How to effectively manage raise and promotion requests

If an employee has come to you with a promotion request or a salary increase request, it's important to make sure that they are being heard. For many, this can be a nerve-wracking process, therefore, as a manager, it's essential to put your employee at ease and discuss their needs in a professional way.

It's always good practice to thank your employees for raising the request, however, the way you formally process this is up to you. You could ask for a formal promotion request letter, or you could schedule a career progression meeting to discuss things in more detail.

No matter which option you choose, taking a moment to acknowledge your promotion requests will help you to protect your relationship with your employee.

If you're caught off guard by the request, it's also essential to make sure that you have enough time to review the company's promotion policy or discuss the request with the relevant senior management. Therefore, you should avoid making decisions on the spot.

It's generally a good idea to gather as much information as possible before making decisions on salary increase requests. This could involve looking at performance review data, or asking your employee to provide a case for their promotion or salary increase.

It's likely that you'll need to do some research yourself too. You can:

• Look at your industry's salary data
• Look at the rest of your team's salaries
• Discuss the request with the business owners and senior management

This will help you to accrue all the relevant information you need before you decide to grant your employees request.

Past performance reviews are a great tool to utilise in these scenarios. With the right HR software, you could store all of this data on one platform, allowing for easy access when dealing with promotion requests.

Your employees' appraisals can provide a basis for you to make your decision. You can see where their strengths lie, and areas for improvement, so you can easily assess whether a promotion or salary increase is the right course of action.

Whilst it's good to have a sense of urgency with these requests, it's also important to avoid rushing the decision. To do this, you should outline a time frame that indicates when you will provide a response to your employee.

A few days should give you enough time to gather the information you need. However, you could extend this to a week if you need to speak to other members of staff regarding the decision.

You want to make sure your employee does not feel like their raise or promotion request has been forgotten or put on the backburner. As this is can be a sensitive issue, it's also a good idea to review the request as quickly as possible, so your employee does not grow worried or anxious.

Set a date for your response, or schedule a face-to-face meeting or call, so the employee has enough notice.

Throughout the process, it's crucial to ensure you're managing your employee's expectations. No matter whether you choose to grant or deny your team members' request, you'll want to make sure that your relationship is protected.

This will involve avoiding making any decisions on the spot, offering a neutral response when asked about the request, and explaining the likelihood of securing the raise or promotion.

You don't want to give your employees false hope, however, you also want to make sure that employees' hard work is being recognised. This is a delicate balance to manoeuvre. However, with the right preparation, you can easily navigate your employee's salary increase request, without damaging the relationship.