Currently trying to negotiate a pay rise at work. When I started there were 3 of us doing the work I now do on my own, and haven’t had pay to reflect this.

Obviously recognise that times are difficult but boss (finance manager) agrees that I deserve a bit more. He has to go to the directors though.

I’ve been considering saying that, depending on the amount offered, I’d be willing to sign something to say that I won’t go anywhere for a certain amount of years (2/3? Longer?) and I’d do ACA/AAT training as well.

Can I do this and would it a) be a wise thing to do (I’ve been here nearly 5 years but have basically said if they can’t do anything for me I can’t afford to stay) and b) be attractive to them?

offering training is surely a win win situation for you as you take it with you if you leave
I would be wary of saying you wont leave as that means they can take the piss.

Even if you say you won’t leave I doubt it will be legally enforceable anyway. Especially the other way round if times get tough(er) for your employer.

If they have not suggested it what is the point?

in these times of litigation a contract which states you will not leave X’s employment is a minefield.. by binding you they bind themselves. Also if your doing the job 3 once did do they still need you? carry on go for the training ( both sides benefit) dont ask for more cash look for time off or shorter working week it all makes life more bearable after all they dont have pockets in shrouds!

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we few we happy few

Yeah, I’d ask them if your ‘notice period’ would be the same as their period of sacking/making you redundant.

If another company offered you a job with twice the pay, all the perks you can carry etc. would you really think they’d wait two years for you to become available.

3 months notice tops. Maybe 6 months for some big managers.

Fair point.

Perhaps agree to repay training fees if you leave within a certain time. Fairly common in our work world and a reasonable request.

They’ve seen your forum name, they figure you are in for the long haul 😛

If they value you and have the cash then why not ask for a raise, be preparedf to justify it too, then what’s the worst that happens – they say no, you either deal with it and are happy to have a job still or start to look around. Without meaning to sound too harsh …

Currently trying to negotiate a pay rise at work. When I started there were 3 of us doing the work I now do on my own, and haven’t had pay to reflect this.

Obviously recognise that times are difficult but boss (finance manager) agrees that I deserve a bit more. He has to go to the directors though. the directors will/should be interested in:

– if you are motivated and rewarded appropriately
– if you are not, will you leave
– if you leave what is the impact on the business
– if you leave what will a replacement cost (fair market value)

I’ve been considering saying that, depending on the amount offered, I’d be willing to sign something to say that I won’t go anywhere for a certain amount of years (2/3? Longer?) and I’d do ACA/AAT training as well.

that would be an odd arrangement, probably not enforcable and likely to raise a few eyebrows. If you want to show commitment then agree a program of training that they support (with some caveat about repaying cost on early departure).

Can I do this and would it a) be a wise thing to do (I’ve been here nearly 5 years but have basically said if they can’t do anything for me I can’t afford to stay)

ooh, be very careful. I once sat in a meeting where someone made those sort of “threats”; and the response was along the line of “we’ll be sorry to see you go, goodbye”.

Pointless trying to come up with a lock-in contract, even if it were enforceable what’s it’s purpose? If they’re paying you enough and the conditions are OK you’ll stay anyway. If they need to invest a lot in your training (and that also benefits you) then I’d be prepared to sign a pay-back contract (e.g. you repay 75% of the training if you leave within 6 months and it’s a sliding scale so you don’t owe anything if you leave after 18 months).

Is it a specialist position you’re in or can you easily compare your job to others in the market and work out roughly what you’re actually worth?

Is it a specialist position you’re in or can you easily compare your job to others in the market and work out roughly what you’re actually worth?

It’s a mish mash of 3 jobs plus a few other duties I’ve taken off people in my department. My main point is the amount of money I’ve saved the company by taking over these jobs (everything they’ve asked me to do I’ve done – most duties I took over as a stop gap until they recruited someone else but they never have) but I think the pay-back contract is something I’ll mention if it comes to it. My boss is pretty supportive and is on my side.

Woohoo another Finance person, I thought everyone worked in IT on here 🙂

Have a look on some of the Finance recruitment websites and see what the pay would be elsewhere for a similar role.

Not sure on your level or experiance, but I noticed last year that most companies would not consider candidates that were not qualified (CIMA/ACCA etc…) for jobs that a QBE/PQ would do a few years ago.

Full study support is worth a fair amount of cash, if your sitting 2 papers each sitting and also getting time off. I’m currently studying CIMA and each paper is about £1k plus 5 days of for each, so £4k and an additional 20 days leave pa.

After qualifying (and throughout) you should be able to either move up the chain internally or go for better paid jobs elsewhere.

Perhaps agree to repay training fees if you leave within a certain time. Fairly common in our work world and a reasonable request

This. Offer to pay back the cost of training, adjusted for depreciation, if you leave in the next couple of years. That way if a great job comes along somewhere else, you can sod off and if you’re a smooth talking devil you might even get your future employers to buy you out.

This way you’re guaranteeing their investment in so far as you’re not going to go “thanks for the training, bye” as soon as you qualify, and conversely you’re not committing to being paid buttons whilst being overqualified for the next three years because you’re contractually obliged to bend over.

A couple of thoughts.

If they your company are willing to fund the training, then this benefits both parties – and some form of agreement to pay the training costs back if you leave within a reasonable time period is quite common. This might come with a rise attached – which is negatated to a degree if you leave and have to pay the training cost back (you are in effect net neutral over the course of say 12 months / period to qualify).

If your role is an amalgam of three – I would start by agreeing / refreshing your role profile with your boss (if not already done so). This does two things. It increases awareness of what you do exactly – which in turn provides visibility on what value you add to your organisation. This will in likelihood make any presentation to the directors more straight forward for your direct boss if he goes into bat on your behalf.

Secondly, with a current role profile in place you can benchmark against the local market. If the benchmarking shows your current salary (in relation to skill set) is higher than market – then you might be better to keep quiet and leave the organisation when a more fiscally attractive offer comes along elsewhere. However, if you are being paid below market, you have a corner stone to negotiate up from. All the options are open then for you to discuss ( e.g. the training / raise option, a straight raise to market level or a combination of both).

However with this type of thing, there is in my experience a risk that you are over paid to market and your skill level is below the established market entry point – so you might want to do some informal benchmarking of your own before you take things forward.

But let’s assume you are overworked and under paid 🙁 But you are successful in your negotiation 🙂

Good luck!