What’s cooler than saving money? Making more money. In the world of personal finance, you’re going to get a lot of tips about how to save and areas to be frugal (including from me), but an area that gets overlooked is how to increase your salary and ask for that raise.
Whether you’re the rockstar worker or you’re still learning at your job, many of you struggle asking a raise. Most employers aren’t going to show up on your doorstep offering you more money – wouldn’t that be great? Even though there is retention risk, part of the operations of a company is to keep expenses low and revenue high.
There will be situations when you’re noticed and the company greets you one day with that raise you were looking for, but it’s hardly the most expedient way for you to get paid.
Does your company have a formal evaluation process? Great, use this timeframe to your advantage. If not, make your own. Discuss with your manager 6 months out that you’d like to establish a process to discuss your performance and set goals on an annual basis. Got it? Let’s get rolling.
Set Some Damn Goals
During your next 1:1 with your manager, be clear with the goals of your position. Depending on your job, it can be easy to get caught in the day-to-day and lose sight of the bigger picture. Your manager will be the one to help steer you in the proper direction.
One of the realities is that your goals need to tie into the larger goals of the department and/or the company. If the company and department are performing well, it will be much easier to negotiate down the road. Also, no one cares if you’re doing great work if isn’t impacting the bigger picture, especially the finance team. The finance team holds the money. The money you’re after.
During your 1:1, you should walk away with 3-5 goals that are the big pillars of your position. Prioritize these every week. You will get pulled in several directions in any position if you can’t say no. It’s your responsibility to maintain boundaries to achieve the goals set for your position.
Bonus – It is also helpful if you have goals that include working with people outside of your department. If you perform well, not only are you showing you can impact multiple areas for the company, you’ll also establish more advocates to sing your praises.
Track your performance on a weekly cadence, setting action plans for each week to advance towards your goals. In your subsequent 1:1’s, review your progress. It’s important for your manager to buy-in to your approach or adjust your direction when necessary.
Do Your Research
There are more resources than ever before to get knowledge of what your position pays. Do some digging into sites like Glassdoor or Indeed to figure out where you stand. There’s nothing better than hard facts as a tool in your pocket.
Keep a ‘Love’ Folder
Keep an email folder at work with compliments you’ve gotten from co-workers. This will serve as a good reference point to help you determine who is feeling your contributions. Not all managers are going to care about how much Lucy appreciates you teaching her how to make lattes, but this will also help your confidence as you go into the more formal conversations.
Preparation
1 Month Prior to Conversation
As you lead up to your review, compile performance on the goals that you had agreed upon with your manager, the research you’ve done based on your position, as well as the notes from our ‘Love’ folder.
2 Weeks Prior to Conversation
Send an email to your manager noting that you’re looking forward to the conversation and mapping out your goals and how you performed with them. You can also ask for input on what you’re presenting to increase alignment prior to the chat. If you’ve been actively having these conversations, there shouldn’t be any real surprised here, but you’ll never be penalized for being too organized.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Allen Iverson isn’t too fond of practice, but unless you’re in the top 20 of your profession in the world, doing some role play is probably in your best interest. Grab a friend, roommate, or co-worker and run through your approach and script a few times. It’s going to feel a little weird, but I guarantee it will help you with the real conversation.
The Conversation
I want to preface that if you haven’t done the work before this, your likelihood of success will be low. As Sun Tzu states in The Art of War, “Every battle is won or lost before it is ever fought.” I promise you Hail Mary’s don’t win this conversation.
Present the conversation as you had laid it out in your email. Discuss the projects you’ve worked on, how you’ve performed, and how they’ve lead to results within your team and company.
This is followed up by your ask for your desired request for a raise. Be specific with it backed up by your accomplishments and research. Numbers are much harder to rebuke than talking about “how hard of a worker you are.”
Follow Up
There is a minimal chance you’re going to get a bag of cash after your first request. Your manager will have to work through the appropriate channels to approve your increase in compensation.
Following your conversation, write a note reviewing your conversation and the follow-up steps. Do not miss this step! It might go something like this:
“It was great to review my performance today and discussing how the projects I’ve completed have done X for the company and those around me. It’s been a great year, and I can’t wait to tackle X projects in front of me.
(List accomplishments discussed here)
I’m requesting a 10% raise which increases my salary from $70,000 to $77,000. I believe this puts me on par for my accomplishments and responsibilities. I look forward to hearing back at our next 1:1.”
Sum It Up
There’s no doubt that performing well is a prerequisite to success here. I know there are many of you out there, but don’t know how to market yourself to ask for what you deserve. Growing up in the Midwest, I was largely taught to conform and to not ruffle any feathers. This caused me to take a passive and cautious approach.
To get what you’re after, you need to be confident and assertive. Don’t confuse this with over-confident and arrogant. If you work this process with facts and diligence, your opportunity for success will be at its highest.
