How to Get a Better Salary in HR

Money talks
It’s hard to find any employee who does not want to earn more money. Jenny Campbell offers tips to improve salary by improving worth.

Do you spend all of your time looking after your employees’ development at the expense of your own?

Maybe you lie awake in bed at night thinking about it, wondering what would make you more visible and important to the company. And, while you lie there you might also be wondering how you could possibly fit all this extra value into your already hectic working week.

Free yourself
First you'll need to ring-fence some time to work out what you actually do in a day. How much of your time is spent on administration? HR and payroll departments do exist who fully admit that paper pushing accounts for over 70% of their time.

This leaves very little time to make the most of the information you spend your time collecting.

Make a list to find out what takes up your time and look at ways of either devolving some responsibility to line managers or employees or reduce the number of steps required to complete those processes.

One example is devolving responsibility for timesheets and holidays bookings to line managers though an employee self-service solution. This will allow the HR team to become far more strategic by freeing up the valuable time they need.

You'll need to consider the culture of your organisation before you devolve administration to other areas. We recommend a piecemeal approach so you maintain tight control.

Take a step back
Once you've freed some time for your department you'll need to take a step back to look at your employee information.

Do you really know enough about your employees? You need to consider issues such as how many employees you have, whether and internal successor to a role can be found quickly and easily. You must also be able to see whether absenteeism and staff turnover is increasing or decreasing.

Your people knowledge is your job and key to success. Being able to predict problems or identify opportunities makes you a valuable asset to the business that everyone understands.

Take a step sideways
Increasingly, HR teams need to understand how other departments operate and what the likely pressures are in order to make well-informed decisions.
You need to consider how much you know about other departments in the company, whether you are aware of how personnel and pay decisions impact those around you, and what the long-term direction and short to medium-term business plans are. If you want a top salary you need to see the whole picture in order to be well prepared.