#IMAGEinspires: How To Ask For A Raise

Do you feel like it’s time you deserved a raise? Anyone in a job will agree that it’s not always easy to bring up the financial side of things, but it’s also about knowing your worth – you’re doing a job to the absolute best of your capabilities (and likely going above and beyond) and your wages should reflect that fairly and accurately. We catch up with some of the nominees for Managment Professional at this year’s IMAGE Businesswoman of the Year Awards for tips on how to broach this often tricky topic with your boss.

Be Confident

Be confident when you present your request – if you have a clear reason for raising the request, you should be better positioned to have a successful outcome – Tanya Day, Director,?Oriflame Research & Development Ltd

Understand your value in the market, benchmark similar roles and the salary ranges. Try and get information on the salary bands within your own company as you may need to get a promotion to secure a raise – Natalie McGuiness, Director of?Marketing Strategy and Business Development, Mason Hayes & Curan

Know your bottom line, know that your employer has a bottom line and be flexible in reaching an agreement?- Kay Connolly, Chief Operating Officer, St. Vincents Hospital?

Know Your Worth

Focus on why you deserve a raise. Leave any comparison to your colleagues and their remuneration package out of the conversation. Everyone is at a time in their life where a bit extra in their pocket would help, whether that’s applying for a mortgage, getting married and so on.? Your professional ability should be justification enough!?- Aisling Blake, Managing Director, Radical, Core Media Group

If you do not think your pay is a reflective value of your worth to the company then it is time to ask for a pay rise – Petra Lelovska, Technical Support Manager, New Relic

Timing Is Important

Don’t leave asking the pay rise question to your annual appraisal, request an interim review to discuss progress against your objectives and I’d suggest asking your boss at this point, perhaps six months out, what results and behaviours they would expect you to demonstrate that might take you to the next pay level – Julie Strang, County Manager,?Benefit Cosmetics Ireland

Look to open to discussion on requesting the raise. Here timing is important, for example requesting a raise during times of cost reduction in an organisation may be viewed as na’ve -?Tanya Day, Director,?Oriflame Research & Development Ltd

Have A Plan B

Have a ?Plan B? if a raise isn’t possible.? Consider other options such as training, conferences or even different working hours.? Training, in particular, is good as it might be tax deductible for the company and won’t impact salary overheads -?Natalie McGuiness, Director of?Marketing Strategy and Business Development, Mason Hayes & Curan

There are two types of a refusal?you can get.? The first no comes with a commitment to get a raise once you have achieved additional goals that your boss feels are needed to receive a raise.? The second no is a no which comes accompanied with a list of excuses but no commitment to a future raise based on tangible goals.? In the case of the second one, it may be time to re-evaluate your career path -?Petra Lelovska, Technical Support Manager, New Relic ?