Tips for negotiating your salary
Maybe it’s time for you to discuss the salary you have and see if it’s time for a raise? For many, the salary discussions are handled centrally, while others have to negotiate their own salary. If you are going to negotiate your new salary yourself, it is important that you carefully think through how you will succeed with this.
Determine your priorities
Before your salary discussion, it is important to think through your job situation and what it is that makes you want to discuss your salary. It is important to consider at an early stage whether it is really the salary level that is the most important thing in your professional situation right now. Are you thinking about other professional challenges? Perhaps the salary level is not the most urgent thing, but it is new challenges that attract. Are they in the existing workplace, or is it perhaps time to change jobs?
Set goals
If you conclude that you enjoy your workplace, it may be the salary level that you want to change. Before the salary discussion, it is good to mentally prepare yourself for three different outcomes of the salary discussion; A dream level that you are more than happy with, a likely level and a level that you do not want to fall below.
To be successful in your salary discussion, it is important that you strengthen your self-confidence. And you do that, among other things, by preparing well.
Choose the right conditions
Take up the discussion about higher pay at the right time. It should be a meeting where both you and your manager are prepared to discuss your salary. You should have plenty of time and not have other things that either party thinks is more important to discuss at the time. Choose a quiet and undisturbed place, preferably a place that feels neutral for both parties. Sometimes it can be good to completely replace the usual environment with something else.
Prepare your arguments
Before the salary discussion, a good idea can be to list three positive things about yourself and things or added value that you bring to the company. If possible, try to achieve a feeling in your employer that you are irreplaceable, thanks to your skills, experience and time in the company.
Look at what changes have been added to your duties, compared to what you had when you started in the position or the last time you negotiated your salary. Often, after a while, you have completely different tasks than when you started. It can be a good idea to make a comparison with what you would get paid at other workplaces with the job you have today. However, be careful not to threaten to change employers if you do not really want to.
Practice your argumentation
Before a possible change of job, it is important to get in at the right salary level. It can often be difficult to make major changes from your current salary level, but when you change jobs, it is easier to get the salary you want from the start. As in so many other things, you can learn from other people in other situations. In this case, you can learn from the athletes. If you want to achieve good results, you have to practice and practice. Before you go into the salary discussion, it is wise to sit down with a friend and practice your salary discussion and “polish” your arguments.
It is always useful to “Learn from history”, i.e. how did you do on previous occasions at this and other workplaces when you managed to raise the salary? Good luck with your salary negotiation!
A few more tips
- If this is your first salary negotiation, you should not settle on too low a level. You will have to “live” with a low starting salary in future negotiations.
- Show your level of ambition and make suggestions for further improvement measures within the company and signal that you can take more responsibility.
- What the general salary situation looks like in the industry and then also specifically for your position is useful to know. If you keep track of this, your salary claim becomes grounded in reality.
- Justify your salary request with what you have achieved during the previous 12-month period. Give concrete examples!
- Are there other areas than just salary that could be possible areas for improvement? Examples of this are education, holidays and wellness allowances.
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