If you work a retail job you might just walk up to your manager and say "What is the process for getting a raise here?"
They'll tell you. It's probably one of the most common questions you hear as a manager of retail employees. The answer might be "You'll be eligible for a raise at your one-year anniversary" or "Honestly, it's really hard to get a raise here. You have to be promoted, and we haven't had any promotion opportunities in a year."
In a typical corporate, institutional, start-up or not-for-profit job, I don't recommend that you walk up to your manager and say "I feel like I need a raise." If you do that they're likely to say "Your review is in six months" or "The budget is already spent for this year" or "You know I can't do that." They have processes up the wazoo in those workplaces.
They're not going to jump on your request for a raise and deviate from the standard process just because you ask them to. You have to invest time and energy in first seeing and then articulating the reasons your requested increase make good business sense.
You have to do careful preparation if you want a raise beyond whatever they're giving out as an annual cost-of-living bump, assuming that they're doing bumps at all.
Asking for a raise is a sales process. Many or most people who don't work in Sales don't know how to run a sales process. It doesn't happen all in one shot. You walk through it in steps.
The first step is to understand what's bothering your manager or keeping him or her up at night. The best way for you to get a raise is to offer to jump in and solve one of your manager's biggest problems. That means you need to figure out what those problems are. Put on your manager's glasses, as it were, and see the world through his or her eyes.
What are your manager's biggest performance-review objectives for this year? You have to know what they are. If you have a decent relationship with your manager, ask him or her. "What are the big items on your plate this year?"
Your manager probably won't be able to approve an unusual salary increase for you all by him- or herself, unless your boss is the CEO. Most managers are going to have to run your give-me-a-raise idea by their boss, so you have to give them the ammunition for that conversation.
You have to feed your manager the rationale for your pay increase. It has to be crystal clear to the higher-up manager that it would be foolish to pass up the opportunity to give you a little more money -- not millions of dollars, I'm assuming -- and get a big return for that investment.
You'll start the conversation by requesting a Roadmap Meeting with your manager.
YOU: Sal, do you have a second?
SAL: Sure, what's up, Dean?
YOU: I was wondering if you and I could sit down some time soon and go through my 2015 plan. I have a bunch of ideas to share with you, to get your thoughts and some relative priorities among them.
SAL: Um - yeah! Cool. That sounds good. Set it up with Robin.
YOU: Okay, great.
You've got to make your own roadmap for yourself in your job this year. You can't view your upcoming year like this: "I guess I'll just do whatever I'm told to do and pick up the phone when it rings." You can do that, but then you're not driving your own career. Instead of being passive and reactive, make your own plan for 2015!
In your highest-level plan, of course, your job is PART of your professional roadmap -- not the whole thing. Eventually, unless you're planning to run your company one day, your path and their path are likely to diverge. You want to plan for that, and know why you have the job you have -- not just because it's a job and it's only two train stops from your house.
What are you in your job to learn? All you get to take with you when you leave is your experiences -- resume fodder and Dragon-Slaying Stories -- so you'd better know as you start the new year exactly what kinds of resume fodder and Dragon-Slaying Stories you plan to pick up during the year.
One level down is your roadmap for yourself in your job. What are the major milestones you expect to accomplish this year? Get 'em on the roadmap, with tentative dates. The more keenly you understand your boss's priorities, the more you can align your personal roadmap in the job with your boss's must-get-done items. That's good for the company and for you!
The other element you're going to include in your roadmap is a bonus or salary bump plan. When you hit a major milestone or a bunch of them, you're asking for certain financial rewards, and you're not waiting to hit the milestones before you ask for them.
You want a formal plan, just like your sales team's commission plan. Your manager is going to feel a lot more comfortable committing to spending money in your direction when s/he's able to crow about your triumphs to the executive team at the same time!
Here's the Roadmap Meeting part of the salary-increase conversation:
YOU: I really appreciate the brainstorming, Sal. It's good we talked about the reseller program. Great ideas to get into practice!
SAL: I'm excited, Dean. It's going to be a good year. Can you hit these dates you laid out?
YOU: Well, I'm committing to them, and I don't see any major challenges right now. I'd like to tie this ambitious roadmap to some financial incentives for me -- I have a few ideas, here on this addendum page. One of them is a structured bonus plan, and the other one includes a salary increase right after the new site launch.
SAL: I can't guarantee anything, but I appreciate your putting all the thought into this and putting your plans in writing. I'm going to see Jim, the division President, next week and I'll walk through it with him. Are you saying the roadmap you shared with me is contingent on the bonuses or salary increase you're suggesting?
YOU: I'm looking for a meeting of minds. I hope you agree with me that the roadmap I just shared speaks to a greatly expanded role from what I'm doing now, with a lot more influence on our business results this year.
SAL: I can go along with that. How much money I can tie to it, I couldn't tell you at this moment.
YOU: Absolutely fine. How should I follow up with you?
SAL: Give me a couple of weeks.
YOU: That sounds good. In the meantime I'll proceed as though we're on the same page.
People always ask me "Doesn't a request for a salary increase imply that you're ready to leave your job if you don't get one?" I'd say it might imply that in a mild way, but in this new-millennium working world, we all have to be ready to leave our jobs at any moment anyway.
We can't ask for a raise and tell ourselves and the people who love us "They really owe me a raise, given what I contribute, but if I don't get one, I'll just keep the job anyway."
If your boss can't give you exactly what you want, revise the roadmap. Maybe you can get a five percent increase for accomplishing certain things and another five percent six months later. I want you to be flexible, but more than that I want you to know your value. You're the only person who can know that. You're the only person who can advocate for yourself.
Can you find your voice and do it?
