How to ask for a salary increase in your workplace
This is one of the most sensitive issues in the work place. Many employees feel they deserve a higher pay but they don’t know how to ask for a salary increase while some are afraid of speaking to their boss. Asking for a salary increase shouldn’t be as hard as you think if you know the right steps to take. Many employees who can’t seem to bring up this topic in front of their bosses usually feel frustrated and eventually resign for other better paying jobs.
However, this shouldn’t be the case, if you are happy working for your current company and you have made valuable contributions to the company, then you should bring up this topic at one point or the other. In this article we will show how to effectively request a salary increase in your current company.
Make your contributions visible: Most employees tend to work in shadows. They make a lot of contributions to the company, but the company doesn’t seem to see their contributions. This creates a great deal of problem for them. One way to avoid this is by taking ownership of projects in the company. Report the progress of the project and the final outcome. In your daily work, ensure you always send a weekly report of your job, even if it was never requested. This helps to keep everyone updated with your progress.
Become an expert in your field: Everyone loves an expert, because they make life easy for everyone. However, being an expert comes with a lot of study. Continue to learn about your line of work, so that you stay current with trends and developments in your field. Your strategy might include going to industry conferences, reading industry publications or setting up regular lunch meetings with others in your field to exchange information and ideas.
Update your skills: While it’s important to become expert on your field, it’s also very good to have an array of skills that makes your truly versatile. Bosses like employees who can take on different problems. This makes you very valuable. There are several websites where you can update your skills. These include; Udemy, Coursera, Simplelearn, Lynda, and a host of others. Part of your skills could be learning a new language such as French, Chinese, Russian etc.
Create small and big wins: You must be able to work strategically to qualify for a salary increase. One way to do this is by creating small and big wins. Small wins are minor activities in your work that you can spearhead. These may include training your colleagues on new skills, introduction of faster and efficient tools for staff, recommending new ideas based on your research etc. while big wins could be implementation of a new product, reactivation and successful execution of an abandoned project, introduction of cost reduction methods. By doing these, you will be in a better position to ask for a salary increase.
Approach your boss: This is a no-brainer. But before you can get a salary increase you need to discuss it with your boss. This is not hard to do. Before you approach your boss ensure, you have documented your activities, your achievements and plans for future. Present it to your boss and ask for an increase. Yes, it’s that simple. A boss that appreciates your contribution to the team will never want to lose you and will be prepared to meet your demands. However, you should also be prepared to get a No.
Salary is a measure of your contributions to a company. Your employment is a mutual agreement between you and the company to provide a service in return for an agreed compensation. However, as time progresses there is always the need to review your salary due to increased work load, inflation, or contributions to company’s growth. Requesting for a salary increase shouldn’t become a thing of fear, you should approach it boldly. If you get a No without any promise for an increment or a good reason why it can’t be increased despite your contributions, perhaps you should start looking elsewhere.
