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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

Gold stars © Vectorum on Freepik

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 2025 to 30 April 2026.
  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 

The 2026 nomination process in RDM

This webpage will be updated when the annual Awards for Excellence scheme opens again in May 2026.