Compensation is an emotional topic, so leading with the punchline is not always the best strategy.Delmaine Donson/Getty Images
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Ask Women and Work
Question: I found out that a colleague in the same job category makes more than I do. Should I use this information when I ask for a raise?
We asked Permpreet Soomal, chief people officer, Capital One Canada, to tackle this one:
You don’t want to put yourself in a position where you’re comparing yourself to others when you are discussing and negotiating your salary. I don’t think it’s the most professional way to approach a conversation, and you’re already setting limitations on what the outcome could be because you’ve put a comparison to it. Focusing on your own skills is the best approach when broaching this conversation.
Compensation is such an emotional topic, so leading with the punchline is maybe not always the best strategy. Rather, it’s about laying the groundwork by saying, ‘Here’s the impact that my work is having on the organization. Here is where I’m adding value,’ and having that lead to the compensation conversation.
Do your research ahead of time to understand the internal pay philosophy – companies often publish that. As well, it’s a good idea to know what your skills pay in the broader market. There’s a wealth of information out there on external websites that provide benchmarking. It’s not that you’re going to find a dollar value and anchor to that, but understanding what skills are valued in your organization can put you in the driver’s seat.
What’s your biggest office pet peeve? Share your annoying work stories with the Globe
Even if you aren’t successful in getting a raise, it’s a good conversation to have regardless of the outcome. It could open the doors to other career and development opportunities, and it allows you to be really clear about what your motivations are in a role. So, when it is time to reward and pay for performance, it will be top of mind for your manager, who will think, ‘This person’s doing a really great job, and I know that this is their motivator.’
There’s an interesting point of self-reflection as well in this scenario. You’re thinking, ‘Others are getting paid more than me.’ The question that you should ask yourself is, ‘Why is that? What are these colleagues doing that warrants that and how might I build those experiences? How might I get visibility for the impact that I’m having?’
One thing I see people fall into when negotiating salary is looking back too much and saying, ‘Here are all the reasons why I think I deserve that raise because I’ve done this and this in the past.’ I think there’s value in talking about where your skill sets will continue to add value in the future, to give you a leg up in the context of future salary conversations.
Submit your own questions to Ask Women and Work by e-mailing us at GWC@globeandmail.com.
This week’s must-read stories on women and work
Why some companies are actively recruiting an ‘untapped market’ of neurodiverse workers
Having been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) in childhood, Lauren Martin grew up knowing that her neurodiversity made her different, and it was especially difficult once she began her working life. (Characteristics of ADD, also known as inattentive attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, can include being easily distracted, having difficulty following directions or focusing on a task.)
The Winnipeg resident says that for years she faced challenges in the workplace, particularly when navigating the nuances of communication with co-workers and bosses.
”I remember getting into trouble for emails all the time,” Ms. Martin says of early jobs. She says she might interpret a single e-mail five different ways and may need to ask several times for clarification. “I’m often misunderstood as being curt or having a tone, but that’s often because I’m in my own head.”
Read how companies are adjusting their processes and environment with neurodiversity in mind.
What to take out of your resume and what to put in
What you leave out of your resume may be as important as what you put in. Executive coach Irina Cozma suggests you steer clear of:
- Including irrelevant work experience: Younger people, for example, may be inclined to include jobs from the past like babysitting or being a cashier at a retail store. Your past work experiences are important and make you who you are, but not all of them need to be on your resume. Focus on what is relevant to the job.
- Wasting time customizing your resume: As long as the jobs you’re applying for fall into the same category, you probably don’t need to rewrite your entire resume for every application.
- Overdesigning your resume: “When I was a recruiter for high-volume jobs, I scanned each resume in a few seconds, looking for the words that matched my job opening. If the resume had an ingenious design, it took me a few extra seconds to situate myself on the page, and most often, I did not have those extra seconds.”
Read more tips on how to design your resume to optimize your chances of getting the job.
Trying to look busy is a wasteful, but often necessary, part of many jobs
Workers are putting a lot of energy into looking busy in the wake of return-to-office (RTO) mandates, but those efforts may ironically be distracting them from accomplishing meaningful work.
According to a recent survey of 1,500 American workers by human resources software provider BambooHR, most are employing tactics to appear busy at work, regardless of whether they’re in person, remote or hybrid. Eighty-eight per cent of remote workers and 79 per cent of those who work in person say they’re taking actions to prove they’re on the job. Meanwhile, 42 per cent of hybrid workers say they come into the office just to be seen. On average, employees spend about 76 per cent of their eight-hour shift working, and 2 hours focused on something other than work.
”[The ways workers try to look busy] varies from just walking around so co-workers will see them to planning meetings with other co-workers who are also in office, to showing up earlier or leaving later,” says Anita Grantham, BambooHR’s head of human resources.
Read why these kinds of tactics may be necessary, especially since the rise of remote work.
In case you missed it
I’m returning to work after parental leave. What steps can I take to hit the ground running?
“The process should start 8-12 weeks before you’re due back in office,” says Allison Venditti, founder of Moms at Work, Canada’s largest community for working mothers. “Reach out to your boss or to HR, and make sure that you know who your contact is at work and what the expectations are. A lot can change in a year or 18 months, especially in this economic climate. You might have a new manager.
”As much as we want to believe that our workplaces will have a plan for us, typically they don’t. Moms at Work is working with companies on return-to-work programs, and we know that most companies do not have a transition plan in place. You may believe that your workplace is thinking about you all the time you’re gone. But they’re not.”
Read the full article.
From the archives
When mothers and daughters go into business together
When it comes to mother-daughter business partnerships, there are several built-in advantages: familiarity, understanding, history. But perhaps most importantly, there’s trust.
”You can anticipate how they will act and engage with other people and trust they will act in a way that’s consistent with your own ethics,” says Rebecca Reuber, professor of strategic management at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto.
And while relationships – whether business or personal – are seldom without any kind of conflict, the bonds between a parent and child mean there’s significant motivation to make it work, both in and out of the office.
“Since the family relationship is a long-term relationship that you don’t want to mess up, there’s an incentive to keep the relationship a happy one,” Dr. Reuber says.
Read the full article.
Interested in more perspectives about women in the workplace? Find all stories on The Globe Women’s Collective hub here, and subscribe to the new Women and Work newsletter here. Have feedback? E-mail us at GWC@globeandmail.com.