graeme jones

Hi All

I was hoping to get some advice from you SNet members as I know a good section of this forum have well paid jobs and work within a variety of industries.

I have worked for my current company since September 2007 and enjoy it thoroughly and still do find the job fulfilling.

I work within the retail industry and as you may have read in a previous retail thread/customer service thread the company is performing very well against all of its KPI's.

I had a visit from my District Manager a couple of days ago now and as usual the visit went very well.
The usual things were covered-
Sales floor layout, merchandising and departmental Sales including any products under performing.
Back of house operations, delivery planning, health and safety etc.
Profit and Loss sheet.
Future Growth of the business and new roles to be signed off in FY13.
Sales forecasting and Store payroll spend and relevant KPI's within this area.

I have been in my role for just 15months and have some great success within this period including-
Finishing the last Fiscal year 15.1% v Plan and 25% v LY.
Current year at +14.7% v Plan and also above 20% v LY.
I have had sign off to increase my team from 28 staff to 42 staff then on to 52 staff shortly after. Now Christmas is on its way I have a further 20 temps taking me to 72 Staff.
This year so far I have added a further $1M to the bottom line profit against what they had planned the store to be at!

My store was awarded the customer service award for the FY11 period due to the amount of compliments to come through head office, consistency, training and increased sales like for like with no expansion as other stores had received.

I have a Assistant Manager, 3 Front of house Supervisors and 1 Stockroom Supervisor.

I have proposed some more staff including full time staff x2 and 16hr contracts x6 all budgeted for with reasoning on my forecast.

More importantly I have asked for an operations manager as now workload has really grown and it demands the role now to free me up to be in a more overseeing/ development role of my team.

On discussion my DM said that 2 other stores have had this signed off and she originally had not considered us as we manage our store so well as we are however after consideration she felt it would be to our advantage and have pushed it forward to the Director of stores for sign off.
She also mention another role of a sales manager that would also sit between the supervisors and the Assistant Manager role as this would support succession in store as the step between supervisor and AGM is quite a big one.

I also have been training nearly all of the new managers that have entered the business either due to expansion, people leaving and new positions being signed off etc and we have had a new manager for one of our southern stores come to me for training for the last 3 weeks and he is one of about 8 this year alone!

I do enjoy supporting the development of the new managers as it supports the overall business. The manager I was training was also part of the visit as it was good for him to be involved and we covered some of the issues in his store while she was with us.

When discussing these roles the operations manager role would enter at around £19-20k per year if signed off and the Assistant Manager would then receive an increase as he is only on that himself. However my salary was not mentioned if it was to stay the same this would now be closer to the Assistant Manager than ever before and he would be receiving an increase by default without performance being taken in to account.

The District Manager also slipped up and mentioned the salary of the Assistant Manager from the store of the Manager I was training and it was only £1k less than I am on as a Store Manager! There fore the guy I was training must be on at least £6k more than me .
The store is in the south and I am in the NW they have about 20 more staff and also take about £2m more a year so I understand due to him being external coming in to the company his salary will reflect all of these facts.

Back to me anyway I have not long had a 9% pay increase after my appraisal about 3-4 months ago and as the scale is from 0-6% I did really well and was certainly happy with that at the time.

However reflecting on the job I have done in store the increase of trade, staffing levels, training a lot of managers, potential sign off of two more manager and also potential store expansion in the next 6-12 months I do feel I have been very good value for money for the company and feel that I should actually be on a further £5-6k than I am currently on.

I have looked at similar jobs online and the yearly salary varies a lot between £6k Less to £20k more however the adverts don't mention some key facts that determine the pay.

So what do I do?
Wait out for the next appraisal conversation in the new Financial year?
Ask to have have a conversation with my DM about my salary and propose a figure that I feel I am worth with my reasoning?
Wait until the Operations role is possibly signed off in the next 2-4 weeks and see if this naturally restructures the management pay as hinted at in the meeting as I don't see them increasing my Assistant Manager without myself?

I had a chat with the guy who I was training and he mentioned that my DM had said she thought very highly of me and that I am a star of the future and she liked my straight talking and drive so I know I am thought of well as they wouldn't send everyone to my store for training they would send them to one of the other 10 stores in the uk.
Out of the UK stores my store is the most stable currently.

Sorry for the essay but what would you guys and gals do?

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

If you don't ask you don't get however prepare for potential disapointment it seems to be the case that staff who don't move around from job to job get shafted for their loyalty whereas the market dictates the pay of new starters

TX.

legb4rsk

I would use some of the facts you have stated in your CV & start looking at those jobs that pay 20k more!
Those people in the best paid jobs are just the ones who push themselves forward NOT the best at the job.
Some of the idiots I have met during my career in very senior positions who are paid fortunes I wouldn't let out on their own.
I won't even start about politicians.

billythekid

I always had a plan to move on and take a step up the ladder every 3 years.
I always did this and went from a brand new bod on day one to company director in 15 years.

The only step left for me now is to start taking steps back down the ladder as I hand over control and retire. This is 15 years away though, although I will probably start to think about this in another 5 years.

What am getting at is you should always look to move up if you can, because every day you work you are a day closer to the day you retire and you need to build your pension / investments as quickly as you can, which given the current problems means you have even less time as any growth over the last few years may well be lost.

If you see what I mean.

pslewis

Find another job paying £20k more ... contact them and express an interest - see if you can get an interview.

Then show your hand ... tell your DM that you have been invited for interview at the rival company, but you love working for them. The financial carrot is such that you must go for the interview unless they would like to make you an offer to close the open door.

Bear in mind that you can only do this once in a long while AND, more importantly, you may just get a 1% payrise for the next few years to make up for it.

graeme jones

I agree to a degree with some of what you say.
My company does promote from within and there is some big money to be earned within also.
They are looking at the restructuring of the management so the questions wasn't so much shall I leave more what angle should I take as leaving my company without saying what company it is would be crazy in the current market with some companies dissapearing.
I know if I ask I will get so it was the way of asking that I am think through along with the timings