How to review your Annual Raise, Negotiate for a Mid-Year raise and Goal Set for the year

In this episode, I discuss how to review your annual pay raise and work towards a mid-year raise by goal-setting for the year.
1) What are the different components of an annual pay raise
2) What is a good number for a pay raise
3) How to determine your 3-year plan
4) How to decide top 2-3 goals for 2023 & align with your boss
5) How to plan for the goal-setting conversation
6) How to prepare and negotiate for a mid-year or annual raise

Take a listen, this episode is filled with little nuggets, I suggest you take out a pen & paper or an electronic device to take notes.

#AnnualRaise #MidyearRaise #goalsetting  #3yearplan #oneonone #meetingwithboss #managermeeting

**********************************************************************************************

You can subscribe to my Substack Newsletter by clicking here.

I'm a former tech executive, a podcast host and an entrepreneur. I work with Universities on Organizations to transition students to the corporate world and building successful leadership pipelines ensuring a healthy financial future.

If you're interested in coordinating or working with me on keynotes, workshops, or on a one on one basis, you can go to my website www.sirishakuchimanchi.com

Check out my other podcast "Women, Career & Life" where I share stories and practical advice to achieve your career & life goals as you strive towards financial independence.

All: https://solo.to/sirishak

Instagram: womencareerandlife

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sirishakuchimanchi/

#womencareerandlife #podcast #paintlifetogether

Transcript

0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Live Beeps with Cerisha on Radio Caravan. This is 1 0 4 0.1 FM and 700 am Thank you for joining me on this lovely Saturday at five 30. It's been a pretty cold week and it's so gorgeous outside. I'm hoping you're enjoying the. So as if you have been following this show, this is a talk show where I talk about various things, mostly around carrier, how we are dealing with life and everything else. I'm a former tech executive, a podcast host, and a working mom. I host a podcast, women Career and Life, where I share stories and advice to achieve your career and life goals. And I realize that every time I say this, you're probably wondering what does she talk about on the podcast. So some of the topics that I talk about are how do you negotiate for your salary or for the position that you're looking for at work? How do. Use your voice in meetings. How do you speak up in meetings? So there's various topics that I'm talking about that are adjacent to some of the discussions on this radio show. Please do check it out. You'll find it on any of the podcast platforms including Spotify, apple, or Google. It's spelled w o m e n c a r e r n live and is in the top 30% of Spotify. So on today's conversation, if you've been following, we've talked about in the last few weeks how to do your financial health check. Last week was a little different. We talked about kids transitioning in school, basically elementary to middle school and middle school to high school. Today's topic is how to evaluate your annual raise. And goal set for 2023. And there's a reason I picked this topic of conversation for today. A lot of companies do annual reviews and do this pay cycle, pay rate cycle either in the beginning of the year, January, February, timeframe. and then a lot of them also end up doing it in summer around June, July. So depending on which cycle you are in, these both these topics apply to you. One might apply today and one might be applied a few months later. So if you wanna jot down notes, grab a pen and paper or an electronic device and take notes, and you can then mull over it some and decide how you want to proceed, because there'll be. Ideas that I'll give you, you may wanna tackle in the next two, three weeks and think about it for yourself and in a conversation with your manager on how you wanna process this. So if you have just gone through a pace raise cycle where maybe you've already gotten your white sheet, or whatever you might call it. Most people end up calling it the white sheet because it is white and it has all the numbers on it. And if you've just gotten the white sheet from your manager, now you've looked at the numbers. I don't know how you feel sometimes it's scary going through this process, right? Because you don't quite know what the numbers are gonna look like. I hope you're very happy with what you got. And if you are not completely satisfied, what can you do? get more the next time. And how can you increase your opportunity to enable that? So if you're thinking about it, I just wanna first walk through what might be on a white sheet. Some of you might be new to a corporate career, some of you might have been working for many years, but whichever stage you are in, this probably applies to you. So obviously there's your salary and there's a percentage increase, usually listed in a white sheet. Some of you may be getting. maybe your company has a profit sharing policy or some other bonus payout that they give to all employees for the company's performance. There's also sometimes some of you might be getting bonuses or commissions. There's stock options you could get or you might get like restricted stock and so many other ways that you would see this compensation beyond just your salary. So essentially it's your compensation sheet. You obviously got your compensation when you joined the organization over the years you've been getting, and this is just one more cycle where you have just got the compensation and if you look at the numbers and you've done really well, congratulations. That's fantastic. On average. Usually it depends year to year on a company's performance, how the market is doing. Obviously with the economy and how companies are performing and going to layoffs it probably affects a lot of organizations. But on average, I guess looking up numbers online and everything, it says it's around, three to percent for percent. A pretty good number. And then beyond that is also dependent on your performance, but it really depends on your own company and organization. But that seems to be the statistic done. And you know when they've done research and looked at it. So if you're starting to say you want to get a higher raise, or you wanna get stock options or bonuses, or you want to increase the opportunity to get those in the coming year, how do we go about that? Because there are actions we can take. On conversations we should be having with our managers to enable that. So I wanted to spend some time talking about that. You've already, we've just talked about, a quick breakdown of how to think about your annual race. What does that look like? and how do you actually find out if you got a good rate? That's always the question many of us might have. Sometimes people can ask their colleagues. I do not know. I remember talking to this HR friend of mine once, and she was saying in her organization it was not actually something people could share. But I don't think, I don't know if that's the case or not, but anyways, it's sometimes hard to ask your colleagues or maybe there's a policy whichever way, if you, you, if you're able to gather that information. Great. If not, how do you figure out if you have been compensated correctly rather than hear it from someone else or hearsay? The best way is to ask your manager, so how do you have this conversation with your manager? Obviously, if you haven't gotten the white sheet and you are anticipating in that in the next few weeks or next few months, it's probably a good time to have the conversation when you get the. And if you have time to prepare for it, think about some of the things I'm going to talk about today and note down and see how you wanna have this conversation, because it is a very critical conversations. There's this book called Crucial Conversations. If you haven't ever read it or listened to it, it might be something you wanna pick up. It is a really good read. It's very done in such a nice anecdotal way, so it doesn't feel like a nonfiction book, but it's done with. and having this kind of pay raise negotiation conversation is a very crucial conversation. So how do you prepare for it? Because you have to prepare for it so you can put your best foot forward and make the most of it. So if you're thinking about it from asking your manager, if you're sitting in this room with him in his office or her office, you could ask them saying, okay, I see my numbers, how did I perform with respect to how the. Performances and where do I stand? And they would give you an idea. And frankly, the pay should never be a surprise because you should be having one-on-one conversations with your manager regularly, and also figuring out an understanding how you're performing. You should be. Pretty much consistent feedback from your management on how your performance is, and if you feel like you're not getting that, it is a conversation and this is perfect, right? We're still in the beginning of the year for you to set those meetings up and think about how you wanna have those conversations because they are important. A consistent cadence of meetings really sets you up for success because you know how you are performing, you're able to share. work, what you have been doing really well and where you may be struggling or you need help or support from them. And then they're able to be, check how you are doing with respect to what your deliverables are, what the projects look like, and all of that. So that's what you do. And this certifi, I've gotta pivot now, the goal setting for 2023, because already the numbers are decided. So you're not going to change those numbers now. Best time for you to intersect this conversation to have, the last point of intersection if you wanna have an impact is like a few months, maybe two, three months before you actually get your sheet, because that's when organizations are usually starting to jot down and do their, maybe their rankings or how are their evaluations are done, and start deciding what that looks like, what that payout is going to be for each of their employees. So you need to say your company does it in the June cycle, then probably. Think like March, maybe April latest. You should be already having the discussion saying, I think this is my performance and I want to make sure I'm, compensated adequately. And there are books, and I'll talk about it later on, how you have this negotiation conversation with your manager. But that is the time of interception. You should be doing this. So think about how you want to have it. So if you are, so now it comes back to say you've got the white sheet already for this. there is an opportunity in the mid-year for you to look to see if you can get a pay raise. So if you've got it in February mid-year is probably July, August if I'm doing the math six plus two. So how can you target that cycle and waiting a whole year to get that raise if you are just tuning in. This is Live Beats with Cerisha on Radio. Carine, welcome to a beautiful sunny Saturday. I am talking about how to evaluate your annual raise and goal set for 2023. I'm a former tech executive and a podcast host. I host the podcast, women Carrier and Life. It's spelled W O m E N C A R E R, and life where you can find ideas on how to negotiate for a race, how to find a mentor, how. Look for a board position if you're a very senior leader. So there's various topics I tackle on the podcast. You can check it out on any of your favorite podcast platforms, including Spotify, apple, and Google. It was actually a top 30 percents pod five podcast in 2022. So thank you for joining us. So as we are stepping into the second part of the conversation, we are talking about how to goal set for 2020. So when you're thinking about 2023, if you've got your white sheet, or maybe you are going to get it in six months, because that's usually the cycle, you have the opportunity to either target your annual race cycle or your mid-year cycle in about, say, six months. So that's where the goal setting becomes very critical for you to have this conversation. So I'm gonna first think about, and I'm gonna give you a case. So say I'm an individual contributor, meaning I work as having nobody reporting to me. I've been working in this technical role, and I want to grow into, say, a program manager role because I enjoy managing projects, seeing where the strategy is, pulling people together and delivering these results so that we have wonderful products and services at the end of it. Now, how do you change from individual contributed program managers? So first of all, think about three years down the road. I think beyond that, it might be a bit of a long stretch. Think of where you wanna be three years from there, because I think it's best to work backwards. So take a sheet or whatever, do a mine map. Put all these things saying, where do you wanna go three years from now? And so in this case I'm talking about I wanna be a PM in three years. So if I wanna be a program manager in three years, I my. Probably prefers people to have the program management certification, a PMP in this case. So if that's what they're asking for, I need to be able to take that exam and be able to pass it, study for it, do all of that work, but even to take the exam and actually take it from what I recollect, you need certain credentials, certain hours, certain kind of experience and expertise to be able to even sign up for the. So there's some prep work to be done to do this, and it's a pretty, quite a tough exam to take as well. It's, and in, I know a lot of people who do it, and it is very important for how they look at their career going forward. And if you are thinking about this, think about what do you need to do? PMP certificate. Maybe you need to have certain kind of leadership experience. A leadership experience does not need to be that you have to manage people so much as you are leading a team or you're leading a project, or you're doing something that is very critical for someone to move forward or some item to move forward, or some deliverable that is very important for the organization. And when you are looking at it from that standpoint, how do you get ready for it? So in this. one of them is the certification. So that gives you, so I'm gonna talk about going back to this financial compensation we were talking about in the beginning. One thing you could do is once you have decided where you want to go and say, this is the pmp, you're broken down and said, okay, I have this particular experience as a technical person. I do not have really leadership experience as yourself, evaluating yourself and you realize that's what I really need to get to the next step to even apply for the exam. And then there's the studying, and the writing and all of that part. So based on this and other goals you might have at work, write down what your goals are, right? No more than two or three, because I think it becomes incredibly overwhelming more. Two, three high level goals that you wanna do in 2023, and think of some with obviously deliverables that will hit before that mid-year cycle. So it's with, in between at least quarterly, you break it down into small goals so that you can show deliverable. And then once you have done that, go back and take a look at. having maybe another two or three smaller goals. So there's the big projects, like two, three big ones, and then maybe some two, three smaller ones and see what actually is the right fit for you. This is just an example. Once you've done that, you list this, you have your p t certification, you want, so what you can do there is you need, one of your goals is probably, I want to be leading a team or doing a critical project and. So that should probably be one of your goals, and there'll be other things that you'll have as part of your job, and you wanna get the PMP certification. Then your boss probably also has some ideas of what they would like you to do, what deliverables they have, what are the key projects the company has, what is it hit its bottom line. They're probably releasing a new product of some sort. What do they, what do you need to do that? you would bring these two pieces. So that's when the connect, the meetings become very critical. You need to have a goal alignment meeting with your manager. You sit, you talk about what you are thinking. You ask them what goals they are interested for you to complete for this year, and you mesh them together. And of course, you should still think about those two, three. It shouldn't exceed those. So when you mesh it together, see where it goes. And maybe if there's something on your plate that you really wanna do, but they don't. ask them if you can do that goal and if it becomes too much, maybe you negotiate something and take one of the ones out. That will be something you'll have to decide how you're gonna approach this conversation. So once you've done this piece, the pmp, and this is where I wanted to talk about the financial compensation part of it, you could see if your company will sponsor you for. Certification because you have to go probably for some training. Maybe they will send you for training, maybe they pay you for these hours that you need to collect and for the examination as well. So instead, coming out of your pocket, is there an opportunity for them to pay you? So when you're thinking about financial compensation beyond the white sheet and I just talked about, your pay raise, your bonuses, your profit sharing stocks, what, whatever else they may be or commissions that the company might give, think of other ways you. add on to this to make the most benefit for you to further your career and your education so that you can continue to grow. So they could be, you could ask them to pay for this. And I think in a lot of organizations, if they think that you're going to bring value to by having this dig, this program, the certification, this degree, they're usually very supportive of it. So ask that. See if there's a tuition reimbursement policy in your. They pay, maybe they pay a percentage of it. You have to have a certain grade level, all of those, so many years of service. So see if you can use all of that to further your education and your career. So once you've done that, so you put that piece on the table for negotiation, that's a, so that's a small negotiate, but it's still a big win for you to be able to get them to sign up for it because you have, they understand that it's important to you. They will understand that it's going to take time for. So there might be some leeway on that. And of course there's also the sort of the financial piece of it that you will get, you know them to support you and pay for this. And once you have sat with your manager and looked at the goals that you have and they have, now you've listed it out, every time you do this goal listing and you've aligned on your goals, you need to send an email out. On this alignment to your manager, either they send it to you if they have not, you need to send it. You need I would say a written proof of an a track sheet to keep all of this together. For one thing it's good for you because you know what your commitments were so that when you come back for this negotiation discussion further down the line it's down there. And secondly, at the, as the year progresses, it's very hard to remember what you've agreed to and so many things will happen. So it's just a good. A lot of companies will probably have online documentation in their HR systems that you need to upload. So make sure once you've aligned, you've put it into the system and it's right there with your future goal saying, Hey, I wanna be a program manager in three years. This is what you've agreed to support all of that official documentation. It's all uploaded and down there so that everyone can see it. Just bottom me, I'm gonna take a cup of water. So once you've done that, now how you break it down is how do you keep track of these goals? So you've decided on the goals and it's very important to what I was saying before, have one-on-one meetings with your manager at least once in two weeks, so that they know what you're working on. So I have a friend of mine who told me this great tip. I thought that really was a great way to look at this goal setting. So once you've set your goals and set it up, what she does is she. a traffic stop light way of looking at it. Red, yellow, green. So you have decided not just your projects or your deliverables or what you own, you have decided on the dates that these things will be done. And every time you meet, you don't have to do this obviously at every one-on-one, but maybe once a month or whatever cadence you think is right, you can, your boss can negotiate it out as well. You go with this traffic light. Quick picture, one slide or one thing which says, here are my top three projects. My, maybe my two, three small ones, red, yellow, green. How are they tracking to this? Three? Obviously you want more greens and maybe some yellows. Preferably no reds, but there may be reasons that there's things exist. So that is a quick snapshot, and then you talk about what work you're doing. And one of the things I wanna say is if you have a piece of work that you're working on, and that is a deadline coming up, say February 28th. This is not a leave here, so no, 29th. So February 28th, there's a deadline coming up. Do not go on the 26th and the 27th, or even on the 28th and tell somebody. You cannot deliver it, especially if you already knew beforehand. So take think. As soon as you find out and you've given everything your best shot, go and tell them that you know you. This has been a challenge, and you need their support to either move the deadline, support the project, cancel the project, whatever that looks like. So make sure you're getting support for doing whatever needs to be done. Do not do last minute things because it raises a lot of tension. Doesn't work out in your best favor. And you should be handling this piece, so make sure that you're constantly communicating. That's why I keep talking about these one-on-one. If you're doing projects and you're leading teams, you should be having these conversations or these check-ins with all the stakeholders, with the key managers who are interested in this project so that they know what you're doing. Because in the end, when performance review is happening, and raises are being decided in a room, your manager is not the only person speaking for you. All these. Peers or supervisors or their management is also speaking on your behalf. So the more people know you, the more visibility you have the more that they know what you're impacting, the better for you. So it's important for you to set up those conversations with all of these other people so that they can speak on your behalf. So now that you have set your goals for 2020, go back and think about it. So what I would say is, we are coming up, we are gonna wrap up in a few minutes. So if you have had time to think about it, couple of things for you to take away. If you haven't, if you've already got your raises, then think about how you're going to goal set for 2023 with a potential to have a conversation in mid-year to ask for another raise if you haven't got it and it's a few months. Think about having that conversation, that crucial conversation with your manager soon. But prepare for this. I cannot tell you how important it is to prepare for these conversations. Write out your script. And what you need to write down is not about why you should get, but what you have done, like what your accomplishments were, what you delivered, where you exceeded expectations. Very crisp, clear things that are, there's no dispute around it. once you've done that. Practice. I always say, practice aloud in front of the mirror. Read your record yourself, because now of course with smartphones and everything, it's very easy to see how you sound, how you come across, what is your tone of voice? What are your hand gestures? What is your facial expression? A lot of communication is non-verbal, not verbal. Most communication is actually through, not words, but everything else. So practice it and then go deliver. And I'm wishing you all the best because I think it's very important to do this and I'm sure you'll do it really well. I would love to hear how this has worked for you. Maybe you have stories to share on, something that worked out positively or something that you're struggling with, or has it been a challenge? You can email me. My email is Life Beats 1 0 4 0.1 gmail.com. It's L I F E B E a Ts 1 0 4 0.1 gmail.com. This is your host, Risha Puchi. I am a former tech executive and a podcast host. You can check out my podcast, women Carrier and live on Spotify, apple or Google. It's spelled w o m e n c a r e R, and. I hope you are going to have a great weekend, and wishing everyone all the best and hope you set up this crucial conversation with your managers around goal setting and pay raises. Wish you the best