11 Bulletproof Ways to Be Prepared for a Salary Review

Preparing for a salary review

When preparing for a salary review it is important to anticipate what will be your best, worst and in between conversations. 

Follow these 11 simple steps to ensure you have all the ammunition you need when going to negotiate your worth. 

#1 Knowing your worth by understanding and knowing your value.  

If you can tap into the value you provide your organisation, client, or boss and explain it in a way they can relate to, then they will start seeing you as that person. For instance, if you are the person who identified a process issue and ended up saving the company money and time then say that right upfront.  

TIP: Be proud and claim your success but make sure you have the tangible examples at the ready to speak to. 

#2 If you are the type to go above and beyond expectations, then be ready to share that.  

Examples of how you helped other people, teams, departments, customers and the organisation will always go down well with the boss and HR.  

#3 Document all of your wins and be prepared to talk about any lessons you learnt 

If something didn’t go well, be prepared to talk about that and what you learnt along the way and what you would do differently. If you have done something differently as a result of that be able to explain that and what the outcome was; the aim is to showcase you can learn and create strategy based on that.  

#4 Be sure to be having performance conversations consistently. Don’t treat your salary review as a one-off event.  

Turn your performance and salary into a campaign, so that when your boss thinks about you, you stand out from your colleagues. Yes, it is competitive but not to the point that you have to trample other people to show this. 

#5 Be constructive when communicating about and thinking about issues.  

Don’t personalise it instead, try making it about the outcome of a situation. After all, people are people.

Yes, their actions can have a profound impact and but being respectful of others will pay dividends with those around you. 

#6 Shine a light on other people’s achievements and what you got from that.  

Being supportive, thoughtful and aware of other people’s achievements not only benefits them, but it also does the same for you. Not only is it a good thing to do, but it also shows your reflective capability when it comes to others. 

#7 Work your network. 

Having people around who support you and speak about your impact helps you to build your brand. They will appreciate you more as will your boss. The chances are that word will have got around about you and your boss and HR will be more aware of you. This will go down well for your performance and salary review. 

#8 Get on top of what is happening in the market. 

Know what is happening in terms of payment for your role, what’s going on in your industry, what’s going on with your company and if that has an effect on the industry at all and put that together in your preparation so that if you need to call on it you can. 

#9 When you have done all of your preparation put it together in a plan.  

You can sign-up for our negotiation planner to help you do this and take it with you and all of your evidence to your meeting with your boss. Refer to it as you go to be sure you cover off everything you want to. 

#10 Get comfortable with your space. 

If you’re the type of person who feels uncomfortable with a salary review and if the meeting is being held in a meeting room, book that meeting room 2-3 times before your review and go and sit in it and imagine the conversation.  

Sit in all of the seats and run through your plan and imagine the conversation. Own your space in that space. 

#11 Have a place in your negotiation planner where you can take note of what the other person is saying. 

Are they demonstrating any behaviours that stand out? Then take note of them.  

These conversations require you to have all of your communication receptors on (audio, verbal, visual, physical (body language – twitches – sweating etc.)) so be prepared to take it all in and note it in whatever way works for you. 

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