Job descriptions have changed since Covid-19 impacted our economy. Most jobs have seen a change in responsibilities. You could be due a reevaluation of your duties and pay. Here are some of the factors you might want to consider:
- About 45% of companies plan to reassess salary increases for 2021. In 2020, salary budgets dropped from an average of 2.8% planned to 2.5% actually given.
- Factors that can impact your professional value include: Years of industry experience; years of leadership positions; level of education; years/level of seniority; certifications or licenses; conditions within your local job market; supply versus demand in your area of expertise; cycle of the economy; or new remote skills added.
So, how do you go about preparing for a conversation with you boss about reassessing your pay level? First, make sure you have the data to support your situation. It’s always better to have more and better information than your boss.
- Research your salary by function, industry and location. The current data about what’s going on in the marketplace is the best place to visit, like Glassdoor, PayScale, Salary.com. minimum/max range
- Determine where you are within your range. You have a better chance of a pay hike if you’re below the 50th percentile of your range. If you’re above 50%, then your performance has to be well above average.
- Define your contribution – What has been your results over the past 6 to 18 months? Can you assess and measure your impact to the organizational results? If not, then your boss won’t be able to evaluate it either. Have you increased productivity or performance, increased revenue, decrease costs, added value, minimized man-hours, created efficiencies, or expanded customer satisfaction or worth?
- Schedule a meeting with your boss. Mention that the subject is job responsibilities, the changing work patterns and a career discussion. You need to find out what plans there are for you to get training, prepare you for greater responsibilities, what opportunities are available, or not.
- Be open to discussing a wider agenda than just pay. Let the boss take the lead as the focus may be short-term (pay) or longer-term (career). The best discussion is all of the above.
- Your strategy is to position yourself as a major contributor to the bottom line, a positive support force to the boss’s results, with potential to contribute higher performance.
In summary, know your worth; keep your discussion simple and non-confrontational; focus on your skills that are in-demand and essential to the boss’s goals; have a strategy that you’re comfortable with; understand that a short-term “no” doesn’t mean the end of the discussion. Schedule another discussion in three months to see if the marketplace has changed, internal dynamics improved or opportunities surface.
The best time to bring up a raise or expanded responsibilities is when the company is seeing new business or profits are up. The worst time is during your actual performance review, when the script is already written by your boss.
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