ASK HR: I’m doing a good job, why didn’t I get a salary increment?

My immediate boss was assigned another bigger role a year ago, three months later he got a salary increment. I assumed his role, in addition to carrying my duties. After three months, my role was assigned to a new person while the role I was acting on was downgraded. We are now two assistants. After six months, my new colleague has received a pay increase. This has affected my morale. When I spoke to my boss, he said he would look into it since I was doing a great job. I have over five years’ experience in the company and feel my welfare has been ignored. Apart from quality work, what else can an employee do to be recognised for salary increment? I am doing more than what is indicated in my Job Description.

There are processes that are crucial in any organisation to provide transparency on how decisions are made, besides minimising unfair practices. I am not privy to the size of your company, but I do know smaller organisations tend to shelve some of these practices, creating room for subjectivity and unprofessionalism.

Whatever the size, here are a few good practices you could advocate for to create a better workplace for everyone. You could list down the areas that need clear guidance. You could do this together with your colleagues to have more ideas and make the process more inclusive. The next steps would be to engage the team responsible for your list of policies and make suggestions on sections that need to be reviewed for clarity and best practice.

Besides this, you could also be proactive and make suggestions that could be considered for adoption by your manager. I note your boss said you are doing a good job, how is that measured? Is there a proper process of setting goals and evaluating achievement? If this is missing, you could design a template, set your objectives and discuss with him or her for improvement.

One other process area that needs to be clarified is the criteria used to downgrade positions. There may have been genuine reason for this structure change since positions are created to serve the needs of the organization. Perhaps there was a justification to have more capacity at your level. Consider that your new colleague may have been placed on probation and given a salary increase upon confirmation. This takes us back to the importance of having clear processes and policies that are complied with.

MillennialHR [email protected]