution section
Choose your criterias for budget distribution. You can also apply your preset Populations.
Choose your budget distribution shares.
Advanced budget settings
You can apply pro-rata budget calculations for increases based on effective dates. Example: A Jan 1st increase counts 100% for 2025 while a April 1st increase counts 75% (because the employee will be paid 3 months on the previous salary before getting an increase).
Salary increase recommendations
Figures' Recommendations tool allows you to create tailored salary increase suggestions for each employee based on their performance and market or salary band positioning.
Your options for creating recommendations depend on your choice in the Budget Definition step above.
Without Smart allocation
You have 2 options:
Upload recommendations: import your own pre-defined recommendations via Excel.
No recommendations: skip this step if you prefer not to provide initial recommendations.
With Smart allocation
You must use Figures' built-in matrix tool to generate recommendations based on performance and positioning. Follow these steps:
Select adjustment method
Choose between market positioning or salary bands positioning (if you're using our Salary Bands module)
Set budget allocation
Decide what portion of your total budget to allocate for system-generated recommendations. This allows you to reserve some budget for managerial discretion or exceptional cases.
Adjust performance and positioning focus
Use the sliders to balance between:
Performance reward: How much to emphasize performance ratings
Bands/Market adjustment: How much to focus on aligning salaries with market or band positioning
Fine-tune the recommendation matrix
The matrix shows recommended increases based on performance and positioning. Use the forbidden icon to exclude certain categories from increases (e.g., low performers or those already above range)
Apply recommendations
Click Apply recommendations distribution to see how these settings affect individual employee recommendations.
Review and adjust
Review the employee table for personalized recommendations. Figures uses interpolation to refine recommendations beyond basic matrix values. Here’s how it works:
The matrix provides increase percentages for specific performance and salary range positions (e.g., "Meets Expectations" at "Bottom range"). However, employees often fall between these set points. For instance, someone might be slightly above the bottom of their range but not yet at the midpoint.
Interpolation calculates a precise recommendation based on exactly where an employee sits within their range and performance rating. This results in smoother, more tailored recommendations.
For example:
The matrix shows 6% for "Meets Expectations" at "Bottom range" and 4% for "Mid range."
An employee 25% between these points might receive a 5.5% recommendation.
This method ensures small differences in positioning or performance are accurately reflected, leading to fairer, more precise recommendations.
Optional: fine-tuning recommendations
After distributing recommendations, you can manually adjust specific cases if needed:
Export recommendations: at the bottom of the page, download the current recommendations as an Excel file to review them in detail outside the Figures interface.
Make manual adjustments: Open the Excel file and adjust individual employee recommendations if necessary. This is useful for handling special cases not fully captured by the matrix.
Import adjusted recommendations: If changes were made, import the modified Excel file back into Figures to update the recommendations.
This step is optional and intended for fine-tuning specific cases. In most instances, smart allocation and the matrix should provide appropriate recommendations without manual changes.
Promotion budget
The Promotions page in Compensation Review lets you allocate and manage a dedicated budget for employee promotions as part of your compensation review process.
Set up a promotion budget
Navigate to the Promotions section in your campaign setup.
Check the box next to Promotion budget to enable this feature.
Enter the amount you want to allocate for promotions in the Amount field.
Figures will show an estimate of the total promotion amount based on your current recommendations and selections.
View promotion recommendations
Below the budget setup, you'll find a list of employees with their current job title, base salary and promotion recommendation. These recommendations are based on the guidelines you set up earlier in the campaign configuration.
Track promotion budget
Once set up, you can track this dedicated promotion budget throughout the entire review process. This allows you to:
Monitor promotion-related expenses separately from general salary increases
Ensure promotion decisions align with your allocated budget
Next step
🥳 You're ready to move on to the next configuration phase: Manager users, permissions and communications. The final step before launch!