It’s important to follow a policy for determining raises. It ensures fairness when a pay bump has been made based on the same consideration as others. Therefore, taking the time to sit down and draft a raise policy can save you headaches further down the road.

If you don’t know where to begin, this list of the three most important factors for determining raises will get you started! From here, you can adjust your policy to suit the culture of your company.

1. Colleague feedback. If your company culture is thriving, and your employees are generally supportive of one another, then there is no better meter of merit than a fellow employee’s feedback. However, beware if your employees tend not to get along or be aggressively competitive with one another. Then feedback may not be so truthful.

2. Give goals. Make them reasonable and be encouraging along the way. It’s no secret employees perform best when excited about the possibility of accomplishment, so set them up to succeed!

3. Pay attention to when they do more than asked. Simply a GREAT (and obvious) indication that your employee is a rockstar: notice the extra miles they take with a task. Give them a pay raise, and they’ll probably go further.

An increasingly popular question interviewees ask potential employers is the room for growth within the role, and that growth includes raises. A successful team is one that is encouraged to excel in their positions, and be rewarded for it!