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Best way to approach pay rise / promotion during Covid...

Lorraine

Good morning everyone,

Hope everyone is safe and well! Looking for a bit of advice please;

Back in January I passed my 3 month probation with my current employer and asked for a meeting with my manager at the time. I presented a business case for a salary increase and requested some KPIs for the coming year.

I had delivered as far possible what was within my control the 3 “low hanging fruits” that they wanted from me (employee files and HR document system, handbook and training matrix) and I also completed my CIPD level 5 which was self-funded by the end of my probation hence asking for a pay rise. The job is actually more than what was advertised – essentially creating a HR department from scratch but it was advertise as more of an admin role with support form Norway but it became apparent quite quickly that wasn’t quite how it would go. Having said that, I am driven and ambitious and pushed to take on a lot more so have made the role bigger my doing gap analysis and seeing what else was needed in the Company from a HR perspective.

The January meeting went fine, I was advised that it's not an "if" but a “when" and that there was a management business review in February and my request would be discussed then. 

That time came and went then Covid hit. I was thanked for my work during a period of redundancy and restructuring in May and again told that my request from January was still a "when" not an "if" and it would be discussed at the end of summer once the management team in Norway were back (they take almost all of July off). 

We are now almost at the end of August and I haven’t heard anything further. I want to raise this again but I am also aware of the current situation in the world, obviously! And we are in the Oil and Gas supply chain so things aren't great and we are saving costs where we can BUT we are lucky that we have work on just now and are doing well in the grand scheme.

Looking for some suggestions on how I can raise this again (pay rise) but in a sensitive to the situation manner please.

Many thanks in advance!

Parents
  • My opinion, and others may very well disagree with me, is that I wouldn't have asked for a pay rise after only 3 months in a role, and I wouldn't be pushing for it now when my company has made redundancies and "things aren't so great and we're saving money". You need to demonstrate awareness of the wider business picture... I would focus for now on showing what great value you're adding and look for signs the business is recovering before raising this again.
  • in reply to Annabel
    I tend to agree - Management in UK are well aware and the positive messages around not if but when are great. For now I would carry on developing the function and making myself even more invaluable.

    If you are going to raise it I would do so ever so lightly and use some of the language around understanding business is tough but just keeping it on managers radar

    Is anyone else getting rises at the moment?
  • in reply to Keith
    Thanks Keith, no other raises at the moment. Annual reviews are something I am implementing for December time as at the moment there are no reviews carried out.
  • in reply to Lorraine
    Lorraine said:
    no other raises at the moment. Annual reviews are something I am implementing for December time as at the moment there are no reviews carried out.

    Personally I would wait till then and if nothing materialises then consider my next move. its only 3 months or so

  • in reply to Keith
    Very true Keith, thanks. I think I just needed some outside perspective on this. I'm certainly counting my blessings to still be in a job at the moment.
    Madness that December is so close! This year doesn't feel like it's really ever started.
  • in reply to Lorraine
    Hi Lorraine, I think there are going to be a lot of people in this position. I definitely have colleagues that are deserving of a payrise and will be first in line as soon as there is any money to do it, but with the economic picture as it is, it seems unlikely to be soon. As others have said, I wouldn't press it, and just bring up at an appropriate point (review meeting etc).

    Not sure what the general policy is at your company, but I wouldn't consider giving someone a pay rise for passing probation and completing their performance objectives - that's just expected! We don't tend to give pay rises until someone has been in post for a year, unless they have done something exceptional or had to step up to fill another vacancy.
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  • in reply to Lorraine
    Hi Lorraine, I think there are going to be a lot of people in this position. I definitely have colleagues that are deserving of a payrise and will be first in line as soon as there is any money to do it, but with the economic picture as it is, it seems unlikely to be soon. As others have said, I wouldn't press it, and just bring up at an appropriate point (review meeting etc).

    Not sure what the general policy is at your company, but I wouldn't consider giving someone a pay rise for passing probation and completing their performance objectives - that's just expected! We don't tend to give pay rises until someone has been in post for a year, unless they have done something exceptional or had to step up to fill another vacancy.
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  • in reply to Polly
    Thanks Polly.
    There isn't a policy as such because before I started with the company, no one had even had a discussion about passing their probation or letter confirming passing their probation and no objectives set. The joys of a SME :-)
    I wouldn't normally have asked, it's not in my nature, but in this situation I felt it appropriate to.