Pay raise negotiation: HR or manager's discretion?

binarysoul

When the time comes up to get an annual raise, is it better to discuss it with HR or with your manager? Is it better to wait and see how big of a raise you get, or talk to them before they seal the raise with a permanent glue

cgrimaldo

Both. It's been my experience that the HR Director/Manger keeps up with the regions pay rate for someone with similar experience, certs, education, etc. From there, it's run by your direct supervisor. While we usually get at least a 3 percent raise annually, those the factors come into play with your evaluation. I hope I was a bit of help.

Netstudent

From my experiences the HR staff will do what upper management tell them to do. HOw does Human resources know what your actual job performance is? Do you report to your boss or HR? When you do a biannual review, is HR sitting there listening in?

But I think it has a lot to do with the size of the company. As stated previously, a large company may have a HR director thats communicates directly with upper management to negotiate your skills with the average payrate in the area. Either way, I would always go to my boss first because I have a better relationship with my boss and he is more likely to understand my capabilities.

I guess you need to be aware of the interworkings of the company because it can vary greatly.

Pash

What Netstudent says makes sense. I guess i am lucky in that my company only employs 25 staff, the directors and managers are engineers themself, they know the basic system engineers worth, so they know what to offer come pay review.

binarysoul

So, talking to my boss is probably more appropriate, but I will send a very general email to HR to ask their 'policy' on raises, so I can get a sense of percentages, criteria and etc.

It's a bit late, but now I know that we have to be very smart to negotiate the salary when the job is offered; this is something I didn't do and I regret it. I should have talked about in more detail.

mrj

The HR deals with hiring and negotiating salaries based on a "window/range" provided
by upper management/finance groups (which are of course given numbers via management).

It's a pretty simplistic flow, but it of course depends on the organization.

Assuming it isn't Fortune 500, I'd approach the manager.

drainey

Go to your manager. That's the chain of command. If he agrees your worth more he'll change your raise (or give you one) to reflect it. But go in prepared. You'll need to be able to "show" that your worth what your asking.

e.g. I do this and this as my job descriptions state, but I also do that and that above and beyond as well as ... or I earned such and such certifications (or degree) ... therefore I think I'm worth a 6% raise instead of just a 3%

Also you are correct, negotiate at the beginning. They know what your average range is for the job in your area and will low ball the offer expecting you to ask for more. And it doesn't have to be money, maybe you'd like more vacation, or training allowance, etc. Ask for that instead of salary if you're comfortable with the salary offer.