How to secure a raise by developing your skills
Many Americans want pay raises because they need money to pay for bills, secure their financial futures or take care of their families. Simply staying loyal to a company isn’t enough to guarantee the dramatic bump in salary you are looking for.
According to business experts, the average employer will only give you a salary increase of 3 percent every year. This can be far from what you need if you want to buy a house or a car.
If you really want to get a large pay raise, you need to secure it by developing your skills and talents. This will make you more valuable to your employers and more likely to receive the pay raise you are angling for.
Learn a few methods you could consider if you want to boost your skills, make your repertoire more valuable and finally get that huge salary bump you need.
The most efficient way you can improve your skills is by learning new ones. However, you may not have the time nor the energy to take night classes or attend regular seminars. But teachers and trainers no longer have to confine themselves to physical classes thanks to online course creation software.
There are plenty of courses you can take to ensure you get the pay raise, but you should definitely stick to what you need to excel at your job. Or better yet, for a job you want to have. For example, if you are working for an advertising company, you could take visual design classes online. Or if you want to transition to a different role, you could take online courses that can help make such a change easier. Remember that you should look for online classes that provide accreditation or certification. This will ensure you have the proof you need to showcase your new skills and information.
A lot of people experience many negative emotions at work. They may feel anxious about their performance, overwhelmed by the workload or saddened by personal matters. It can sometimes be very difficult to obtain serenity at work, especially without some guidance. You could be surprised how valued you may be at your company if you take the time to learn how to help people channel their emotions in a positive way at work.
Helping people become more mindful at work can take many forms. First, you could get certification to be a licensed yoga instructor. Many companies have started yoga sessions for employees to help them feel more at ease and burn calories. Or you can learn how to guide whole groups in meditation exercises. This is not only a low cost method for centring yourself, it can be useful in getting an entire department or group to focus on their tasks and funnel their negative emotions elsewhere.
No one likes it when their computers or digital assets act up and with businesses increasingly relying on technology, people who can help sort out these problems are becoming more important to organizations. If you want to enhance your usefulness and value to your employer, you could look into learning the essential skills in tech support.
Aside from the technical skills you need learn such as running programs, debugging software and diagnosing what could be wrong with a computer, you will need to develop soft skills related to the field.
For example, if you want to excel in technical support you should learn how to actively listen to your clients and co-workers. A critical eye and a logical mind are also key to becoming a great tech support provider. The former is needed to see where a program could have gone wrong or when a co-worker could have made a mistake. The latter is essential in pursuing the correct solution for any software problem as these programs rely on logical processes to function.
Finally, you could enhance your value to an organization and secure a pay raise by learning how to make the company as a whole run as smoothly as possible. This doesn’t necessarily mean you focus solely on the technical and operational aspects of streamlining an organization. One of the best ways you could ensure a department or even a whole enterprise is running smoothly is by learning how to resolve workplace troubles by mediation.
Corporate mediation has been a popular tool in company arsenals for years. Although people believe that this should be left to human resources, knowing the basics of getting people to come together and forms a consensus is vital if you are aiming for a leadership role and the pay check that comes with it.
*This is a collaborative post.
