Part of navigating your career involves ensuring your compensation directly reflects your performance and competes within the market. Before negotiating a raise, you should prepare for the conversations by researching, gathering evidence, and setting your expectations accordingly. Here are some tips to help as you begin navigating the process.
Research Your Market Value
Market research offers information to showcase how your skillset is valued in the market. You can gather market data in a few ways:
- Research online postings. Identify career opportunities that sites like Indeed or LinkedIn post to compare your scope of responsibilities with the listed salary ranges.
- Internal Salary Bands. Gather internal information to know the salary band your company has set for your position and, if possible, what your peers earn.
- Review local salary guides. Local salary guides provide a range of compensation associated with your job title. Review the AMBRION Salary Guide as a great place to start understanding how you compare to the market.
Gather Evidence of Your Accomplishments
Employers do not give raises just based solely on fulfilling your job duties as requested. If you have gone above and beyond in your responsibilities and exceeded expectations, advocating for more money might be warranted. Gathering this evidence will provide further data to use when negotiating a raise. Evidence can include:
- Specific and quantifiable examples of extra work/projects you have taken on
- Improvements you implemented that helped save the company time and money
- Training and development you may have provided to other employees.
- Past performance reviews that list recognizable accomplishments
- Taking on added responsibilities due to turnover, where the position was eliminated
Reach Out to a Recruiter
Consider reaching out to a recruiter whom you can trust and who has your best interest in mind to assist in gathering additional evidence. People often assume they can only leverage recruiters when needing a new job; however, a recruiter can provide valuable market information, insights, and negotiation strategies.
Talk to Your Manager With Confidence
Researching your market value and gathering evidence of your accomplishments constitute critical steps in building your business case. Completing this research will allow you to present your position with confidence and increase your chances of successfully negotiating a raise. If you still feel a bit nervous leading up to the conversation with your leader, practice the conversation with a trusted friend. Believe in yourself if you want others to believe in you.
Keep an Open Mind
Don’t expect an immediate answer from your manager. Companies can take weeks and sometimes months to process salary increases, depending on their structure. Be patient and allow your manager time, but do request a timeline for following up on your conversation.
Final Thoughts
If you didn’t get the raise you hoped for, try to keep an open mind and look at the bigger picture. If you like your work and you have the opportunity to still learn new skills, don’t let it discourage you. Not receiving a raise doesn’t always signal that you should look for a new job. Continue building the skills that you might lack, and don’t fear revisiting the conversation in the future. The timing of your request might not have suited the company. Maybe they had just set the budget and couldn’t accommodate your request.