STRATEGY

In many situations it's easy to turn down a raise request: If a person's performance hasn't been up to expectations that's a justifiable reason to maintain their salary level; if a person bases their request on what others are making it's easy to explain that everyone is treated as an individual. The difficult dialogue is when you have to deny a request from someone who, in fact, merits an increase, but who can't get one because of the company's financial situation. The secret here is to hammer home the fact that they are a valued employee, making a legitimate request, but which simply can't be met right now because of the company's financial situation. Every rational person realizes you can't get water from a stone. Temper their justifiable disappointment by stressing that you will come back to them with a raise, based on their presentation, as soon as the financial picture brightens.

TACTICS

• Attitude: Accept that in tough economic times the needs of the company must come first. Simply maintaining staff is often a sacrifice for struggling companies.
• Preparation: You'll have little opportunity to prepare unless you're given advance warning of what the meeting will be about. In that unlikely case, documentation of the company's financial problems could help ease the pain.
• Timing: You'll have little or no control over when this meeting takes place since it will be instigated by the employee. Once asked, don't delay or stall.

  
  

• Behavior: Be compassionate, caring, and understanding. There's no need to apologize, however. It's just a fact of life that when a company's business is off its employees will have to forego raises.

ADAPTATIONS

This script can be modified to:

• Deny requests for non‐monetary benefits which could create morale problems.

KEY POINTS

• Let the employee make their pitch without interruption or argument.
• If correct, accept their assertions and numbers openly.
• Respond to every request, regardless of which pitch is used, with the same answer: the money isn't there right now.
• Accept a certain amount of anger, sullenness, or annoyance—it's understandable.
• Make a personal commitment to come back with an increase as soon as it's possible.