What’s the secret to getting a higher salary? This is the question that most Singaporeans will ask themselves at least once in their lives. To the typical Singaporean employee, salaries are often important because they’re supposed to help you keep up with the growing cost of living. Whilst this is important, as a Singapore recruitment agency, we believe that there are other important factors to help you boost your salary at any stage in your career.
Here are some ways Singaporean employees can boost their salary without switching jobs:
1. Your Starting Pay Does Not Matter
Despite popular belief, your starting pay is not an accurate measure of how valuable your career path will be. What we’re trying to say here is that your starting pay does not matter — especially for fresh graduates. Instead, you should choose a career or work for a company that can give you high growth. This means that you should choose a company that’s able to give you the experience and training required to reach your full potential. Fresh graduates often believe that starting salary to be there, “be all, end all” during their job search.
But strategically gathering relevant experience and the qualifications needed to advance up your desired career ladder will lead to an inevitable increase in pay. So the next time you’re looking to switch to a different company, choose one that can provide you with the resources you need to grow and move up the career ladder instead. This might require some research on the company. We’ve listed some reputable websites that you might want to use to snoop on an organization as well as the employee experience they offer. Click here to read, “Best Company Culture Review Websites For Singaporean Job Seekers”.
Pro-Tip: Another way to continually boost your salary would be to pick a job that rewards performance with bonuses. This might be hard to find right now, especially during the economic recession. But it’s something you’d want to keep in mind. Maybe start job searching? Browse through the BGC Group job portal here and look for jobs that you might want.
2. Brand Yourself
Employees who manage to snag higher paying salaries often manage to do that by getting a job that’s highly paid in the first place. Whilst that might sound simple, trying to land yourself a high paying job might mean fighting off some tough competition. One way to get ahead of the game is to brand yourself. In other words, marketing yourself will make you more money in the long run.
Self-branding can be tough. It requires some form of soul searching to find out the personal strengths that you should showcase. As a recruitment agency in Singapore, we believe in the power of personal branding. Below, are some tips to help you brand yourself:
Figure out your strengths: The very first step to brand yourself is to figure out what your strengths are. Take the time to brainstorm how you’re different from your peers. Or what are your passions and career goals?
Determine how others see you: It might sound morbid but try to think of the things that your current organization will miss from you. If self-reflecting is tough, ask your friends and colleagues about the different ways you contribute to the organization.
List your goals: Next, you’ll need to align your strengths with the type of career goals you’ll want to achieve over the course of the year. This allows you to determine who your target audience will be when it comes to your personal branding.
Craft your messaging: We’re almost done! Now all that’s left is to craft the appropriate messaging that you’ll want to include in your resume and your website. You can also use social media to distribute your messaging.
Branding yourself will inevitably make you a more competitive job seeker. Try to refrain from skipping this step as proper branding will lead you to more job opportunities both within and outside your current company.
Learn more about how to cultivate a personal brand for you to stand out amongst other job seekers in Singapore here. Alternatively, read more about the intricate steps it takes to craft your own personal brand here.
3. Research...Everything!
It’s hard to determine a proper asking salary or aim for a monetary goal if you don’t know your market rate. One way to find this out is by conducting some research on how much you should be earning. Lucky for you (or anyone reading this article), we’ve compiled a 2020 Salary Guide for your reference. You can also figure out your average market rate by asking around. Thankfully, Millennial and Gen Z employees are very open about discussing their salaries and market rates with others. This might be an awkward endeavor after all!
Pro-Tip: It’s also important to remember that if an employer chooses to increase your KPI, you can use that as an opportunity to ask for a higher salary. Learn how you can calculate your expected salary based on your KPI here. Click here to read the BGC Group 2020 Salary Guide.
4. Your Work Relationships Matter Too
Many employees often use their performance review sessions as an opportunity to ask for higher compensation. But most employees fail to realize that the perfect recipe for a salary increment is by having good work performance as well as strong relationships with your colleagues. Think about it, if your superior find it hard or challenging to like you, they might not be as motivated to make sure that you stick around the company. This means that they might not work as hard for your salary increment.
There are a number of different ways to foster a close relationship with the people at work. They include:
Staying connected: Making the effort to stay connected with both your current and ex-coworkers. Learn more about this in our article, “5 Reasons Why Job Seekers Should Keep in Touch with Former Employers”.
Working at a company that aligns with your personal values: It’s easier to get along with people when they think like you. One way to do this is to find an organization where you think your personality and values will have a great fit. Of course, this requires a little bit of research into the company. Find out the best websites to research company culture here.
Be open and more personable: Are you an open or closed off individual? Sometimes, identifying your MBTI personality type can help us understand how we interact with the people around us. As well as the weaknesses that come with our personality type.
Learn more about MBTI personality types on our BGC Group blog here.
5. Asking for a Pay Raise During the Pandemic
It might sound illogical to ask for a pay raise during the current COVID-19 pandemic. But there are some benefits to this seemingly counterintuitive move. Despite the current economic recession and the pandemic, companies are willing to make some sacrifices to accommodate for talented and high performing employees.
Here are some tips for employees looking to ask for a pay raise during the pandemic:
Research: Before you begin asking for a pay raise, the best thing to do would be to ask for a pay raise during the pandemic. Find out the salaries of employees who have similar responsibilities, education, and experience. Thankfully, BGC Group has released the 2020 Singapore Salary Guide to help you discover your ideal salary. Click here to view.
Perform: Asking for a pay raise during the pandemic might require a little additional convincing from your supervisors and bosses. Before doing that, try performing your best at work. Make a list of the different achievements you've managed to accomplish.
Suggest possible solutions: There is a chance that your boss might say no. In fact, there is a very high chance that your boss will say no. When that happens, suggest other possible benefits that you think you deserve to have. These can include company-sponsored courses. Below, are some articles to help you decide on a course to take:
A. Kickstart Your Career in Singapore's Tech Industry with These Courses
B. The Best Courses to Help Singaporeans Develop Their HR Career
C. How to be a Software Developer: Best Courses to Take in Singapore
Practice makes perfect: Treat this meeting like you would a job interview. Try crafting a script and then practicing it beforehand! When you sound polished and list reasonable pointers, it might make your 'argument' much more convincing.
6. Understand that Pay Increments Takes Experience and Time
We currently live in a world that desires instant gratification. However, it's important to remember that salary increments and pay raises are the results of hard work. Unfortunately, this might take some time as fresh graduates and mid-level employees will often need to cultivate a serious amount of experience and skills. Remember that despite the tough times, salary increments do not happen overnight. Adjusting your salary expectations allows job seekers to consider looking into the other benefits that a job offer might provide.
But fresh graduates, don't let this deter you! Just like your ideal career, the journey to your ideal salary can be better predicted with a little planning. Draw up a career map and plot the average salary range for each stage. That way, you'll be able to plan out your goals and take on skills to increase your value. Mapping out your career and salary can also give you insights on your monetary value as an employee at any stage of your career.
We hope that you try following these steps to land yourself a pay hike! May the odds ever be in your favour! However, do keep in mind that the outcome of your pay negotiation depends greatly on external factors such as experience, your location, and the economic environment. Thus, it's important to keep a realistic outlook on your ideal salary during these tough times! Learn more about negotiating a pay raise during the current economic recession and pandemic with this LinkedIn article.
What are some tips and tricks that you believe will help your counterparts boost their salary? Share them with us in the comments section below!
Read More: Fresh Graduates, Now is the Time to be Open if You Want to Land a Job