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Reward and Recognition

Working at RDM

One of the ways in which we recognise staff who have performed well in our Department is through the University's annual Awards for Excellence Scheme and year-round Recognition Scheme

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This is an important opportunity to reward staff in our Department who have performed well. If you are a line manager, consider whether you can nominate those you line manage, such as researchers, professional services staff and technicians (note that self-nomination is also possible for the Awards for Excellence part of the scheme).

The scheme is designed for up to 10% of eligible staff to receive Awards for Excellence and up to 8% Recognition Awards.

The scheme

The scheme is intended to recognise contributions from staff who:

  • have performed well in all the key areas of their jobs;
  • have consistently demonstrated exceptional performance, significantly above that expected for their grade; OR
  • have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to a value or behaviour framework, through examples provided against RDM's Respectful Behaviours Framework.

The scheme has two elements:

  1. Awards for Excellence Scheme, awarding one-off or recurrent incremental payments. The review period is from 30 April 2024 to 30 April 2025.
  2. Recognition Scheme, under which smaller, more timely awards (£200 or £400 before tax in all cases) can be made to recognise one-off, outstanding contributions at any time of the year.

Eligibility

All staff in grades 1-10 (and some staff employed on clinical grades) with more than six months' service are eligible to be considered for an award.

The following members of staff are not eligible for awards under either scheme:

  • those holding posts (such as EC Marie Curie fellowships) for which the funder's terms specify the individual's rate of pay outside the University's salary scales
  • those with less than six months' service with the University at the time of assessment 
  • those whose TUPE arrangements preclude inclusion or impose alternative 'merit' arrangements
  • those holding clinical consultant contracts who are eligible for NHS merit awards
  • those on grades 9 and 10 who have been awarded the title of Professor and are therefore eligible for the Professorial Merit Pay scheme)

See details of the scheme, including the eligibility criteria 

(NB The Awards for Excellence nomination forms are specific to RDM this year - see below).

The 2025 nomination process in RDM

Please use these RDM-specific forms for the Awards for Excellence scheme:

See the University webpages for the Recognition Nomination Form, and examples of criteria for all awards.

Nominations for both the Awards for Excellence and Recognition Schemes should be submitted to rdm-strategic-hr@rdm.ox.ac.uk by noon on Monday 9 June 2025. 

A panel chaired by the Head of Department, with senior academic membership and professional support staff advisers from across the RDM divisions and RDM Strategic, and will consider all eligible nominations received. They will meet in late June and awards should be paid in the payroll at the end of August, as per the University timetable for the exercise.

Please note the following:

  • Nominations are strongly encouraged and we are eager to see still more nominations than in 2024. The scheme is designed for up to 10% of eligible staff to receive Awards for Excellence and up to 8% Recognition Awards.
  • Nominations in 2024 enjoyed an excellent success rate, so it is well worth the effort of making a nomination.
  • Guidance on when to recommend a recurrent increment and when a non-recurrent increment is provided in the scheme guidelines: "It is expected that in the majority of cases non-recurrent awards will be made. Recurrent awards will be primarily for those who are at or above the scale bar for their grade and whose exceptional performance is expected to continue. Recurrent awards cannot be made to those at the top of the discretionary scale for their grade. Only non-recurrent awards can be made to those on E grades or the Apprentice grade as these grades have set routes of salary progression."

Please ensure all nomination forms are fully completed, with the reasons for nominations explained and evidenced, as the forms will be assessed by panel members who will not necessarily know the work of the nominees personally.

In most cases, it is anticipated that line managers will submit nominations for members of staff who they think meet the relevant criteria, and it is expected that line managers will have discussed a nomination with the member of staff before submission. In cases where a member of staff and their line manager disagree about whether they should be nominated, the member of staff has the option to submit a self-nomination for an Award for Excellence (but not for a Recognition Award).

Please will line managers ensure they consider all their eligible staff in deciding who to nominate. A broad range of nominations across grades and roles is encouraged.