The complete guide to getting what you are worth at work

“In business as in life – you don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.” This quote, which also doubles up as the title for a book by Dr Chester L Karrass, a master of negotiation, sums up a truth of life: negotiation matters.

However, despite the importance of advocating for themselves at the workplace to earn what they are worth, many people shy away from the one thing that could make a difference between what they earn now and what they can potentially earn, if only they asked.

One 2014 online study by Career Builder, a global human capital solutions company, found that 56 per cent of employees polled for the study, never asked for a raise. Two-thirds of those who asked, got what they asked for. More interesting was the discovery that women were less likely to ask for a pay rise than men. Other studies have revealed that women tend to earn much less than men in the exact same positions.

Moreover, many women make do with what they are offered, so they end up earning much less than what they are worth.

However, learning to negotiate can change all that, and today we bring you tips on how you can demonstrate your worth and loosen your employer’s purse strings in your favour. 

WHY YOU DON’T EARN WHAT YOU DESERVE

Human resource perspective:

According to Mwikali Muthiani a managing partner at MillenialHR, women make many mistakes that keep them from earning what they are worth. These mistakes include:

1. Not knowing what you are worth and feeling like a fraud, despite being a highly-skilled and qualified employee who adds value to the organisation. Thinking that you don’t deserve that much money.

2. Selling yourself short by thinking that if you ask for what you are really worth when responding to a job offer, you won’t get the job.

3. Refusing to ask for a pay review because you are afraid to rock the boat and afraid of causing trouble or annoyance at the workplace.

4. Taking what the employer puts on the table, without negotiating for a better remuneration package that matches your skills, experience and achievements. 

GENDER BIAS:

Professor Linda Babcock, a researcher on gender roles at the workplace and author of Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation, adds that it doesn’t help that women who ask for higher salaries are often stereotyped and given demeaning social labels such as nags, for wanting to be paid what they are worth. Purity, a 33-year-old copy writer with over five years’ experience, suffered this bias, when she asked her boss for a pay hike last year.

“He dismissed me with a: ‘but you don’t need more money, your husband can take care of you’, when I asked for a raise, yet my male colleague who asked for a raise during the same period, had his salary doubled. I haven’t had the courage to ask for a raise again,” she shares. 

A psychologist’s take:

Ken Munyua, a psychologist who doubles up as a recruitment officer at Talent Recruit in Nairobi, says that women also don’t earn what they are worth, for a couple of reasons that have to do with their mindsets. Such as:

•  Wanting to be liked and perceiving asking for a raise as something adversarial.

•  Focusing on their needs rather than the value they are bringing to a new or current employer.

•  Expecting the employer to notice them, appreciate them and recognise their efforts by giving them more money and perks, without them having to ask for it.

•  Coming across as greedy, by making salary demands that do not reflect performance or credible reasons why one should get a raise.

•  Not being able to articulate their worth to the company and prove why they need a pay rise. 

MOTHERHOOD PENALTY:

According to Perminus Wainaina, a managing partner at Corporate Staffing Services, a recruitment company in Nairobi, career women of childbearing age, mainly between the ages of 25 and 35, often get discriminated against during pay reviews because some employers see them as more likely to default on their duties by taking family-related work breaks. 

HOW TO ASK FOR AND GET AN ATTRACTIVE REMUNERATION PACKAGE

According to Mr Wainaina, prior preparation should account for 60 per cent of your pitch for a higher salary, while the timing should account for the remaining 40 per cent. Apart from your performance, the performance of your department and that of the whole company, will influence whether you get that pay rise or not. Here’s how to prepare yourself for the conversation with your boss:

Current job:

1Determine if you are being paid market value for your position and whether you are on the lower end or higher end of the pay scale for your position. This will help you come up with a reasonable figure. You can do this by:

 Comparing how much your co-workers in the same position earn relative to what you earn.

 Looking at the pay range on job advertisements for positions similar to yours from your employer’s competitors.

 Talking to recruiters, members of industry associations for your field or the officials of a worker’s union.

2Prepare a pitch, a value proposition and solid reasons supporting why you deserve to earn more. You should be able to demonstrate your value to the company. If you are having difficulties figuring this out, speaking with a career coach can help you clarify things. You also need to practise your refined pitch with someone who can give you genuine feedback on whether your pitch will open your employer’s chequebook. Here are some things you can use to state your case:

 Your accomplishments: spearheaded or initiated a successful project, made the company money, brought in new business, saved the company money, contributed to the strength of the team, improved business … anything that reflected positively on the bottom line.

 Your strengths, performance appraisal results, commendations from your boss and clients for a job well done.

 Awards, extra responsibilities handled excellently.

3Timing matters. Consider the financial status of the company, revenue generated in the previous year and recent months. In other words, is your company really in a position to give you a raise right now? If it has just made huge profits, and you can prove your contribution, then you are more likely to get that pay hike.

New job offer

1. Find out as much as possible on the type of company you will be working for.

 How big it is: is it a small, medium or large enterprise?

 What is the pay benchmark in the market?

2. Do not ask for the same pay you’d ask at a multinational company at small or medium enterprise.

3. If you’re moving from a multinational company to a small or medium enterprise, in a higher position than your current job, you’re likely to earn less than someone in the same position at a bigger company.

4. Entry-level jobs rarely have attractive salaries. Your employer will want to verify if you can do what you say you can before considering a salary review, but you can negotiate a salary review based on your contribution and performance after a specified period of time, for instance, after probation or after one year of work.

5. Your timing could make or break your pitch. Never ask for a raise at a time when the company is returning bad financial results such as falling revenues or depreciating sales and net profits. 

Setting yourself up for success

1. Make it a dialogue rather than a formal negotiation. Say something like: “There is something I really want to talk to you about. I want to stay. Is there a way to make this happen for me?”

2. Do not create bad blood between you and your employer. 

3. If you get a “no” ask for feedback on what you can do to improve your performance and if the rejection is because of timing, request for a pay review a few months down the line when the situation improves. 

PROVE YOUR WORTH

The burden is on you to convince your employer that what you are bringing to the table is actually worth the additional amount you are asking for. If you can prove your worth, your request will not be rejected. For instance, there are companies that say they’ll pay Sh150, 000 in their job advertisements only to end up paying Sh200, 000. Apart from a pay rise, you can also negotiate for perks like training, flexitime and others available to workers in your company.

WHAT LOOSENS AN EMPLOYER’S PURSE STRINGS?

1. How you present your qualifications, skills, experience and worth as a potential or current employee.

2. How you show an employer the kind of value you will bring to the company. 

What not to do when you get a new job offer. Don’t:

 Bring up the issue of salary early. Salary should be the last thing on the table.

 Be the one to bring up the salary topic. You should let the employer bring it up.

 Focus excessively on salary at the expense of the reason why the employer hired you or is hiring you. Focus on proving the valuable contribution you will bring to the organisation. 

What not to say:

 It has been years since you last gave me a pay raise! Why not? Because pay reviews are not about how many years you have worked or when you last got a raise, they are about value.

 I know it’s a bad season for the business. Why not? This is self-defeating. You have already stated why you cannot get a pay rise.

 I’m repaying a loan and need a pay rise to cope or I just got a baby or I’m buying a new car so I need a pay hike. Why not? They may be important to you, but your financial woes or personal problems or goals have nothing to do with your employer or his business. No one will give you more money because you have financial constraints. You’ll only get a raise if you prove how you are helping the company make money and achieve its goals.

 Why is my colleague making more than I do? Why not? Your pay review has nothing to do with your colleagues, even those in the same position as you. Everyone gets what they get on merit and based on their negotiation skills.

 This is what I’m worth and this is what I expect. Why not? Your worth to the company is not based on your sense of entitlement, but rather how your presence there is making a tangible difference. No one will pay you more money just because you think you deserve it; you have to prove you deserve it.

HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU ASK FOR?

1.Your lower limit should be the figure you are most comfortable with while the upper limit should be 20 per cent above the lower limit. 

2. You should not give a salary range like Sh50, 000 to Sh120, 000. This is too wide and seems arbitrary. Do your research on reasonable salary ranges for your position.

3. When asked what you are looking for, you can say: “Based on the job description and responsibilities, and the value I’ll be bringing, I am looking for a salary range of Sh100, 000 to Sh120, 000.”

– Perminus Wainaina, Corporate Staffing. 

SAVE PAY FOR LAST:

Some employers will ask for a salary history, salary requirement, or expected salary. They may ask this during a preliminary interview or on the job advertisement. The earlier you divulge this information, the less room you’ll have to ask for a better pay when the actual offer is put on the table. How then should you handle this request?

1. List both your expected salary and your current salary if a company asks applicants to state their previous salary and expected salary.

2. If the difference in what an employer is offering and your current salary is significantly big, do not quote any figures.

3. Never say that you expect a significantly higher salary than what you are getting in your current job in writing.