New Position Request: Fill & Download for Free

No. Salary negotiations are pretty fun actually, once you know how to do them. I’ll try to tell you a bit.Let’s start with why the company even pays you money. Why do you think that is?It’s not to do the job. It’s to bring them money or make their problems go away (or both). So if you’re working on a customer support, let’s say, what you’re actually doing is helping the company to:have less angry customersincrease the revenue per customer by helping them with your productlower the time it takes to reply to a customer (which leads back to the first point)So you need to have a clear understanding of what is the company actually paying you for. And how much is it worth to them?Next thing you have to know: It’s next to impossible to get a decent salary increase.“Whaaaaat? But you said you haven’t been turned down.”True. What I meant is that asking for more money for the job you’re already doing is very very hard and the result will usually be less than satisfying.What you should do instead is to create a new position for yourself within the company.You go to your boss and you ask them about your position and how satisfied they are with you. You ask them about their problems and how you can help them. You try to find out the most high-priority stuff they think about and then you offer to help them solve it. And you create a new position for yourself.Example (me being a sales guy):me: “Hey boss, I wanna get feedback on my work. Are you unhappy with me and my work?”boss: “No, I think you’re doing a great job!”me: “a great job?”boss: “Yeah, you closed a lot of deals this year, you’re professional and our customers are happy with you.”me: “That’s great to hear! But I think I can do more to help you and the company. What are some of the things that I could help you with right now?”boss: “I’m not sure…”me: “Is there anything wrong with the rest of the sales dpt.? Any blockers?”boss: “Well some of the new guys are learning slower than I would like.”me: “Ok, how about I mentor them to improve their performance?”boss: “That sounds great!”me: “Ok, with this new responsibility, would it be wrong to fit me for a new position? Like a team leader?”boss: “No, I think that would be ok.”me: “What would be the appropriate pay for such position?”…The example was simplified (normally there would be more dancing around etc) but I think it illustrates what I have in mind.The point is that I didn’t ask to get more money for my work. I found more stuff I can do that would help my boss. And once he agreed to give me more responsibility, my work description changed. And it was only logical that my position should change too. And with a new position and new responsibilities it was only logical to have more money.

Two comments in one conversation:“We feel sorry for her, so we gave her the position.”“We really love you; you are so easy to kick around.”Both winners (not).When a higher position was to open up, I requested to be considered.The above is what I got.The ‘her’ was a lady that needed moving because she was incompetent (that is what the office manager said to me as she gave me the news). Management felt sorry for her because she was “50+ years old, so she would have a tough time finding a new position.”The second gem was stated after the bad news, and I suppose it was meant to comically let me know I was cherished.I didn’t laugh.Within a few months, both ‘her’ and I left; ‘her’ because the work was waaay over her abilities, and ‘her’ knew it.I left because karma had something waaay better in store for me….being a teacher in Thailand (where my hard work and abilities were appreciated)!Language note: Please do not tell me to change ‘her’ to ‘she.’ Consider it author privilege.

Here's a set of information to gather and questions to ask to make sure that opening a new position is appropriate:New Position RequestThe Hiring Manager (HM) requesting a new position should gather the information below and send it or review with the approver(s).Job title(e.g. “Product Manager, Search Relevance”).Role type(e.g. “Product Manager”, “Systems Engineer”, “Software Development Engineer”).Level. As a company grows some standardization in levels/titles will be helpful.Salary/compensation. The HM shouldn’t be recommending compensation. Compensation defaults should be established by HR or Finance based on role type, level, and other internal factors. HM’s should review the comp recommendation and be allowed to offer feedback.List of responsibilities. What will this person be doing? What do they own?What happens if we fill this role? The HM should describe how much further the business can scale, how much more money it will make/save, or what the estimated impact on relevant metrics will be. The estimates may not be precise, but coming up with them will force the HM to think clearly about the expected benefit and take some accountability to make sure the benefit is realized.What happens if we don’t fill this role? What’s the scary scenario if the position is refused?Review ProcessWhen reviewing the request, the approver(s) should ask themselves the questions below to determine if adding one incremental headcount is justified vs. adding none or more than one.Can we afford to fill this position? Consider the company’s cash position, runway, and growth philosophy. If you can’t afford to fill the position then stop here.Is there a mismatch in the role type, level, and responsibilities? Is the HM trying to hire a Director to perform a junior role, or vice versa?Does the list of responsibilities include any repetitive tasks that could be automated?If so, we should hire SDE’s to automate those tasks rather than hiring non-tech staff linearly as the business grows.Is there an ongoing need for this role or is the need temporary? If temporary, we should hire a contractor instead of an FTE.What is the true negative impact on the business if we don’t open and fill this position?The approver should poke at the scary scenario and offer suggestions for other ways to avoid it that don’t involve adding headcount.Are the positive benefits of opening and filling this role worth the increased expense?If the fully-loaded expense of adding this role is $200K annually, ideally the positive benefits should be an order of magnitude greater, to provide some buffer in case all the benefits aren’t realized.If the benefits vastly outweigh the expense, should we be hiring more people? Maybe the HM is not being aggressive enough.Is this a land rush scenario? Does the company need to move very fast to take advantage of a market opportunity and get out ahead of competitors? If so, it might make sense to hire more people than requested.Are the positive benefits greater than those generated by opening other requested positions? If every HM in the company makes a good case to add headcount, we can’t approve them all. Among the various requests, which ones will generate the greatest impact with the highest probability?Are we making bold bets? Are we innovating by funding bold ideas, and not just funding the layups?Can we fill this role internally with someone who is qualified but in a role of lower leverage? If so, should we backfill that person or not?Lastly, remember that just because a hiring manager is aggressive in asking for incremental headcount doesn’t mean that team is the most valuable place to add headcount. Encourage all hiring managers to re-evaluate their headcount needs periodically, not just the aggressive ones, and reward them for finding ways to reduce or re-deploy their headcount by automating repetitive processes or finding other efficiencies.