Fri 16 Nov 2007
Do you want to make more money in the job that you are in currently? My recommendation is that you increase your value. Coming from that standpoint of someone who basically runs a business, I have to deal with employee issues every single day. This includes people coming to me on almost a daily basis asking for more money. My stock question to them is always, “What have you done to make yourself worth this increase?” After asking this question, the employee almost always leaps in to listing off all of the things that they do for the company. And more often than not, every single item that they list is exactly what we agreed upon in hiring this person. I want to know what this person has done to go above and beyond their job position. We sat down with this person before we hired them, we discussed what their responsibilities would be and how much we would pay them for following through with these responsibilities. Six months later, when an employee comes and asks for more money, this is what I hear; “I’m doing the job that you asked me to do and making the agreed upon amount of money for doing it, can I have more?”
I’m not quite sure how many people are probably taking the whole idea behind this post. People probably think that we are a bunch of Scrooges or something. That’s not the case at all. We hand out plenty of raises. We do it all of the time. I’m not a believer in giving someone a raise just because they’ve been here for a certain amount of time. I’m a fan of giving out raises when someone does something that increases their value to me. I currently have an office employee who wants more money. The only problem with this person is that they have the attitude that they will not take on any more responsibilities until they make more money. Well my viewpoint is the opposite. Show me that you are willing to add more value to this company and I will reward you with more money. We have sort of a catch 22 here. This person won’t work harder unless they get more money and I won’t give them more money until they start working harder. I tried to train this employee in a new area today. I wanted to add one new task that would consume about five minutes to their daily agenda. This person basically gave me the attitude that they weren’t going to learn it because they don’t make enough. In this particular case, I taught someone else. Little does that person know that if they would have taken the time to learn this small task it would have increased their value to me.
Look at your employment as your employee being your customer. You are providing them with a service and you want to do your absolute best to make sure your customer is happy. The more you do for your customer, the more value your customer is going to see in your service. Go above and beyond what your typical day to day tasks are and your employer will appreciate it. Be eager to learn new things and take on more responsibility. Employers notice this and value it. I said in a previous post that even if I was the guy who cleaned the toilets at McDonalds I’d be the best at it. I would do whatever I had to in order to get noticed and make sure I was recognized for my efforts. The same goes for any position you could put me in. My upbringing and my morals lead me to the mindset that I’m going to be the absolute best at what I do. I do it not only for my employer but for my own pride.
Raise your value to your employer and your employer will see you as more valuable. It just makes sense.
-M
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November 16th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Interesting post!
Attitude is key in this type of situation.
If a person works with a sense of entitlement rather than a sense of ambition, why would an employer want to give them a raise.
There can also be a sense of “me” against “them” between employees and employer.
A sense of loyalty is imperative from an employee, as well, if they are seeking pay increases.
It is so neat when you find good employees, because they can be few and far between.
November 17th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
great post!
November 19th, 2007 at 1:03 am
I agree with most of what you said, except I believe everyone deserves to get raises that are in line with inflation… I don’t even consider those raises though… In fact, I consider it a pay decrease if you don’t get your salary adjusted for inflation. Other than that, I completely agree with you. I wonder if you have had time to tell the employee exactly what you wrote above?
November 21st, 2007 at 9:45 am
Thanks for the comments! It is great when you can find good employees who understand that small businesses aren’t able to pay huge salaries unless the employee does something to justify that huge pay.
I do agree that inflation plays a part in the wages people make. I also believe that the wages people make is what causes inflation. If employees weren’t expecting to make more and more as time goes by employers wouldn’t have to constantly increase their payroll. When employers increase their payroll, they have to increase their prices to their customers. When companies continually raise their prices because employees want more money, this leads to inflation… It’s a vicious cycle.
Thanks for the comments!
November 27th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
Funny - that’s similar to the post I just wrote yesterday about improving your position with your current position to make more $. But it’s true, I do the same thing and have people ask me for raises, but I don’t ask what they’ve done for me; I find that gets them on the defensive right away. I try to have monthly meetings with my people and let them know where they’re at and one of the key questions I ask is “Are you happy with your compensation?” They always respond with “I could use more”, and I then bring out the pre-made list of jobs they can take on.
From there, we can see where we’ve progressed in the next month. If it is above and beyond the tasks I’ve given them, I’m happy to give them a raise and happy to go to my management and lay these things out for them -
Communication is the key, early and often. Don’t let 5 or 6 months go by without discussing a raise. I don’t with my boss, and I encourage my people to do the same. Keep an open thread about it because it shouldn’t be a taboo thing, nor should it be a he said/she said battle. It’s not a bad thing if it is always up for discussion…
Good post!
November 28th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hank, I completely agree with you. I don’t think it’s a good idea to keep the topic of a raise a taboo point. I guess asking what they’ve done for me is more of a question I ask myself. I occasionally verbalize the question but it is something I ask myself when I talk to employees.
The thing that really bothers me is the mentality that an employee isn’t going to do more unless they are going to make more. What’s even worse than that is the employee who slows down or does less because they think they deserve a raise. What sense does that make?