Should I turn down a promotion that has no raise?

Dear Caroline, 
After working so hard to impress management for a promotion, my dream finally did come true, and I got it. Unfortunately, when I signed the new contract, I realised the promotion does not come with a salary increment, although I have added responsibilities. Should I turn it down? Dan

Hello Dan,
Congratulations on the promotion and doing well to achieve a milestone in your vision.  Given that you have already signed and agreed to the new terms and conditions, it will be a little more complicated and will take a bit of time as you negotiate and influence what you would like to have. Do not turn down the role. It does not bode well.

The lack of increase in financial reward may well be because there are no funds. Nonetheless, there should have been an increment that recognises the role’s impact on the organisation. You will need to conduct a job review, simply comparing your new position vs the old position.  In your comparison, you may want to check the following: 
• Academic and experience: Show how you meet the new educational qualifications and critically highlight significantly higher these than your old role.
• Role challenge and complexity: For example, if the new position requires you to work with external parties/ partners/ stakeholders and have the specific skills necessary to manage these relationships well.
• Financial and people responsibility: This is very important because you are now responsible and will be held accountable for managing a budget that impacts the business financially. Critically, you will be responsible for making sure you are motivating and engaging a team so that they can perform. 

Once you have this analysis, you can then prepare your numbers. Ask yourself what is the percentage increment that you are asking for, and based on the analysis above, is it fair? Be careful that you are not trying to ask for an outlandish percentage increase. You may want to have a lower percentage so that as time goes by and you settle in the role and build your technical competencies, you have larger margins for negotiating for the future. 
Another option is to think through an alternative reward strategy to ask for a performance-related bonus structure.

Be careful with this because this structure is linked to targets. You must make sure your targets are clearly defined and communicated and that you fully understand the review process. The final option you may consider is to look at your reward from a non-financial perspective, for example, negotiate for the company to your leadership development. The final step is to present your case. Be prepared to negotiate and be open to having progressive salary increments over time. 

Caroline Mboijana, Managing Director,The Leadership Team (U)  [email protected]