Getting a raise-6th preliminary actions before the battle

by chess master on 31/01/10 at 9:38 am

Intro­duc­tion

We have sev­eral arti­cles about the main issue of get­ting a raise, so, I have decided to add my two cents arti­cles which will try to sum­ma­rize in key point sev­eral of the tac­tics one should fol­low to get the desired raise.

Some orga­ni­za­tions, pay increases are tied auto­mat­icly to level and years of expe­ri­ence. In oth­ers reg­u­lar salary reviews are held with indi­vid­ual employ­ees. Else­where, lit­tle will hap­pen unless the employee takes the imitative.

If you are in this posi­tion, and you want to remain with your exist­ing employer, here are some essen­tial advices for get­ting that next pay increase.

The Golden rule-You deserve it.

I decided to start with this impor­tant mes­sage, because there are sev­eral book’s out there that advice you to think first if you deserve it. So as appose to that old way think­ing, the first mes­sage from the office sur­vivor is that:

You deserve it 110%, all the time.

Why?

If you come across this dilemma that means either three things:

 

• You started to have doubts whether you are get­ting paid enough or not. And that means you are giv­ing more work and get less money.
• Your per­sonal state has changed sucg as mar­riage, buy­ing an apart­ment and has a mort­gage, or your wife gave birth to twins.
• The macro eco­nomic state has changed and thus the prices of liv­ing went up thus you need a raise to keep the same liv­ing as before. This argu­ment is macro the­ory but it’s good to know it and you may use it when the nego­ti­a­tion starts.

 

 So, after we clar­i­fied the mes­sage that you always deserve a raise, let’s focus on the problem.

What is the problem?

Let’s say it together: con­vinc­ing your boss to know the truth. So, because con­vinc­ing oth­ers is the issue we will need to address the request like a lawyer in a court room: know­ing the facts, play lit­tle poker , use some pol­i­tics and hope for some luck.

 

1.“Getting the facts right” strat­egy : Keep tabs on your own performance

As the office sur­vivor, you must remem­ber that your per­for­mance is not the issue. once your reached the deci­sion for ask­ing a raise, it means that you see your­self eli­gi­ble for it and there­fore your per­for­mance is the best around com­pared to oth­ers in the office. but for col­lect­ing the facts to your boss do the following:

• Con­stantly mon­i­tor your per­for­mance, par­tic­u­larly in this areas your supe­ri­ors view as impor­tant. in addi­tion mon­i­tor your col­leagues per­for­mance and look for sev­eral how are doing worse job. Com­par­ing them while nego­ti­at­ing, know­ing their poor per­for­mance will might help you get­ting it.
• You should bring the good facts about suc­cess­ful projects you where in charged of  with the fol­low­ing points  
  • bud­get,
  • Per­for­mance standards.
  • sales tar­gets
  • Dead­line.

2.“Getting the facts right” strat­egy : Keep a record of your achievements.

Part of the office pol­i­tics and appro­pri­ate method of work, is to record your accom­plish­ments regularly.

Remem­ber to use the stan­dard report­ing tool your orga­ni­za­tion uses. If your orga­ni­za­tion doesn’t have a stan­dard “report­ing tasks” tool, this is a great oppor­tu­nity to sug­gest your boss to grab one. This will def­i­nitely add you more scores.

These files will help you in jus­tify your case for salary increase. Such records have addi­tional pur­pose: they are your lit­tle bricks for build­ing your per­sonal port­fo­lio if you apply for another job in your orga­ni­za­tion or elsewhere.

3.office pol­i­tics strat­egy: pro­mote yourself.

First Office pol­i­tics tac­tic in pro­mot­ing your­self is to sub­tle self pro­mo­tion. This is essen­tial if you intend to progress in the orga­ni­za­tion. Make sure you keep your men­tor or supe­rior up to date with your achieve­ments. Don’t fish for com­pli­ments; but when some­one thanks you for doing some­thing extra­or­di­nary, ask him or her to tell your boss as well.

 

Atti­tu­di­nal tac­tic that can be used by the office sur­vivor is to help and guide your colleges/staff and I par­al­lel keep you boss informed of you action of guide that will bring suc­cess to the orga­ni­za­tion and to him also.

 

4.office pol­i­tics strategy:Hold reg­u­lar meet­ings with your boss

Meet­ing reg­u­lar with your boss is office pol­i­tics basic rule. You need to do it no mat­ter if you want a salary raise or not. Now that we under­stand it lets see how this can help us get­ting the money.

 

As we said ear­lier, your per­for­mance is not an issue because you know you are doing well, but you need your boss to acknowl­edge it, so this is why you need reg­u­lar meet­ings. You should meet your boss once a week at least, but for per­for­mance meet­ings set it up once every quarter.

 

Dis­cuss your per­for­mance with your supe­rior. Indi­cate that you believe you are doing a good job. Con­firm that your boss con­tinue to share your review. In this way, you will be prepar­ing the ground for later meet­ing when you can press home your request for a raise.

 

5.“getting the facts” strategy:do your research

Be sure you know the following:

• your grade or level,
• salary ranges within those levels,
• Sim­i­lar back­ground information.

 

Con­tinue research in these channels:

• your peers,
• Your supe­ri­ors.
• Know what you nor­mally might be enti­tled for.
• Find out what other orga­ni­za­tions pay for posi­tions sim­i­lar to yours.
• Talk to your friends.
• search the ‘posi­tion vacant’ columns,
• net­work at meet­ings and seminars,
• Read indus­try magazines.
• Check all online resources. Use online out-sourced help in doing the research .the costs are a joke.

 

Remem­ber that only inex­pe­ri­enced and ama­teurs will go into a meet­ing to dis­cuss salary requites with­out a proper research. as an office sur­vivor you need to know exactly where you stand.

 

6.Poker strat­egy: Put your­self in your boss shoes

After prepar­ing and before speak­ing with the boss, reflect on how your request might be viewed from his or her per­spec­tive. Here are some few ideas that bosses might think or say. Be ready to pre­pare your self with a series of ques­tions /answer. Sim­u­la­tion is the game .remem­ber this is what your boss might think-not you!

 

• Do you and your work per­for­mance war­rant the raise?
• How is the com­pany per­form­ing at the present?
• What will be the impli­ca­tions for oth­ers if you receive a raise?

 

Think through the options and how you can respond. For exam­ple, if your boss says:

Now is not the time

And you think you are being put off, be gra­cious and find out when will be the right time. then, when you come back at the time your boss sug­gests, you will have some  advan­tage, at that point .you should begin then by saying:

XXX months ago when I came to ask fro a raise, you sug­gested that this month will be the best time for use to talk about it

this sound like you are fol­low his orders.

 

If your boss says:

You don’t deserve the raise

Ask what you have to do to make your­self eli­gi­ble. if it worth it to you, you may want to improve your work per­for­mance and strengthen your case for next time.

 

If you still con­fi­dent about ask­ing for a raise, its time to ask for a meet­ing to put your case.
 

Con­cul­sion

In the next arti­cle on this issue we will describe sev­eral tac­tics an office sur­vivor can use. Hope you enjoyed so far and add your com­ment if you like to.

Get­ting a raise-6th pre­lim­i­nary actions before the bat­tle, 7.0 out of 10 based on 3 rat­ings

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