Team unhappy about the salary they are getting
I took over a small team and both team members are requesting salary adjustment. I brought this up with HR and they are pushing back to me saying we don't entertain salary adjustment on the fly, HR is telling me to push back on my team to wait until next performance feedback cycle and I can only give one team member raise more than 5% and other will get a standard 3-4 % raise like everyone else. My problem is, both team members are equally deserving because honestly our team is somewhat understaffed and we three have taken on excessive responsibilities and we three do our best to deliver them all to best of our abilities. As a manager I feel both my team members deserve salary adjustment as per market rate but HR is telling I can't take care of both at the same time due to budgets and honestly I feel if I get one raise other will find out (because I know they both discuss Salary even when I have discouraged them to do so) and will be discouraged and will start looking for another opportunities. I don't want either of them to leave. I find myself in a tough situation and not sure what would be the best set of choices I can make as a manager.
Why not be honest and tell them what you just posted? You think they are both deserving and will fight for the adjustment but the budget may not allow for it to happen in the next eval cycle.
Wouldn't a DR just roll his/her eyes and not buy this type of response? Seems like classic manager rhetoric for keeping the employee around longer
Its only rhetoric if you as the manager don't follow through on what you said.
I would purposely try to get one or both of them to leave for better opportunities. Make sure your requests for higher salaries to HR were documented. Once one or both leave, make sure HR is exposed and takes the blame. This may hurt in the short term but will help for the long term and give you more leverage when this comes up again.
HR is the house, and the house never loses.
^ well said. The person who suffers will be the op, as he’ll lose 1/3 of his team. HR does not care, at least from my experience
On another note I've never understood why orgs are willing to lose valuable employees over 5% in compensation when it will cost thousands more in lost productivity and training costs for their replacement. I can only assume they figure there will be 100 people in line behind the first person so they adopt the "we dont negotiate with terrorist" policy.
Give them both 4%
This was my suggestion too
How did you become manager...
Cheap shot. There is a place for comments like these, and it’s certainly not this post. You should be ashamed of yourself
How is this a cheap shot? Blind is half trolling and half serious. In this situation both are accurate. Forcing someone to become a manager before they are ready or trained is bad for the the manager, bad for the employees, and bad for the company. Zero people win in that situation. Setting up op for failure is not in anyone's best interest. What exactly should I be ashamed of? Try again? Super concerning that so many people would be happy if their manager goes to blind for work advice...
1. Push back on responsibilities 2. Document the ask for more pay. Tell your employees that hr policies stop you from giving a raise. Tell them that you would have interviewed elsewhere yourself 3. When they leave, youll save your ass because you'll have fewer deliverables (courtesy of step 1) 4. You will also be able to forward their requests for more pay to your superiors, hr and superiors of the he who rejected the raise
Thanks! I like your response. Usually employees don't feel comfortable asking for a raise in a email, these requests are usually by products of 1:1s. Do you think asking them to give me thier request in an email is fair ask?
No. When they ask in 1:1, set up a meeting with your boss with the agenda "Raises for employees" and describe the ask in the content. Ask your boss for a quick 1:1 to discuss this matter (not as an urgency but as a polite conversation). There's your documentation. After this, just discuss it and find out if they can give the raise (mostly they can't). But you're off the hook for the project not getting delivered due to attrition. You did your part.
Escalate it to your mgrs n their mgr. clearly explain the good work your team is doing n back up with data. Ask for more budget. HR ans to some level in your org chain. Find that link.
Whatever you do, you need to be honest with your team. If I cannot get paid the way I deserve, I would much rather you be honest with me so I can start prepping for interviews and applying to other places. Fuck HR. They can burn another 20k of lost productivity trying to hire someone, IDC.
HR isn’t operating rogue here. They are following policies that the business set up to keep costs relatively predictable. Unfortunately, this is a part of being a manager. You’ll never be able to get everything you think your team/staff deserve. You need to find more than just cash as a motivator.
Cash is the only real motivator. If employees see management trying to give other inappreciable perks in place of cash, they will become offended and leave.
It’s hilarious how most people here blames HR. They only provide benchmarks and the tools, FINANCE sets the team’s budget.
You should push back on responsibilities and committed priorities for your team