How to Negotiate your Next Raise

The ability to negotiate your way through everything is a skill that many wish they had. But alas! Not many are skilled enough to talk their way out of everything – be it the situation when you are caught being inefficient or be it about the raise in your salary. You may love your job and your workplace. You may have a good boss as well. But are you satisfied with your pay or do you want a raise? There are countless people who want a raise but are either too embarrassed or too scared to ask the question. Some are helpless because they don’t know how to approach their boss. Are you confused on how to negotiate your next raise? No matter how difficult it may seem you can actually negotiate your raise without worrying too much about the consequences if it isn’t a success. You need to follow a particular plan of action. This plan of action for the simplicity sake has been divided into four basic steps.

1. Know your worth
When you are thinking about how to negotiate your next raise its important that you self-evaluate your own worth. You can ask yourself how important you are for the organization. An organization always likes to appreciate and encourage the assets of the company. Are you a valuable asset? You can think about the ways you have helped the company to clear some hurdles. A successful employee is always the one who either makes money for the company or at least saves money for the company. You may categorize yourself as per the evaluation. Now, you can make a list about your achievements in the company, the projects you have contributed in, the valuable customers that you have brought in, etc. It is in vain to ask for a next raise if your boss doesn’t considers you as an asset. Your boss would simply ask you to help yourself the way out if you ask for something which you are not worth of.

Your next step is to do a bit of homework. You should collect data and statistics about the current salary range for your job in the market. You can even use various sites which offer you the assistance in comparing your salaries. Moreover you can ask your friends or acquaintances who are working on the same post. You can further consult with the HR Professionals of your own company. When you have collected the required data you can actually compare your current salary with the standard salary. Now you have to select the specific amount of raise you want to ask.
When your boss asks you, ‘why should I consider giving you a raise?’ You should not reason that you need a raise since you are running low financially. Your boss doesn’t have anything to do with your personal life no matter how much caring he may sound. You must understand that the job of your boss is to make profit. You have to show your boss that you are an invaluable asset to the company. You should make your boss believe that investing in you, promises the company more profit. You should be a professional and should avoid describing your personal sad stories to him.

2. Fix the meeting
You don’t start talking about your raise anywhere and anytime you feel like. The next basic step of how to negotiate your next raise is to schedule a proper meeting with your boss. You can tell your boss that you need his assistance to plan for your future ahead. It is important to note that timing is a factor that matters in scheduling. If it’s just 3 months since you joined the company and you are planning to ask a raise it would be better to wait. It clearly depicts that you were not efficient in negotiating your salary during the time when you were hired. Your boss will not entertain any talk about a raise in such an early span of time. A one year time is good enough to consider for a raise though. The time when annual reviews are presented would be good to schedule such a meeting as well. It will be helpful if you check with the general norms of your companies whether your company increases pay frequently at the mid-time or annually.

3. Rehearse
Before the actual shot, it is advisable that you rehearse your dialogues well. You should know your dos and don’ts. You can jot down the points that you want to talk to your boss and practice speaking the lines. It would be useless to go to the meeting unprepared. It is important that you make your case as strong as you can. Now you are fully prepared to talk to your boss.

4. Final Shot
You should not sound demanding and accusing when you are talking to your boss. You are there to discuss and negotiate things not to begin a war. You should be polite and gracious in your conversation. You should try to be direct rather than beating around the bush. But, of course it doesn’t mean that you tell your boss directly, “either you give me a raise or I quit!” You need to show him your perspective. You need to talk about your career and how much you love the job. You should tell him that you want to grow more in the company. You can ask him your options. It will not be rude of you to show him the statistics about the current standard salary range for your job in the market and then you can set forth your demand. You can feel free to tell him that you would appreciate a raise of let’s say $3,000 annually. It should be noted that the amount of the raise should be specific. This gives a chance to your boss to come out with his view about the matter.

If your boss agrees to your proposal thank him graciously and leave. Later on, you can keep track of the process by contacting your HR department. But if your boss says that he cannot give you a direct $3,000 raise but wishes to compromise on it then thank him and tell him that you would think about his renewed offer. It is important that you think about the offer before deciding. When your boss says no to your demand do not feel embarrassed. It was your right to ask for a raise. You can ask him graciously the reason for such a decision and how you can be eligible for any such considerations in the future. Thus, you can leave with a positive frame of mind since now you know what you have to do to get that desired raise.