Making an effort to understand the perspective of others is an essential skill for building internal and external relationships in business. It’s no different when you ask for a pay raise.

When you negotiate salary with your manager, you discuss your future, value, and potential with the company. Whatever the outcome,  the experience stays with you, building on your opinion of your manager and employer.

Good managers understand this and will make every effort to meet your expectations. Still, the process involved in the background with a salary review is not as simple as agreeing to a number on the spot and a high five. For a great result, it would be best if you worked together.

Here are five factors managers will be thinking about,

• The Budget.
• Management approval
• Market (salary brackets)
• Promotion
• Gossip

The Budget (P&L)

Every consultancy has a budget that details how much the company expects to earn and spend during a particular period (12 months usually). Your annual salary, forecasted utilisation and charge-out rate form part of that and are most likely already set.

Senior Management approves budgets that managers put forward, and a change in your salary is a change to that budget.

Pay raise requests are better received if your office is making money.

Management approval

Your manager may need to take your increase to senior Management for approval if it’s outside of what’s agreed (set in the budget).

Your boss may need to present historical data on your utilisation rate, project write-ups, write-offs and other historical indicators.

There might be preset internal salary brackets for levels and a fee-to-wage calculator to work around on your behalf.

Market

Not all managers understand what the market is paying a consultant like you. They can get information from salary surveys, recruiters and employment-specific websites. They will want to keep pay levels reasonably even in the office. HR may have even provided them with a spread, but it is still a bit of a thumb-suck.

You may even be asking for more money than your manager.

Promotion

A promotion could go hand in hand with a decent raise or follow it soon after. Good managers already have a development plan with you and commit to meeting every six months to discuss it, so that promotion can even occur before your pay raise.

From a financial perspective, a promotion increases your charge-out rate, which covers you for your pay raise.

Gossip

Employment contracts typically require people who work at the same company not to share their employment conditions; some people do.

If your manager is going to work with you and do something special, they will want you to keep it confidential.

Conclusion

Relationships in business are essential. Working with your manager on your pay raise is a solid approach to getting what you want and helps build your work reputation (your brand).

Good luck when you ask for that next pay raise and try not to give your manager too many grey hairs during the process. It will all work out for you in the long run.

Patrick McManus
Director – Ground Recruitment