Salary Negotiation
Create a dossier of your accomplishments
While this next step is not a must, it is certainly a very shrewd thing to do. Creating a comprehensive folder that outlines your accomplishments and accolades can not only make you come across as being that much more organized and purposeful in your approach, but it also creates a much stronger sense of professionalism too. If done properly, a dossier will reinforce everything you have to say to your employer during a salary negotiation. When making this be as specific as you can – include charts and graphs!
Presentation is everything! Set your dossier out in the most professional way you know how, include times and dates, also statements or memos of praise from your colleagues and supervisors (if you feel it’s appropriate).
What this dossier should do is outline your worth to the company, either by way of hours you have saved for your business, ways you have helped with customer retention, or some other quantitative way that your company has benefitted from your services. Remember, be creative, include any certifications and accolades you can think of – no matter how generic these might seem at the time. Like so much else, a lot depends on how you word things, and by effectively wording your pitch correctly, you can turn neutral, everyday functions of your role into strong selling points!
Your main objective when writing your achievement dossier is to tie in all of the achievements listed in it as effectively as you possibly can so you can quantitatively prove to your employer why you should be getting paid more. Again, do your research – look to see how much people who are doing the same or a similar role to yourself are getting paid. How are their promotion prospects? What’s the average time they have to wait before they get a raise? What sorts of qualifications do they have? Choose statistics to present that are beneficial to yourself and your presentation. Give a clear and factual argument as to why you should be getting paid more. This is where being creative can come in – information you’ve collated can be presented on charts or in graphs in many different ways
If you need help or guidance with certain aspects of your dossier, a good place to start is by consulting a professional C.V writer; it’s an utterly tiny investiture that could potentially reap huge dividends for you. Writing is their area of expertise, that’s why some of them may be able and willing to assist with certain areas of your dossier, thus ensuring it gets that polished and professional feel you need – just remember that in order to ensure the best results you’ll have to give them specific instructions on what you’re looking for!
A finished achievement dossier is a professional visual aid for yourself that you can not only use to reinforce the points that you make during a salary negotiation, but is something you can also use when going for job interviews (both internal and external roles) to present your achievements to the interviewer. It can also potentially be used in the opposite instance as well – such as in disciplinary proceedings. On top of this, it can be used to make a case for a salary increase in situations where you are not physically able to be present to argue the merits of this in person, and /or, cannot get access to speak with a decision-maker to negotiate your salary directly
An achievement dossier instantly makes you come across as being a serious, accomplished professional in the eyes of anyone who reads it, and is definitely worth taking the time to do no matter what level in the employment spectrum you find yourself in
Bring copies of your dossier – in the same way that in a job interview you are advised to bring extra copies of your C.V, with a salary negotiation it is recommended that you bring extra copies of your dossier (if you decide to make one). This way, it will ensure you are able to provide a copy to anyone who needs one, or to whom you feel it might be beneficial to give one to. Also, where you’ve provided copies of your dossier to a person/(s) during a negotiation, when introducing a point be sure that you’re giving them enough time to look over the dossier before putting your next point across.
While an achievement dossier is one of the most useful things you can make to aid yourself during a salary negotiation – there are many other important areas we need to consider when it comes to negotiating a salary as well
Next, we will continue to look at some more of the most important things we can do to prepare ourselves for a successful salary negotiation…
