Think You Deserve a Raise? You May Want Something Other Than Money
So you’re at your job and doing so well you’ve impressed yourself. Do you ask for a raise already? It may be too soon for that; you may be at a small start-up that’s just not ready to shell out the dough, or you may actually think something else might be better than cash. Wait! Don’t stop reading. I’m not crazy. Check it out.
Asking for, or just making the most of, compensation such as training programs, networking opportunities or even quality-of-life benefits can work in your favor at least as well as cash. Really.
Bruce Tulgan, founder of Rainmaker Thinking--a New Haven, Conn., company that researches the working lives of Gen Xers--says he has found that the top choices of nonmonetary rewards among twentysomethings include:
* Control over their work schedules
* Training opportunities
* Exposure to decision-makers
* Credit for projects
* Increased responsibility
* Opportunities for creative expression
But just because such rewards are not cold, hard cash doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask for them the way you would any raise. When you say you want these things, express your willingness to work to earn them. “Make sure they know you’re not asking them to do you any favors,” Tulgan advises.
Say you want to make up your own flexible schedule, taking Friday afternoons off or telecommuting one day a week, or even just working from 6:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Before you ask, show the brass that you are the deadline queen; prove that it doesn’t matter what time you work, you’ll get the job done on time. Then ask for a flexible schedule.
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You’ve heard it before: Money isn’t everything. Companies or managers willing to provide you nonmonetary compensation often are plugged in to both your needs and their own. If they send you for training, they get a better employee. You ask them for extra work and they reward you with a new project; they get extra work done and and you become a better employee--as well as more marketable. Everybody wins.
Twenty-six-year-old Dan Sondhelm, vice president at Morrison/Carlisle Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based financial public relations firm, already has a lot of experience with nonmonetary compensation.
For one thing, his company sends him out for “out-of-the-box” sales training during work hours, for meetings and other gatherings where he can network for the firm--and for himself. “If I were going to leave, which I’m not,” Sondhelm says, “I can keep my contacts and relationships” from these outside experiences.
Use such offerings to “build yourself professionally,” he suggests.
Sondhelm also told Kathryn Morrison, the president of his six-person company, that he had an interest in earning the licenses and designations he would need to become a certified financial planner or investment advisor.
“Our president said the company would pay for everything, including the training and the examinations,” he says. Because it’s such a small company, it’s “just kind of assumed,” he says, that he will be staying. A larger company might expect a promise of a few years of work after paying for the education or certification.
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Nice perk, huh? Sondhelm mentioned that he doesn’t necessarily want to become a CFP or provide investment advice, but that having the credentials would make him a little shinier in his field. “Few, if any, of my competitors have the financial designations that I want to have. The designations would further differentiate me from my peers to prove that we have financial expertise.” Sondhelm may have it a little easier than most when asking for these perks because he works in a small office. But Tulgan suggests approaching your managers in the same sort of way Sondhelm did.
Address the matter as you would a business deal--you might even write up a plan describing how the compensation will benefit the company and why you want it.
“Show them the bottom line,” Tulgan advises. “Explain to them, ‘If I learn these key skills, here’s how I’m going to be able to do a better job for you.’ Sell it to them.”
Nonmonetary compensation is as common as the smaller start-up firms that rely on it. Julie Holdren, founder and CEO of the Alexandria, Va.-based Olympus Group, a World Wide Web services and design company, has made nonmonetary compensation her mantra.
She says she does what she can to get her 35 employees extra training and education, and she provides quality-of-life compensation as well. Among such perks are Valentine’s Day gifts sent to everyone’s sweetheart; free lunch on Fridays; trips to King’s Dominion; bowling excursions.
Holdren also provides comp days for the ones who have been working hard on projects. That’s in addition to four weeks of vacation.
If that appeals to you, then find the right company, she says: “Twentysomethings need to figure out what they want to focus on and what they want out of their career and match themselves with a company” where they will be happy.
The workplace is yours. You just have to figure out how to make it work to your advantage. Make yourself noticed, and go ahead and ask for the extra work, the extra challenges.
Amy Joyce writes for the Washington Post.
