"Call That A Pay Rise!?"

Rowan Manahan has been described as an Insultant. He is the MD of Fortify Services, a Dublin-based career management firm. He blogs on this, and other subjects, here.

There's a woefully familiar Dilbert cartoon where the Pointy-Haired Boss (PHB) is reading out company announcements: “First, I am happy to announce that the CEO has forecast record profits and massively increased market share this year. Next on the agenda: due to difficult trading conditions, this year there will be no pay rises. (Angrily) I thought there was supposed to be another agenda item between those two Carol …” Carol (smirking): "Oops."

The sad and simple fact is that over the course of a career, the most significant salary increases typically happen when one moves to a new company. Time and again, despite strong company, and individual, performance we see pay rises within companies barely keeping pace with inflation. This makes sense to senior executives and it very much makes sense to the shareholders, but how can you ensure that you do not fall victim to this?

Oo-ar oo-ar - The Pastoral Analogy
If you were a small farmer with a handful of acres, growing a specialist crop, you would tend to your land – building fences, keeping rodents and pests down, ensuring that the soil was well-irrigated and drained, and rich in nutrients. And you would do the same for the crop – buying the best of seeds, weeding, feeding, watering, spraying. You would carefully watch the weather at reaping time and pick your optimal moment for the harvest. You would do all this because those few acres represent your sole source of income. You work all year round to ensure a good harvest. Getting the picture?

In this day and age, you cannot expect to saunter into your boss’s office on appraisal day and saunter out with a double-digit pay rise in your hip pocket unless you have tended to the acreage. Hard work is not enough. Good results are not enough. Staving off disasters is not enough. Walking on water may not be enough! Poll 100 PHBs on this and the majority of them will say, “That’s what you are paid for.”

This all comes down to worldview. In a recent American Management Association survey, 90% of bosses rated themselves as “effective communicators” while only 30% of their subordinates gave them the same rating. YOU think you are Flash Gordon, out there saving the universe. Your PHB thinks you are “meeting expectations” and can’t understand why you are (a) surprised and (b) upset by the 3.5% pay rise he so generously gave you.

“La La La La – I’m not Listening!”
This can be a very emotive issue, so people get very worked up. Some seriously erroneous approaches that people take on this subject:

• “I have been here a long time and doing a good job, I am therefore entitled to a decent raise.” Wrong! Does the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt” ring any bells? If you haven’t actively managed your career, and just as importantly your profile, within the company, your duration of service is not going to be a deciding factor. They are far more likely to spend the extra money on attracting in some hotshot from a competitor.
• “I really need this raise, because we’ve extended the house/had another baby/the kids are starting in private schooling.” There is no interest like self-interest. All of the above are your problems. Trying to make them your boss’s problem is tantamount to emotional blackmail and will immediately be perceived as such.
• “If I don’t get XX%, I’ll have to look elsewhere.” “If I don’t get XX%, I’m just not going to be able to put in the hours on the project Wingwang.” Talking about consequences is a useful technique, but making what will be regarded as threats (particularly at the last minute) is a very dangerous tactic. As far as your boss is concerned, you might as well have “I am not a team player” emblazoned on your t-shirt.
• “Joe got XX% and I’m at least as good as him!” Joe may have pursued a long-term strategy to achieve this one-off big raise or may have served in some useful capacity of which you are not aware. Also, talking like this is dangerously close to questioning your PHB’s intelligence and judgement.

Getting Your Point Across
If you think you have performed strongly this year and you’re not going to be happy with a measly few percent of an increase, the earlier you can let your boss know this, the better. The assertive model of communication is going to be your key tool in getting this across. Decide what you need, want, expect or deserve and start drip-feeding that expectation into the decision-maker’s ear as early as possible, in unemotional and unequivocal terms.

Ideally, you should start the process just after the harvest. You’ve just had a good year, worked your butt off, produced over and above what was required, but have ended up getting what you regard as an insulting pay rise. You love the work, the customers, your colleagues and you even like your boss; there’s just this one major fly in the ointment – they don’t seem to be capable of spotting your talent and rewarding it accordingly.

Internalising this until you have a bleeding ulcer is not a good move. Tell your boss. Tell him/her how you perceive this situation and how you feel as a result. If you are grievously disappointed, tell him/her that you are grievously disappointed. 99% of bosses will respond by saying that their hands are tied, that there’s a limited pool of budget available, that your lousy 3.1% rise was one of the highest he/she awarded. The language is all gaggingly familiar.

Foundations, Walls, Roof
How do you respond? Constructively and assertively:
1. Acknowledge everything the boss has said and demonstrate that you understand where they are coming from – the difficulties and constraints, the tied hands, etc, etc.
2. Start Probing. “Okay, what do WE need to do to ensure that I get XX% / profit sharing / a company car / a promotion next year?" (Your boss may not know, may not have the power, or may not be willing to answer this straight away. Make an appointment on the spot to come back in a week to hammer this out.)
3. Keep Probing. Establish if your boss can see the discrepancy between effort and reward and if he/she is really on your side on this. If you discover that he/she is not on your side, your choices are limited – go after your boss’s job, start polishing your CV, or hire ninjas to assassinate the boss.
4. Get Clarity and Agreement. “So if I produce X, Y and Z, you will get me A, B and C?” Do this in writing. If your boss won’t go on the record, you may have problems. You, however, must lay the paper trail. Provide a précis of each interaction on the subject of your pay, conditions, and development. If your PHB expresses irritation at this or seems threatened, it may be a signal that he/she does not intend to follow through as agreed.
5. Begin the Drip Feed. Every positive outcome, every promise that you have delivered upon, every piece of feedback from vendors, customers, colleagues and management. Record all of this and feed it up to your boss in your weekly or monthly report. At the end of Quarter 1, you then have a body of evidence plus the concrete milestones achieved against budget and you can schedule the first of four conversations.
6. Reality check. Any problems on the boss’s side? Any company-wide, regional or global difficulties that could impact on the agreement? If no, cool and groovy and on to the next quarter and the next conversation; if yes, more conversation needed. And so on …

The 11th Hour
Walking into your PHB’s office a month or two before appraisal/raise time to start this conversation is nowhere near as effective as the agreement/drip feed approach above. Unless, your boss is 100% on your side, he/she can easily weasel their way out of giving you what you deserve and may even block your access to more senior management where you might make your case (and, by extension, make your boss look bad).

The 11th Hour and 59th Minute
Gathering some evidence of your brilliance just before appraisal/raise day and making an impassioned plea for a big increase on the day itself is pretty much a waste of time nowadays. In most organisations, the Board will have signed off on the budget for next year weeks or months in advance of appraisal/raise day, so unless your boss has been making impassioned pleas on your behalf (without your knowledge), the only surprise you are likely to get using the last-minute approach is an unpleasant one. If the answer is “No,” ask precisely what is required to get a meaningful raise. You may have hit the ceiling for what your job description is worth to your employer, particularly if you have been in the same company for a long time. Useful information to know.

Food for Thought
No matter what time of the year you have this conversation, here are some tactics that will (hopefully!) pay off:

• Empirical evidence. A picture paints a thousand words, so a chart may be more useful than a spreadsheet. Point out any activities where you have saved or made money for the company - any meaurable, concrete difference you have made.
• Know your worth. Use reputable, published salary surveys to support your argument for increased compensation. If you're producing well and you're in the bottom quartile for your job type, your PHB can immediately see that you are a flight risk. If he/she doesn't want to lose you, he/she will have to respond.
• New title. Suggest a promotion or reclassification of your job. In organisations which use pay scales, a promotion is a little-recognised but often-utilised method of giving a larger than usual raise.
• Rehearse. Put your pitch together and practise highlighting your contributions and achievements. This self-congratulatory language does not come easy to most people, so get comfortable with it. Then role-play your pitch with a colleague or friend; anticipate the likely objections and develop your responses and work-arounds.
• The secret of great comedy is … Make sure you pick a time when your boss is likely to be receptive and more positive – if such a time exists!
• Tailor. Remain positive throughout the discussion and tailor your approach around your boss’s personality. For example, provide proof in whatever way your boss likes to see it. If he/she’s a numbers gal, give her numbers, if he/she likes words write a concise report and put a colourful chart into it.

The inescapable truth remains that the big bucks pay rises typically only happen internally for Rising Stars, otherwise you have to look elsewhere. However, if you love everything, except the money, about your current job you owe it to yourself to give it one good year of effort. If your profile is 'Solid Performer,' you will have to do a lot of PR work to shift that perception, but if the location and culture and all the other elements of your current job are right for you, it will be worth it to at least try.

As you sow, so shall you reap … You only have a few acres and most of us only have one crop.