How to nail March'23 salary appraisals? 🎯
Steps to create a win-win during the funding winter.
Welcome to the 133rd edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 95,300+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more
Quick context ⬇️
Let’s admit - macro startup funding scene is worse. There were no new unicorns recorded in Q1’2023, yeah, that bad. But, there is a silver lining - most startups are optimising for growing revenues - great sign of a maturing ecosystem in India.
Fact 1 : March’23 appraisals are going to be hard 🥺
Startups have immense pressure to prove business models, grow revenues, improve their gross margins and ultimately show a path to profitability. And that brings us to a consequence - optimised appraisals.
Fact 2: Every startup thrives on great teams 💙
And majority of startups spend a substantial amount of their budget into hiring, retaining and incentivising top talent. But with the macro - the instruments of retaining top talent might change.
So, how to get a win-win this appraisal cycle?
1/ Do heart to heart 1:1 conversation with leadership 👋🏻
Try understanding the core business focus, runway, funding scene and more importantly what is right for the business - Especially if you own a substantial employee stock options in the company. ESOPs allow you to win the wealth game in the long term.
2/ Understand the boundaries on appraisals 🚪
Is the org focused on revenue growth or does it want to optimise it’s margins (costs). If it’s optimising cost, the way you do the appraisal conversation will change. It also means you are going to solve for long term wealth over short term.
3/ Document your core outcomes 🛠
Create a simple 1 pager document of what your Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) were & how much have you achieved so far. Try self evaluating first on what is green, red / yellow. This creates clarity for you atleast.
4/ Decide what you want ✨
I have seen smartest of my peers & reports clueless about what they want apart from just a "X % salary increase". Create a narration on what you want including what you like & don't like about your current role. Plus, include where you want to be in a year.
If you are specialist, talk about the charters/metric you want to own. If you are a mid-senior generalist , talk about what kind of orgs you want to build/ lead. Bring more than $$$ to this conversation. Also, don’t be the person which associates appraisals = { just money }
5/ Understand the appraisal process 🙇🏻♂️
Most scaled orgs (200+ employees) will follow a 360 feedback method for appraisals. Spend some time understanding who all are involved in your own appraisal process. If there is a document around this in your company knowledge base, read it.
6/ Know your worth, real worth 💙
Don’t google salaries. Think of the impact you are creating on numbers & then zero down on what you think you deserve. Thumb rule - if you work at a startup & playing the long term game, ask for more stocks (enough to give you X Crore wealth upside).
Remember - taxes eat salaries for breakfast. Also, when everyone is scared of startups, now is the right time to ask for more ESOPs as founders would be more open to be generous and would want to retain talent that values ESOPs.
7/ Get your reporting manager on your side 😇
Most fail to understand this piece. You need to give your manager so much arsenal (your outcomes, projects) that they can go into the appraisal budge meeting with confidence. Pre-work from your side + detailed conversation with your manager helps. Go prep now! You have a structure that you can implement.
One of the interesting things I used to personally do during my appraisals at CRED, Dunzo & Sokrati was asking for a “up-skilling” benefit during appraisals. Each startup has a L&D budget and it typically goes under-utilised. Ask your manager to sponsor a learning program - they would be more than happy.
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