You’ve been waiting a whole year for this moment, the opportunity to sit down with your boss and hopefully land a raise. Unfortunately, there are countless people out there who also deserve raises, but don’t get them. It might not happen for you unless you are fully prepared prior to your performance review.
Even though the economy is strong right now, companies are not handing out raises like candy. It’s an election year, so many companies are being more cautious with their money. You may assume you are getting a raise because your company’s performance is strong, but the reality is that you need to be prepared with a strong, data-driven argument for why you deserve a raise.
How Can You Prepare?
- Set up an accomplishments file. You might think you are going to remember the accolades you got in the past year, but you need to be more methodical with storing those accomplishments. That way, when you have your performance review, your preparations will be a cinch.
What should you put into this file?
- Hold on to emails from your manager, other team members, outside customers, and stakeholders who complement your performance or provide documentation of your ideas and successes.
- Review the goals that were set up for you last year. Understand how well you did at meeting or exceeding them, then have that data with you during your review.
- Wherever possible, quantify how your ideas and actions lead to your company making money, saving money, or your streamlined processes that saved time.
- Any special awards you received for monthly, quarterly, or annual results.
- Be able to communicate how you improved on any soft skills that you were challenged to improve in your last review. Be ready to tell stories that illustrate the changes you’ve made.
Your ability to land a raise will depend on your pulling together the above documentation to make a case for why you have added value.
- Be ready to talk about your desired career path. Now is the time to discuss with your manager your readiness for the next desired career step. Again, your preparation will help your case for why you are ready for a promotion.
- Come prepared with questions. They should be about your own career path, the company’s growth plans, etc. People who ask questions demonstrate engagement with their job and company. Never say, “I don’t have any questions.”
- Prepare for any potential tough conversations. Maybe your year wasn’t stellar, and you failed to meet key deliverables. You need to make sure you can talk about how you will overcome any roadblocks that occurred in the past year, and have a viable specific plan of how you will improve.
- Negotiate your salary increase. Just as I always coach my clients to try to negotiate a higher salary when they are interviewing for a job, I also believe that salary increases are negotiable during performance reviews. You won’t know if you can get more money or other perks if you don’t ask. If you don’t prepare, you’ll have less likelihood of success.
I can help you with your performance review preparations, including those potential tough conversations when it comes to your performance or your raise. Set up time here so we can chat about your situation and how I can help you!