Monday, January 26, 2009

Salary negotiation in your current job

By Trevor Davide Grant

A colleague of mine asked me if it was normal or even possible to renegotiate the salary of your current job. He discovered by doing some research on the job market that he was quite underpaid in his field. He was wondering if it was easier to quit his job, and come back to the same company with a higher salary after working elsewhere for a while.

Salary negotiation is not just reserved for new recruits. Anyone can negotiate their salary by asking for a raise. They must be well prepared with a deliberately planned strategy and a well developed supporting case to persuade the employer.

Of course, if you just accepted a job offer, it is not a good time to ask for more money, but once you have some time and accomplishments behind you, you should look to salary negotiation. If you just accepted the offer, you did so fair and square. That is why it is important to know your value before accepting any job offer.

There are many ways to increase your total compensation. Think about things like stock options, improved benefits, more days off, or pension plan contributions as other value adds to your compensation. Sometimes it is easier for the employer to give you what you want if you aren't looking at the hard cash bottom line.

Prior to asking for a pay increase you should do make sure to take a number of steps.

1) Know the value of your skills in your area. Research multiple sources for salary data, and be aware that surveys conducted by HR will be more reliable than those that are self-reported by employees.

2) Your value proposition is a very powerful persuasion tool. Make sure you consider all the ways you ad value to the business. Profit, cost savings, quality, customer satisfaction are all value adds that literally translate into bottom line. You need to assess your contribution to the bottom line.

3) Get yourself ready to discuss this with your employer. You may need to educate them that you are below the salary range. Either way, you will let them know that you know what the market is.

4) Having done your research and having an intuition for where your performance falls within the percentile range, you will need to have a conversation with your boss and agree on the level you are performing at.

There are many factors to consider. I recommend doing a lot of research. One thing is for sure, you will not likely get the raise as quickly or necessarily as much as you were hoping for without mastering your skills in salary negotiation.

I highly recommend negotiating salary in your current job before considering leaving your job and trying to earn more money. This is particularly relevant if you are happy with your job aside from the salary.

One tactic that can give you an upper hand is to first get yourself another job offer. With that as your back up measure, you will have more leverage in negotiating salary.

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