Negotiating Salary ReviewsFrom: Jack Chapman The first thing to explore after negotiating your base salary is the salary review. One of the reasons for negotiating the best base salary first is that raises are generally computed as a percentage on that base. The higher the base, the greater the 2-, 3-, or 10-percent raise will be. In negotiating a review there are three areas to consider: timing, basis, and percentage. Although you can’t come up with the actual percentage now (if you could there would be no need for a review later on), you can influence it by taking a look at the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The COLA is an automatic raise in salary to compensate for inflation. If your raise is 10 percent one year, but inflation 10 percent over the same time, then you haven’t received a raise at all. You’re simply being paid in purchasing power exactly what you earned the previous year. So you can bring up the subject of a review by talking about COLA. You might say, “I expect that my salary will keep pace with inflation, so there will be a cost-of-living adjustment each year, won’t there?” Once you get your potential employer to agree to a COLA, then you have already raised the actual percentage of your next raise because it will need to be computed and then added to the COLA. The government publishes several cost-of-living-adjustment indicators. The personnel department should be able to choose an appropriate one. If you haven’t got the base salary to the level that’s acceptable to you, you might postpone discussion of the COLA and discuss the review process itself as a way to increase your salary. You might suggest that the employer hire you at the salary level you would like and then review your performance after six months to come up with a salary that feels fair. If that doesn’t work, suggest that you split the difference. Try it for six months and go from there. Or you can start at the salary level you’ve been offered and negotiate for a review of your performance in six months. You might request a retroactive raise for that period, based on your performance. Eli Djeddah, an early pioneer in job career consulting, suggests that you bring up the question of a review this way: “While my starting salary is important, I am also very interested in the future, since I expect to work here quite a while. In six months, when we review my performance, will it be on my demonstrated worth, or just a mechanical procedure?” Your employer will certainly choose the former, Eli asserts. The timing of the review depends on you. Whatever time you estimate you will need to show tangible results, double it to be safe, and ask for the review at the end of that time. You can suggest that during your first week on the job you or your employer come up with a specific set of objectives that will be the basis for a review. That will demonstrate your conviction that salary should be the direct reflection of your contribution, not pie in the sky. When you ask for a review in six months or any period shorter than a year, you may get objections concerning “company policy.” Request a special exception because of your intention to really shine. You can say, “If we look at my performance in six months and I have not reached my objectives, it won’t cost you a penny. If I do reach them, you will have made more than I cost, anyway. Either way, you win and I am motivated.” Jack Chapman is a nationally know job coach and seminar speaker specializing for the last 20 years in salary negotiations and job interviews. For more information on Salary Negotiations, please visit: http://www.breakthrough-salaries.com/ |