5 steps to nail your salary appraisal 💰

Learnings from my time as a startup operator

Mar 09, 2022

Welcome to 31st edition of the GrowthX Newsletter. Every Tuesday & Thursday I write a piece on startups & business growth. Today’s piece is going to 94,500+ operators & leaders from startups like Google, Stripe, Swiggy, Razorpay, CRED & more.

This week we are taking a break from growth strategies for products. Instead, we’re going to discuss something interesting - Salary appraisals 🤑

I want you to get rewarded every year in your salary appraisals. Most of us fail to get the appraisals/ promotions we deserve. This 1 min read will prep you for this appraisal season.

Never take salary appraisals for granted. If you think you deserve an appraisal this year, don’t wait for your manager to take charge 🚀

My 5-step Framework to nail appraisals 👇🏼

This is the exact process I used to nail all my appraisals when I was a startup operator

1/ Document your outcomes 📃
If it's not written on a Notion or a paper, you are going to forget what you have done 6 months back. Create a simple 1 pager document of what your OKRs were & how you faired against them.

2/ Decide what you want ⚖️
I have seen the smartest of my peers & reports clueless about what they want apart from just a "30% salary increase". Write down

What you want more of
What you like in your current role
What you don't like about your role
Where you want to scale into.

If you are a specialist, talk about the charters/metrics you want to own. If you are a mid-senior generalist, discuss what kind of organizations you want to build/ lead.

Always bring more than just $$ to the conversation.

3/ Understand the appraisal process 💡
Most scaled orgs (200+ employees) will follow a 360 feedback method for appraisals. Spend some time understanding everyone who’s involved in your own appraisal process. If there is a document around this in your company knowledge base, read it.

4/ Know your worth, real worth 💵
Almost everyone who Googles the salary benchmark gets confused. Don't trust the benchmarks, those are averages. 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 and are playing the long-term game, ask for more stocks. Remember - taxes eat salaries for breakfast 😅

5/ Get your manager on your side 🙏🏼
Most fail to understand this piece. It’s your responsibility to give your manager enough arsenal (your outcomes, projects) so that he/she can go into the appraisal budgeting meeting with confidence about your case.