On this page, we explain how we carry out the Annual Compensation Review (ACR) cycle. For more information on the process and input review for the Compensation Review Process, please see the following handbook page.
If you have any feedback or questions about the compensation review cycle, please contact People Connect.
Increases for Compensation Review Cycles are based on:
If there is an increase in Location Factor and/or Benchmark, team members affected will have the new location factors applied to their compensation range, but would not receive an automatic percent increase to their base salary. For example, if the location factor in a region increases by 10% the team member will not receive an automatic 10% adjustment. The team member will be brought into range after any changes to benchmark, location factor, and exchange rate take place and then their performance increase will be layered on top of this market adjustment.
Eligible team members for Annual Compensation Review have a hire date on or before:
Team members hired after October 31st will be reviewed to ensure their cash compensation does not fall below the minimum of the updated compensation range. Team members may be below the compensation range due to updates to the range for the upcoming year that would include changes to benchmark, location factor, and/or exchange rate, if applicable. If this does occur, the team member will be adjusted to the minimum of the range during the Annual Compensation Review cycle.
After the communication window has closed, grants will be updated in E*Trade over the next few weeks.
Performance and growth potential factors are assessed as part of the Talent Assessments. The factors (developing - performing - exceeding) will be used as an input to calibrate on compensation increases, reinforcing GitLab’s pay for performance Compensation Philosophy.
The Performance Factor is the core input for two key pieces of our Total Rewards:
Cash and equity are two levers available to managers to determine an appropriate Total Compensation for team members. Note that equity planning will be conducted separately from cash compensation planning for FY24. To ensure a connection between talent assessments and compensation outcomes, Directors and above team members will be provided with talent assessment results during planning. More information on the Equity Refresh Cycle can be found below.
Recommendations from Total Rewards for discretionary cash compensation increases based on performance factor:
These recommendations should be considered the single source of truth if different from what is shown in the Workday planning grid.
Actual cash compensation increases may vary (up or down) from these percentages. These guidelines are meant to help ensure company-wide consistency. Actual increases may vary based on:
Do not expect that the final discretionary increases will fall into these ranges, as performance is only one factor out of many that goes into compensation adjustments.
When determining an increase, managers should account for increases in the current fiscal year, due to recent factors such as:
After a manager determines the performance increase (in percentages), that manager should be able to clearly communicate to the team member how it was derived.
Performance increases are not capped at 8%. If a manager would like to suggest an increase higher than the guidelines, they will want to add a justification for each indirect manager to review and approve. Justification is only required if the performance increase % is above guidelines, market adjustments do not factor into this.
If a manager has a team member on their team who is red circled (paid over the top end of the compensation range), in order for the person to receive an increase, the manager will need to submit a compensation exception request with their People Business Partner to Total Rewards which will then be reviewed and approved by the Compensation Group. The Total Rewards team will notify the People Business Partners of the team members red-circled once the new ranges are set for proactive review.
Performance Factors are also used as the primary calibration tool for refresh equity grants, reinforcing GitLab’s pay for performance Compensation Philosophy. Managers are also encouraged to use the Growth Potential Factor (developing - growing - exceeding) as an additional input to calibrate on the equity refresh. The refresh is a long term incentive which can reinforce the long term growth potential of the team member.
In calibrating the equity refresh, we recommend managers to take the following into account:
For team members designated as key talent, managers are encouraged to review team members' total compensation (cash + equity) and recommend increases to ensure team members are incentivized through the next fiscal year in the total compensation package.
Communications on talent assessments is set to take place 2023-01-03 through 2023-01-31, ahead of communications for annual compensation review increases. Please review the handbook page on communicating talent assessments ahead of having talent assessment conversations with your reports.
When you review your team member’s job and compensation information in the Workday tool, you will see the recommended range for performance increase % as well as the minimum market adjustment required to bring a team member into range for FY24. There will also be general details in the smart panel about how the benchmark and location factor changed year-over-year. The minimum market adjustment is allocated separately from the performance increase. We recommend the following steps and best practices:
When determining compensation increases for promotions, the same general guidelines apply. We want to take a look holistically at the compensation change. It is important to not formulaically allocate an annual compensation review increase in addition to the promotion increase. In collaboration with leadership, PBPs will look at the new range (which will be seen in Workday once the promotion is applied) and then make a recommendation based on the holistic view considering the promotion compensation increase guidance, placement in the band compared to peers who were promoted, and annual compensation review increase recommendations. PBPs will be responsible for entering the agreed upon increase recommendation in the tool.
As part of the FY24 Annual Compensation Review, managers and indirect managers will review, approve, and enter salary increases and promotions from 2023-01-11 to 2023-01-20 to ensure that we are paying each team member to market and prioritizing increases based on performance while staying aligned to budget. Then, equity refresh awards will be planned by Directors and above in February (dates TBA) and communicated in March following Board approval.
It is very important that GitLab team members understand their performance and how it impacts their salary.
While some GitLab team members may not receive an increase due to already being at the right competitive rate for their Level, Role, and Location, there are other circumstances where an increase should be avoided. If there are any reasons as to why the team member should not receive the proposed increase to be aligned with market rates in our calculator, please email Total Rewards with the reasoning and cc your People Business Partner. This could be due to a current performance issue, pending termination, etc. If you would like to delay the increase, please outline a proposed plan of action and deadline. Team members who are currently struggling to perform at their current level should have that communicated clearly and the manager should consider delaying the increase until performance reaches a satisfactory level.
For any feedback around the manager review portion of Annual Compensation Review or the cycle via Workday, please add to the feedback issue.
Workday is GitLab's compensation platform where managers can login, review, change, and submit their proposed increases during the Annual Compensation Review cycle.
The compensation review tool was built for planning to be done in USD as the reference currency, but outside of the US, Workday will default your currency to local currency.
In order to experience the compensation review tool as intended, please use the following instructions to update your reference currency. You may change it back after you have completed planning.
All planning managers will be allocated a Merit budget which will consist of budget for performance increases as well as market adjustments, if applicable. Budget roll down to managers was allocated by taking the total market adjustments needed for team members and adding in the expected increases for their team's performance rating distribution.
If you are a manager with other managers reporting to you, you will see your overall budget including any budget that rolls up into you in the Organization Summary screen. The overall budget will also reflect if you go into any of the planning grids for managers that report to you. When you edit your own planning grid, it will show you the budget for just your direct reports.
Promotion budgets will be held at the VP+ level and will reflect $0 below this level. At the VP level, this will reflect the overall budget for all direct and indirect reports and will not update to show the budget for just direct reports.
All increases for Annual Compensation Review will be finalized by Feb 1st in Workday where new salaries will be updated in team member profiles and the cash compensation statement will be generated. Visibility in Workday will be limited until Febuary 16th in order to allow managers sufficient time to communicate. Managers will have access to the cash compensation statement on the team member's record once generated.
Managers should communicate increases to contractors by February 7th and to all team members by February 15th.
Further guidelines on communications can be found on the Compensation Review Conversations handbook page.
Each team member who receives a base salary increase due to promotion, market adjustment, or performance/merit during the Annual Compensation Review cycle will receive a Cash Compensation Statement detailing their updated total pay (base + variable if applicable). This letter will be available for managers to review on Workday no later than February 4th, and team members can access their cash compensation statement beginning February 16.
In determining the equity refresh grants for team members, Total Rewards recommends Directors and above utilize the following guidance:
For more detailed instructions with screenshots, please reference the Workday Job Aid shared with all planners.
Budgets are sent down to planners per the guidelines provided above in the Determining RSU Refresh Grants section.
All equity refresh grants will be finalized during the grant approval to take place on March 21st. Once fully approved, Total Compensation statements will be generated by March 28th to be used in conversations with team members. Visibility to these grants in Workday will be limited through April 7th in order to allow managers sufficient time to communicate. Managers will have access to the Total Compensation statement on the team member's record once generated. The handbook page on Compensation Review Conversations can be used for specific guidance on how to have the conversation with a team member and how to think through different scenarios.
Each team member who receives an equity refresh grant will have a Total Compensation Statement generated for them in Workday. Information for how to review these statements as a manager or above is available in the Workday Job Aid for Equity.
The following information is available in the statement:
Page 1
Page 2
Note that all equity values provided are based on an assumed share price disclosed in the statement and may fluctuate throughout the year based on the current share price. Please review the additional disclaimers available in the statement.
The promotion and annual compensation review budget is separate and calculated based on the following conditions: