Salary negotiation advice

NMM_2

I am looking for some salary negotiation advice.

I am in the fortunate position in the current economy in that my employer is going to be awarding pay rises. I have had my appraisal on which it will be based and my overall rating was exceeds expectations. I haven't yet been told what my increase will be but we have been told that increases are dependent on appraisal ratings and everyone who has the same rating will get the same percentage increase.

My employer is also recruiting for a number of positions, including a similar role to mine but in a more junior capacity, for which I am in involved in the recruitment process. I have accidentally seen (nobody knows this) a copy of the job spec for this position that includes the salary range. My present salary is only slightly above the mid point of this range, even though I do a more senior version of the job with additional responsibilities.

I feel a bit put out by this. I feel if I am exceeding expectations than surely my value to the company is more than the more junior role. If, when I am told what my pay rise will be, it does not take me beyond the upper limit of the junior position, I want to bring this up with my manager. Can someone give me some tips on how to do this please?

bubblegum1985

I would have a look at your job description and write down what you have done over the last year to achieve this (specific examples) and also what other work you do. Also any evidence that you do this well, are a good team player etc (emails?) and then go to your manager and ask for a review. Also have things that only you can do ie train junior staff.

I would be honest and say to them I would like to talk about the opportunity for a pay review in light of additional responsibilities and go armed with evidence. Not in a cold hard way shove it under her nose but say you have examples etc etc.

I would also not say how much you are thinking but ask them for a figure and then negotiate.

Although if you are doing a lot more than you are supposed to if they don't do a pay rise they may take the extra jobs away from you, if this is a good thing or not is for you to decide.

fridgeracer

i had a job where i started as a junior and after 6 months probation, passed and was considered permanent and no longer a junior, however my salary stayed the same.

only 1 month afterwards i kindly asked my manager to meet with me as i had some important business to discuss with him about my job.

i got the meeting and started by saying how i am very happy with my position, everyone that i work with, and feel i am exceeding expectations and working hard to meet everyones demands and keeping everyone happy, all the while continuing to improve my skills with on going experience at my job. except that I did not feel that my salary reflected my current efforts and my current skills level.

I demonstrated this with proof of the exact same jobs being advertised in the local area which showed higher salaries.

i was told that he would get back to me on the matter in a few weeks. a few weeks later we sat down and he stated that he is really happy with the way I have gone about on basically not asking or demanding, but prompting a firm voice on wanting a salary increase while at the same time being polite, and not forcing anyones hand. my guess is that he got the picture, pay me a little more money, or i can easily plan to leave to another job with higher pay - meanwhile since i passed my probation he would have a really hard time finding a reason to fire me to avoid paying out the salary increase since i was doing a great job and had no complaints, and the exact same jobs elsewhere are paying more money, and me leaving would end up with him being shorter staffed and having to go through the same training process with yet another junior for 6 months, which would have been a wasted investment in hiring me in the first place.

so, he very easily granted me a 2000 per year pay rise, wanting to grant me 1000 and having me politely argue that 1000 still did not reflect the other job positions that I used for examples on the pay I should be getting. 5 minutes of debating and it went up to 2000. i was quite happy with the outcome.

10 months later, i was made redundant, hahahha!

i guess the moral here is, sure, ask for a payrise if you believe you are entitled to one. but rest assured your job is NOT safe, one way or another sooner or later they will find a way to chuck you out and get someone new at the salary you were being paid before the payrise.

InsideInsurance

NMM wrote: »

I have had my appraisal on which it will be based and my overall rating was exceeds expectations. I haven't yet been told what my increase will be but we have been told that increases are dependent on appraisal ratings and everyone who has the same rating will get the same percentage increase.

If everyone gets the same percentage then there isnt much of a negotiation to be had.

In most large organisations your payrise is actually a function of both your appraisal but also where your salary is relative to the range for your role/ grade. So someone who is on low pay and gets a grade 4 out of 5 receives a higher award than someone who is on high pay and gets a grade 4

To get the best payrises 95% of the time you change companies

Sambucus_Nigra

Apply for the lower position?

Of course it's not uncommon to bump up the advertised pay and offer a lower one once interviews are over as psychologically you have gone through the hard work and not many people would walk away but there you go.

NMM_2

Thanks for the replies.

bubblegum1985 wrote: »

.

Although if you are doing a lot more than you are supposed to if they don't do a pay rise they may take the extra jobs away from you, if this is a good thing or not is for you to decide.

The additional responsibilities are expected of me and part of my job. To have them taken away would be a demotion.

fridgeracer wrote: »

i guess the moral here is, sure, ask for a payrise if you believe you are entitled to one. but rest assured your job is NOT safe, one way or another sooner or later they will find a way to chuck you out and get someone new at the salary you were being paid before the payrise.

I agree that nobody can really count their job as safe, but I do not think they would get someone to do the same job for the same money. The evidence I am seeing is suggesting that they may need to pay more to get someone to do the junior version of my job. We have been looking for 3 months and in that time there has only been 1 suitable applicant and they turned us down and accepted another offer elsewhere.