Salary Negotiation

Anticipate the conversation you expect to have with your employer

Aside from the natural apprehension you as an employee might feel about approaching your employer to ask for a pay raise, before initiating any potential negotiation, it can be useful for you to consider how this conversation might go. While you will never be able to tell for sure how your employer might take your request, what some people might not realise is that it can sometimes be very beneficial to conduct a salary negotiation with your employer

Even if they decline your initial request, there is every chance their opinion of you could still go up, and as an employer, they are guaranteed to be more attentive to your needs, on top of which, they will almost certainly be more aware of your desire to progress within the company. That’s because it is a well-known fact that people who exhibit traits of heightened competitiveness, a ‘go getter’, as so to speak, are usually picked out over their peers for faster advancement

Because of this, even if your employer is unwilling to agree to a rise in salary, they may be willing to make concessions in other areas. That’s why another major part of your preparation should be anticipating how this conversation might go by preparing follow-up requests as a contingency in case your employer refuses your initial approach for a salary raise

For instance, they may be willing to give you the opportunity to prove yourself by widening your area of responsibility, which might lead to a promotion further on down the line. Or they might be willing to agree a deadline with you, at which point if you’ve met a certain target or achieved a certain goal, they might accede to your request, or may be willing to make concessions in other areas – that’s why as part of your negotiation you should be preparing contingencies to put forward in the instance where your employer doesn’t give you what you’re initially asking for

It is crucial to remember that approaching a business is not the same as approaching a person. From the individual’s perspective, whenever we approach someone and ask for something, it is normally an apprehensive experience, but it need not necessarily be the case when approaching your employer. Businesses have a different outlook than most other organisations because they are commercially orientated. (And while this tends to be true especially with larger and medium-sized enterprises, the principal is always the same)

A business is looking for employees to be hard working, loyal, and enthusiastic in their job roles. The reason they want employees like this is simple, they rely on the very employees that exhibit these traits to help them grow their businesses and make them thrive, which makes sense when you think about it. Anything that indicates you are able and willing to commit to the long-term success of their enterprise is something that any good employer will try to nurture and encourage as best as they can

Consider that as far as your typical business mentality goes, that’s why being ambitious is a highly sought after trait and it makes sense that they see this favourably because as employers this means they have a person who is willing to work hard, someone who they can rely on, and someone who they can count on to be loyal and who is willing to commit themselves to bettering the company. Ambitiousness also gives an employer the impression that you are a person who cares a lot about their career and is willing to go the extra mile to help the company achieve its aims

In respect to the negotiation you are attempting to have with your employer – A successful presentation during a salary negotiation will not only make you come across as an employee who is talented and knows their job well, but who is prepared to work hard, and can be relied upon to be loyal to the business, and it is important that you are aware of this fact when preparing for your negotiation beforehand. To follow down this same line of reasoning then – you are in a situation where you’ve got your employer’s undivided attention, and whereby virtue of the very conversation you’re having at the time, you are exhibiting to your employer the ambitiousness and the willingness that you have to succeed within their organisation. That’s why, in a situation where your employer says no to your initial salary increase, the question you should then be asking yourself is if there is anything else you can get from the conversation? How can you make the most of this situation?

That’s why, at the point of initial refusal, it is absolutely vital you keep the conversation upbeat and moving forward. Do this firstly by remonstrating the loyalty you have to the company and also by emphasizing to your employer the desire you have to succeed within the organisation. From there, you would be looking to take the conversation further by trying to explore all additional opportunities with your employer to see if there are other ways that you could better serve the business. For instance, there may be scope to take on additional responsibilities outwith your current job remit, or there may be opportunities for upskilling or further training within your job role. Perhaps there are vacant leadership posts that need filled either permanently or temporarily due to absence or because that person is currently covering a different role. It will be up to you to have an effective conversation with your employer and find out what is available

That is exactly why we prepare with a secondary negotiation objective in mind. There are always opportunities to be had in the workplace, and in a salary negotiation, you are in a perfect position to ask for them…