One of the areas of business that you are bound to have to deal with at one time or another is a request for a pay rise. This can be an area of concern for employer and employees alike, which means that it is certainly worthwhile learning how to handle it properly. The following blog post is here to provide you with a few useful tips and tricks that should help you to deal with this part of running a business just a little bit better.
Treat the Request Seriously
No matter which employee comes to you and asks for a pay rise, this is always a request that should be taken seriously. For many managers, the straightforward reaction is simply to come back with a no, but this can have plenty of negative consequences. The most obvious of these is that the employee decides to take their skills elsewhere. Even if this is a member of staff who you think doesn’t warrant a pay rise at this time, you should still treat the request with respect.
Refer to Your HR Department
If you have an HR department, this is where they can come into the fray as they are in charge of this area at many different organizations. They will have a better handle on things thanks to their industry knowledge and any payroll software that is currently in use. Of course, the ultimate decision is still likely to rest on your shoulders, but they can prove to be useful in many different ways.
Check the Industry Standard
Checking the industry standard is a worthwhile next course of action as this will give you more information about how reasonable you are being in terms of your pay. Of course, you don’t necessarily need to base everything on this, but it doesn’t hurt to know. If you are paying significantly below the standard level, it is highly likely that your employee will want to move onto pastures new without a significant bump up.
Review Employee Performance
You don’t necessarily need to give your member of staff a pay rise right there and then. Instead, you may want to give yourself the opportunity to review their performance as a whole. You can then work out exactly how much they deserve. Of course, in some situations, it is not going to be worth boosting your employee’s salary as they are simply not at the level that deserves this increase.
Consider Other Alternatives
If your business is really strapped for cash, it may be the case that you need to think of other alternatives instead of a pay rise. You could offer them something like additional holiday entitlement or more flexible working hours.
Following these five steps can really make a big difference to your handling of pay rise requests, ensuring that you treat them all with the seriousness they deserve, while giving your employees the amount of moneyed other in-work benefits such as holiday entitlement that their performance merits.
