Fair Salary Review

Fight for a fair salary review

Whether you work to live, or live to work, money is important. Find out how to fight for a fair salary review;

Many people feel underpaid and, therefore, undervalued by their current employer. In lots of these cases they have made numerous requests for a pay review to no avail, hence they contact us! Interestingly, many of these are then offered a pay increase when they hand in their resignation! This in itself needs to be managed carefully - if you would like our advice on this, check out our ‘How to handle a counter offer’ article.

Obviously it is ideal to have a regular review of your performance and salary in which you and your employer can discuss your objectives, achievements, progression and remuneration. If you do not have this scheduled as standard then you should ask your manager if it is possible to schedule a meeting for this purpose at an appropriate time in the year.

When broaching the subject of a salary review you should:

Know your market

You need to do your research into what your competitors pay (remember to consider if the company is comparable and the full package available, basic, bonus, pension, health, gym, socials etc). Find out what the level of demand is for a candidate of your skills and experience if you were on the market.

Know your value

You need to be confident in yourself but with good grounds. You need to be able to demonstrate your value with specific examples and details e.g. contracts you have negotiated, cost savings you have made, projects you have delivered, specialist skills and knowledge you have etc.

Be reasonable and not confrontational

You should approach your salary review with an open mind and be willing to listen to your employer’s reasoning. You want to demonstrate you are an asset that deserves reasonable remuneration and not demanding or above your station. A confrontational approach is likely to be unsuccessful and detrimental to your overall progression.

Be clear and confident

Plan exactly how you are going to bring it up and practice the exact wording. Some people find talking money difficult and you do not want to get flustered and start waffling when getting to the crux of the point.  Succinctly state what you would like and why you feel it is deserved and reasonable.

Be prepared for success and disappointment

If you are successful, be positive and appreciative without going over the top. You want to leave room for future negotiations.

If you are not successful in your salary review, you can tell them you are disappointed but you should keep it professional. Do not go down the road of ultimatums, comparisons with colleagues or emotional rants. You could ask if it is possible to review the situation again in 3 or 6 months, perhaps even be willing to suggest some deliverables or KPI’s for you to work towards in order to reopen the discussion.

If you have taken the above steps and after taking everything into account, you conclude you would like to look for another job, you can at least be confident you have given your current employer the chance to pay you what you’re worth and keep you.

We are always happy to give objective confidential advice on matters such as this, so please do feel free to get in touch if you would like some help on how to approach a salary review, to get an idea of your market value or if would like to know what opportunities are out there for you.