MERIT MATRIX
Merit Matrix, is there still any merit in it?
You can build different merit matrix model, but your underlying employee indicative data remains the same.
A What-if projection on compensation budget is built on, current Performance rating, current salary and market pay range. The budget alignment is computed by an iterative increase, to arrive at an approved budget.
A model that is built using above information has a flaw, when forecasting, the data set used for building budget should be in the future, instead of current.
With the advancement of predictive analytics and machine learning, the ability to build more accurate budget programs that aligns with your organization is what HR should be looking at. The magic 3% budget should be exposed in a way, its usage is more actual than accrual.
The merit in Merit Matrix can still be retained using the traditional method of building budgets only by applying modern heuristic algorithms.