As part of Figure's Compensation Review module, you can now run off-cycle reviews to adjust salaries outside of the standard review cycles. This guide will help you understand its purpose and how it works.

Purpose

Operational efficiency and consistency

Handle compensation adjustments that occur outside the standard review cycle with the same streamlined and standardized approach as annual compensation review campaigns.
Set up and follow a clear approval process, enhancing collaboration, reducing useless back and forth, and improving control.

Pay transparency compliance and easy justification

Maintain a complete history of off-cycle adjustments within the system with comprehensive tracking, ensuring all changes are documented and accessible.
Ensure off-cycle adjustments are following your company compensation guidelines and provide equitable treatment for all employees.

Budget control

⚠️ This part is not yet covered by our feature but will be in the near future. See “Expected improvements” section below for more information.

Eliminate the risk of overspending by having a clear budget overview of all off-cycle adjustments and their budgetary implications.
Gain visibility into the financial impact of off-cycle adjustments with budgeting analytics and insights, ensuring decisions are made within budget constraints.

When to run off-cycle reviews?

You may need the ability to give employees raises for various reasons:

Off-cycle promotions: when an employee is promoted and needs a salary adjustment.
Counter-offers: to retain employees who receive external job offers.
Market adjustments: aligning with external compensation benchmarks.
Salary band adjustments: updating salary bands within the company, following market evolutions.
Job or responsibility changes: adjusting compensation based on new roles or responsibilities.
Correction of pay inequities: addressing discrepancies in pay.
Team reorganisations: Adjusting salaries due to team structure changes.

How to run off-cycle reviews in Figures?

Permissions

	Admin	HR	Manager	Employee
Can configure an off-cycle review	✅	❌	❌	❌
Can request an off-cycle review	✅	✅	✅	❌
Can approve* an off-cycle review	✅	❌	❌	❌
Can review an off-cycle review	✅	✅	✅	❌
Can update the reviewers chain	✅	❌	❌	❌

*By approving, we mean validating the request itself, not the outcome of the off-cycle review; the review process begins only after the admin approves the initial request.

1. Configure (for admin only)

Go to Compensation Review from the homepage or Review in the side menu bar
Click Configure off-cycle reviews on the top right
Off-cycle review admins
1. Check admins list
2. Add ad-hoc admins if needed by clicking Add new campaign admins
Define a custom currency exchange rate if needed
Reviewers
1. Set up the appropriate number of reviewers and final reviewer for all your off-cycle reviews campaigns.
2. On a case-by-case basis, admins can modify this chain later when approving an off-cycle review request.
Rules
1. Set up as many promotion compensation guidelines and recommendations as you like by using the Add promotion guideline button on the top right.
2. Do the same for salary increase guidelines.
3. Add comments or any relevant information for your reviewers in the reviewer general guidelines section.
Communication - When the status of an off-cycle review is updated, Notifications will be sent by email to the relevant recipients.

2. Request

Go to People
Open the employee profile of your choice by clicking on their name
Click Request off-cycle review
Select the reason, effective date and add a comment to provide context to approver and reviewers.
Once you’ve sent your request, admins of your Figures account will receive an email notification and approve or refuse your request. If your request is approved, reviewers following the reviewer chain will receive an email notification.

3. Approve (admin only)

There are 2 ways to get notified when an off-cycle review has been requested:
- By receiving an automated email.
- In the Review module on Figures, select the Off-cycle reviews tab, the request will appear in Pending requests.
When opening the pending request, the generic reviewers’ chain set up in the configuration will be applied. To modify it, select the reviewers’ names in the drop-down menu.
Approve or decline the request.
- If approved, reviewers will receive an email informing them their review is pending.
- If declined, the person who requested the off-cycle review will be notified by email.
You can find past and ongoing reviews in the All reviews section of your module.

4. Review

There are 2 ways to review an off-cycle review:
- By clicking the link you received through an automated email.
- In the Review module on Figures, you’ll find reviews pending for your review in Your tasks
When opening the pending review, follow the the same review steps as for annual compensation reviews.
Once you’ve submitted your review, the next reviewer will be able to proceed to the review.
You can find past reviews in the Past campaigns tab of any employee profile, including off-cycle and annual reviews to track salary history.

Expected improvements on the feature

	Current state	Future vision
Budget	⚠️ Off-cycle reviews spendings are not included in the “total budget” of a compensation review for now.	Annual budgets with both comp review cycles and off-cycle reviews, allowing budget tracking throughout the year.
Analytics	No analytics on the off-cycle reviews or cross cycle and off-cycle reviews.	See analytics on any given period of time including both cycle and off-cycle reviews.
Notifications	Email notifications	Slack/Teams integrations

We’d be happy to have your feedback on this new feature to help us develop the best solution for you! Please experiment it on Figures and let us know anything that comes to mind. 🙏🏻

Managing promotions in your Compensation Review

User types and permissions

Defining and distributing your Compensation Review budget

Getting started with Compensation Reviews

Reviewing and submitting employee compensation adjustments