E. Hamer Associates, Ltd.
career in motion banner

Career Pointers Archives

Do you know how much you're worth?

Since the much-ballyhooed “recession” set in, talk of a labour shortage has gone quiet. Paradoxically, though, there is a real shortage, but it is not a “Quantity Problem”. It is, my friends, a “Quality Problem”; as per the saying “Good Help is Hard to Find”. And getting harder; see my recent post on the down-side of an increase in the numbers of people looking for work. That isn’t making it easier for companies to find the right people at all.

So, having said that it’s a quality issue more than anything else, people with strong soft skills and competencies in wide array of disciplines are going to be very much in high demand. In knowledge and information intensive industries, such as software development, the shortage is projected to become critical within the next year. Good news for job switchers and seekers - in a world of scarcity, prices tend to go up, after all. The general expectation is that for mid-level and senior specialists and (project) managers, market rates may go up as much as 15 - 25% over the next 18 months or so.

So how do you know whether you’re being paid well, or being under-paid, or whether an offer for a new job accurately reflects your market value? Well - do you know what value you bring to the organization? Can you articulate the tangible and intangible impact you have had - or will have, based on your track record - and can you translate that into real $$?

Don’t worry - most people can’t, either. But if you are ever going to be successful negotiating real market value for yourself, you’d better start learning where you bring value to the company - and how much that value is. And you need to start documenting your successes now - well in advance of a performance review, or the final interview of a job application.

It may seem a daunting task, and one that you probably think only the people working in sales are able to do. After all, they can point to the number of sales per quarter, the average revenue per sale, the reduction of cost to close the sale, the average margin per sale, etc. But what about someone in customer service? Or someone in the A/R department? Or someone writing marketing copy? How do you measure the value in that?

When you think about it, a company only hires people to do things that are worth doing (although we probably at some time have all worked in jobs that didn’t feel like that). Worth doing to a company means ‘saves them money, or makes them money’. Start by focusing on all the ways in which your work contributes to one or both of those goals. Compare before and after situations - what has changed as a result of your efforts? And has that change resulted in a cost savings or in a revenue increase? Or has it contributed to a better customer experience? Equally important and valuable, since happy customers tend to generate higher sales, both their own, and from the people they recommend your company to. Better customer service both saves money (you figure out how much) and earns more revenue (you find out how much). If you can’t lay your hands on exact figures - guesstimate. But be realistic; this is no time for exaggeration. That only backfires, as you probably know already.

If you can articulate your value, and can provide documented proof of the monetary value of your efforts, entering into a salary negotiation becomes a much less one-sided conversation, and will help you resist ‘taking the job, because they’ve offered it’. And it will help you understand where your true value lies - and companies will understand it, too.

Good luck in 2009/10. And if you’d like some strategy help and advice - you know where to find me.

Last updated on May 19, 2009 at 10:21 AM
Category: Career Marketing Career Strategies Interview Strategies Negotiating Worth
0 comments | Leave a comment (must be logged in)

Page 1 of 8 pages  1 2 3 >  Last »

 
© 2008 E. Hamer Associates, Ltd.   Home | Contact | Privacy | Legal