It’s not the most comfortable of conversations to have with your boss but feeling financially undervalued is still a very real reason why people ultimately leave their jobs. So here are a few tips on how to have the chat with your boss about it.

Do your research – go in with realistic, clear and concise expectations of what you are wanting to achieve. Do some research into other similar roles and their salaries. HR may be able to give you anonymous salary benchmarking for the business. There is plenty of advice online as to what specific jobs are being paid up and down the country. It’s well worth spending some time looking into it to feel totally up to speed with current trends.

Without question, the conversation about pay rises should be done face to face, where possible, and not on email. It’s easy to hide behind your emails when approaching a tricky situation but you are more likely to get the outcome you want by having a face to face business meeting about it.

On that note – book the meeting into your manager’s diary in advance and ensure they understand what the content of the meeting is. Be fair and give them an agenda so you are both prepared. Again, you are more likely to get your desired outcome if you are not ambushing your boss!

If negotiation or tough conversations aren’t something that you are comfortable with, it’s always a good idea to sit down with someone you trust and practice what you are going to say in a role-play situation. It will help to calm the nerves when you arrive to discuss it with your manager, and you will get your point across more clearly.

So, once you know your value/worth – be bold! You are there to explain that you feel your quality of work, additional responsibility, contribution to the business or hard work etc, deserves a rise in pay. Try not to bring emotion into the discussion – you’re there to discuss additional pay based on your work performance.

Your meeting may not bring you a pay rise but it’s important that you have had that conversation with your line manager to raise your concerns. Whatever the outcome, you should have a Plan B in your mind. Are you keen to ask about other benefits? Is it a deal breaker and you may now consider moving jobs? Are you looking to put a date in the diary to revisit the conversation in a few months? Do leave the meeting with some tangible outcomes.

Be sure to follow up the meeting with an email to summarise what you spoke about. It shows that the meeting was important to you and that you have taken the conversation seriously, it is always good to keep a record.

GOOD LUCK!