The Five Best Times to Ask for a Raise

You might have the kind of job where you get a raise every year or whenever the compensation policy calls for it. You could go through your whole career in some jobs without ever asking for a raise, because whatever money the schedule permits comes to you automatically on a given schedule.

I'm not sure that's a good thing, because it's only by being aware of our own contribution and speaking up about it that we grow our muscles. I had a boss who always seemed to give me a raise about two weeks before I had worked up the nerve to talk to him about my salary.

Just when I started to think "I've taken on about five major projects since my last pay bump and I'm doing at least half the things my manager used to look after. I like my job well enough, but I need to get paid up in this beehive!" my manager would call me into his office and say "Congratulations -- here's your new pay rate."

I was always grateful for my boss's attention to the state of my paycheck. Because of that boss, I never had to say a word about my pay until I was 25 or 26 years old. If I had had to have those frank conversations, I would have grown essential muscles a lot sooner.

It might be nice and comforting to know when your next pay raise is coming and even how much it will be, but there's something very important that happens to you when you have to (get to?) speak up for your own value.

When you take the time to get altitude on your team's mission and your own contribution to your employers' goals, and when you can value that contribution in such a way that your manager has to acknowledge the gap between your contribution and your compensation, that's an empowering moment.

Even if your manager gets shot down proposing your pay increase to The People Upstairs (in which case you're likely to start working on your Operation Exit Ramp) you still found your voice, and that's the most important thing.

There's a cognitive dissonance that builds up in the awkward period between the time you realize you're underpaid and the day you work up your courage to say so. You might bristle when your boss says jokey things like "That's why we pay you the big bucks!" or when somebody else says "Why don't you ask [your name] how that process works -- they practically run the place!"

You can get a raise if you can make the case that you're underpaid relative to other people who do the work you do. You're not going to be able to find out what other people get paid inside your own company, unless you work for one of the few places where the salary information is public, but you can find out what people who do similar jobs to yours get paid in other places in your city.

You can pitch your boss on a salary increase if you've taken on a big new responsibility that makes the organization money or saves money for them. If somebody quit or got laid off and you took over their duties, you've got a case to make, also.

In any of these scenarios, timing is a huge factor. You can't wait for your annual review meeting, because by then your manager has already proposed your new salary and gotten it blessed by the People Upstairs. That's too late. If you want to lobby for more than whatever your employer's standard pay bump is, you have to bring up the topic three months before your performance review meeting, at least.

Here are the five best times to ask for a raise. In every case, you're not going to say "Hey, can I get a raise?" or "So boss, how about a pay increase?"

You're not going to use a blunt object when finesse is called for. As nice as a pay increase is, it's only part of the picture. What you really want is a roadmap for your future in the organization, one that you and your boss can agree on.

Your roadmap will spell out the goals you've set for yourself in your job and the associated pay steps you hope to reach as you do the things you're planning to do.

You and your manager need to agree at a high level of altitude on the path you see for yourself in your workplace, and your pay is just one part of that path.

That's why, rather than walking up to your boss (or even sitting down with him or her) and proposing a pay raise on its own, you're going to suggest a Roadmap Conversation instead.

What's a Roadmap Conversation? It's a one-on-one conversation where you and your manager talk about what each of you sees for your future in the organization. It's a vision-and-strategy meeting, one that you propose and for which you develop a Roadmap that you'll share with your boss at the meeting. Sound daunting? It's not. Here are the topics you'll cover in your Roadmap meeting:

1) Your current job description and major duties or projects (DON'T assume your boss knows what you've been working on).

2) How you see your role changing over the coming year (learning to create Crystal reports, training Sylvester and Mimi on the sales order process, or taking over the Southeastern sales region, for instance).

3) Your major goals for the upcoming year, in order of priority and (as much as possible) describing the impact of each goal on the organization, and

4) Your proposed compensation for the role and priorities you've defined.

You will present your Roadmap to your boss and walk through it with him or her. That gives your manager a chance to think about the projects and priorities you're describing, along with the pay changes that you hope to see coming through as you hit the milestones you've set for yourself.

Here's a snippet of a Roadmap conversation to give you an idea how the meeting could go:

"So, once we get the website updated and our sales back-end connected to the ecommerce platform, I'll have three reports a week that I won't have to create. My thought is to use that time building out the customer portal we've been talking about. That's not just a customer service nice-to-have, but a way for our sales reps to stay up-to-date with customers without a visit or phone call.

If we're able to ramp sales from existing customers five percent once that portal goes live, I'd love to see a bonus tied to the sales uptick coming to me for my part in getting there."

If your job isn't directly connected to sales and marketing, no fear. Here's another Roadmap conversation snippet from a Software Quality Tester:

"After the X-11 product launches I have a ton of bug fixes to take care of -- I've listed them here on Page Three so you can review them and see if you agree with the priority I've given them. Those should take me until the end of November to resolve, but when they're handled we'll see a drop on Applications Engineering site visits, so that's a good thing.

Then assuming the X-12 launch is on schedule I'll move into quality testing for that launch. That product is tied to a projected $22M in revenue next year. I'm hoping you'll be comfortable moving my base salary up to $72,000 when that product launches. Does that sound fair?"

Your first thought as you read these words might be "I don't know what sales numbers are tied to my products."

If you're a product development person, it behooves you to know. Ask somebody in Sales what each product's annual projected sales are. That information is not hard to get.

We all need to get altitude on our careers and understand how our jobs fit into the larger picture. Without that knowledge, we have no bargaining power whatsoever!

We have to examine the operation we're part of to understand its moving parts. We can't wait like meek little sheepies to take whatever raise our boss proposes.

We may not get exactly what we ask for, or perhaps not the first time we propose it, but we have to know what we're worth and be able to make the case for our own value. We need to be able to negotiate for our worth the same way we'd negotiate buying or selling a house or a car. These are muscles every working person needs!

Let's say you're an Administrative Assistant. You've got to know what kind of heft and influence your boss -- the person you support -- has in the organization. If your boss is a division VP and you're sitting down with her for a Roadmap meeting, you might say

"Now that you've taken on the Purchasing group, Sarah, you're responsible for 102 employees and $35M in inventory. I'm your only support person, and I keep the wheels turning when you're on the road.

I manage your travel, your appointments and your interface with your six direct reports and our 42 vendors. I take a lot of pride in my role and I feel it's a pivotal position. If you like this Roadmap of goals I've shared today, can you agree to a $5K salary increase when I hit these milestones?"

When do you suggest this forward-looking Roadmap conversation? Here are the five best times to do it:

• Ninety Days Before Your Annual Review
• At the Start of a Big Project
• When You Take on a Huge New Responsibility
• When You're Given Another Person's Workload
• When Your Boss Acknowledges Your Contribution

In this blog post we've shared a script to guide you as you suggest a Roadmap Meeting with your boss ninety days before your annual review. If that date is far in the future, no fear! There are four other good times (shown above) to ask for a Roadmap meeting and, in turn, an evaluation of your compensation plan.

We'll share scripts for the other four most-opportune Roadmap Meeting opportunities -- the launch of a big project, when you're handed a big, new responsibility, when you take on what was a co-worker's duties and when your boss specifically mentions the weight you carry for the team -- in future stories in this "Five Best Times to Ask for a Raise" series.

In the meantime, jump here to download a sample Roadmap Meeting agenda complete with a Roadmap image to incorporate into your meeting plan. You're going to get altitude on your job and present your boss with a solid plan for your work over the next 12 months, complete with a proposed compensation level that suits your responsibilities and impact.

If this is new territory for you, that's wonderful. You are ?rel+0becoming CEO of your own career, and that's a magnificent thing!

Our company is Human Workplace. We're a publishing, coaching and consulting firm whose mission is to reinvent work for people.

We work with individuals on their career direction, strategy and branding and with employers, Career Services organizations and Workforce Development agencies to help working people and job-seekers grow their flames.

Our new 12-week virtual coaching group Get Ahead! launches on Saturday, August 23rd. In that course you'll learn how to create your own career roadmap and a plan for success on your job, getting lots of altitude in the process. You'll flowchart your position as it relates to your group and your organization, learn how to find a mentor and be one, design your own milestones and time management plan and take control of your job and career!

Read about Get Ahead! here and download our 2014 12-Week Virtual Coaching Group catalog here!