Mike Richards explains why saying you deserve a raise doesn't work. Instead, quantify what you've saved the company in money or hours, show that evidence to your manager, and use salary data from 1,700 treasury professionals to back up your number.
Chapters
I've got one quick way for you to not get a pay rise. That's to walk into your boss's office and say, I've done a really good job this year, I deserve a pay rise. And a lot of treasury professionals make this mistake. They walk in and say, I want that pay rise. And they were like, why? Well, because I've done my job. They said, well, well done, that's what we pay your basic salary for. Okay, that's what your basic salary is for. That pays for you for going in, doing your job, and helping your company run its treasury. If you want a pay rise, you need to show where you've made a material difference, where you've saved the company money, where you've delivered major— maybe a major project. Where have you moved the needle, if you like? You might have implemented a system, reduced cost. That's your starting point. So you go in in a different way. So conversation changes. Go and say, look, can we have a discussion. I've done quite a lot this year. Oh yeah, you've done this and you've achieved— yeah, but I put some monetary value behind what I've saved. We implemented this, we've saved the working hours of, say, 2 people. So I've saved this cost and reduced this cost and process. So the monetary value is this. This is the difference I've made. Ah, then you can come in at a later stage and bring in market data like our salary survey. You people say, well, what makes you think you're underpaid? You say, Mike Richards' salary survey, the global salary survey with 1,700 other treasury professionals, says out of 100 people, I'm this far below the average, and I'm a more than average treasurer. So that's the, or that's the order you should do. So value first, evidence, and then benchmarking. After all that, there are times when maybe you're still not being recognized. Then yes, that's when you can look at the market because you might feel you're a bit stuck. The core takeaway for me to tell you is if you don't get a pay rise for doing your job, you get it for proving your impact and making a change, making a difference to where you are. And if that's not being recognized, you know where I am. Give me a call, we'll do a coffee. Thanks very much.
