After your employee reaches their 1 year anniversary of work with you, it’s time to think about giving them a raise
Conducting your first annual salary reviews as a small business owner can feel intimidating. When there is no clear average % raise for employees after they’ve been with you for 1 year of work, there is lots to consider before you decide on a number.
When it comes to your top employees, the last thing you want is for them to feel unappreciated. So unless you want to re-recruit and train another good person, we would definitely recommend being generous with your salary reviews.
A successful salary review will leave your employee feeling appreciated, motivated and happy in their role. A bad salary review – or no salary review at all – will leave you with a hole in your business that you’ll desperately need to fill – fast.
Here’s everything you need to consider.
Look at your employee’s value
Salary reviews have to be performance-based if they’re going to be fair. It’s really important to take a moment to look back at your employee’s development and contributions over the last 1 year.
Consider how valuable your employee is to you. You’ve invested a lot into their training and professional development and don’t want to see it benefit another company instead in a few week’s time.
So you might need to hike their salary up a good amount to prevent them from looking around or getting poached by your competitors.
There’s no specific % raise we can recommend. Google will tell you that anything from 2-10% is enough after 1 year of work, but we would advise that you consider an increase of at least £2,000 to any junior salary.
We’d be inclined to be more generous with employees when they have specialised skills that are more in demand. It can be harder to replace a backend developer than a customer support person!
Of course your company budget will come into this, but being generous with your most valuable team members is always a good idea.
How to conduct a salary review
Salary reviews aren’t just about money, they’re about looking back at past work and saying thank you.
It’s always nice to share your company roadmap with your employee and explain how they fit in. Opportunities for growth are just as important as a generous salary increase, so be sure to mention them!
Progression is extremely motivating.
After you’ve painted a lovely picture for the long-term, show your appreciation to your employee. They’ve done a lot of good over these past 12 months, so take the opportunity to say thank you!
If you need any extra help understanding how to conduct salary reviews for juniors that have been with you for 1 year, give us a call on 020 3951 8891.
If you need any extra help employing more talented juniors, sign up to our hiring platform and our recruiters will be in touch.