by Nayab Naseer

Created on: March 02, 2009

Getting a salary hike or a raise is one of major motivating force for any employee to give in their best output at work.

Most companies would reward performers, for even though people are available aplenty to fill in positions, finding talented people is still rare, and giving a raise is much more cheaper than the time and trouble required to train new recruits. The major reason why raises are not given is that the employee has done a bad job convincing the management on why he deserves a raise.

Businesses that run on financial basis try to give out as little as possible, for the amount saved is greater profits. At times, profits or revenues might be constant over the years, whereas annual salary raises eats into profits and actually declines the profitability of the company. This is the major objection some companies have to giving a raise.

The company could claim that a raise comes not when one performs the same way as before, but when one performs in a better manner than before, or brings more business or revenue to the company.

The best way to anticipate and prepare for such objections would be to list out your major tasks in the previous year, and quantify that. Most businesses now run on a quantitative basis. They consider how much they spend on you, and what they get in return. You would have to convince the company that what you provide to the company far exceeds what the company gives you.

For instance, if you have directly led to the company getting more business by netting new clients, securing more orders from existing clients, or contributed in some way to reduce input cost, you could list them out. If, through your process efficiency or greater productivity the work is done faster than before, that too leads to increased savings for the company. You could try to prove that through figures.

If you have undergone some training program or certification on your own, or self studied something that you have applied at work, list them out, so that you can claim that you saved the company that much amount on training costs.

In times of recession and troubled economic conditions, companies might try to reduce the salary of staff or recruit new talent at low cost. In such times, the raises would be less. Similarly, if people in positions similar to you and who have their review period ahead of you, are given little or no hike, you can anticipate a similar experience. Try to find out the objections given to them, and prepare your claims based on such objections.

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