We're a company of around 150 people across three sites (US, UK and Germany), and we're introducing merit-based pay this cycle. We plan to introduce it at a company-wide town hall, and I'd love your input on how to communicate it.
Context: until now, everyone has received an inflationary increase each year. Over the last year we've introduced a competency framework, performance ratings and consistent development conversations, and now we're connecting them to pay. High performers will clearly benefit, but we expect a large share of colleagues to be rated "meets expectations", and their increase will be close to the old one. For many people the number won't change much, and we don't want to oversell it.
I'd love to hear:
1. Is a town hall the right forum, or did something else work better (team sessions, a video, live Q&A)?
2. What messaging landed well, especially the "what's in it for me" for people in the middle?
3. What would you avoid saying?
4. Any examples or wording you'd be happy to share?