5 ways to ask for a greater raise than the one being offered

Promotions don’t always equate to a substantial raise. You may receive a greater title and a series of additional perks, but if your salary remains woefully undervalued in comparison to the industry standards for the same, then you need to demand the amount you deserve.

In many cases, those seeking a raise end up shying away from the idea of negotiating their salaries in fear of offending their managers and losing their job altogether. While the latter may be a rarity, the truth is that salary negotiations can actually go horribly wrong. However, in most of these situations the problem lies in the fact that such individuals don’t negotiate smartly.

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In reality, all managers generally expect you to negotiate your salary. According to Deepak Malhotra, a professor in the Negotiations, Organizations and Markets Unit at Harvard Business School, setting the tone for negotiations may lead to positive results for you in the long-run. “You may also be able to nudge them upward if you can justify a higher number than the one they would have started with,” he told HBR Ascend.

On that note, here are a few tips to carry out negotiations effectively:

Settle on a figure or percentage

Before you approach your boss or HR manager on the topic of a raise, make sure you do your research and fixate on the exact percentage hike or amount you wish for. For instance, if you wish for a 25 percent hike on your current salary then you need to be absolutely sure that this is reasonably the highest amount you can expect.

Justify this amount

Identifying the standard industry rate for your position and providing documented proof of it to your employer will definitely work in your favour. According to Forbes, social science research shows that reason-giving is so powerful that only a single percentage point separates compliance in response to a good reason and agreement in response to a completely nonsensical one. However, if you do not present a reason for your request, be prepared for your compliance rates to drop by a full 40 percent.

Take it straight to your boss

When it comes to asking for a raise, it is better to go straight to your boss or project manager before getting the HR involved. This is because your boss or project manager would have kept track of your work and will thus take an interest in your request, and even looking into the justifications for the same. However, when it comes to your HR manager chances are that they will view your position, raise, and salary on a wholly objective perspective and not look into your request with the same interest or seriousness as the former.

Provide a middle ground

In most cases, your boss or manager will not agree straightaway to the raise you propose. He or she will, by protocol, tell you that the amount being offered to you presently is the most that the management has given them access to grant out. You can follow this up by requesting for a meeting with the management in question and ask them to raise their offers while you can reduce yours slightly. In the latter scenario, managers often relent to agreeing to a middle amount, one which lies in between the amount you are proposing and the amount they were initially willing to offer. For instance, if you were offered a 10 per cent increase in salary but demand a 25 percent you could try convincing your boss or manager to settle on a 15 percent, which is marginally fair and agreeable to the both of you.

Negotiate and shake on it

Finally, you need to negotiate for the middle amount. It will take quite a bit of convincing and justifying your stance with backed data, but once you have put a card on the table, your manager will have no choice but to at least flip it over and take a look. You can also offer to evaluate and adjust the other benefits of your package, if it means that you will be receiving the percentage hike which you are comfortable with.

Have these tactics ever worked for you in your personal experience? Let us know in the comments below!