How Much of a Raise Is Too Much?

Raises are harder than they look.

With rising costs, inflation, and a shortage of good people, many contractors feel pressured to simply pay more when an employee asks for a raise. But that’s not always the best move—for you or your team.

In this episode, I share a real client story and a different way to think about pay increases—one that turns a raise conversation into an opportunity to build ownership, contribution, and stronger results.

This isn’t about saying yes or no to more money. It’s about creating a win-win where your team grows and your business gets more value in return.

Resources:

• Want to increase your profitability? Grab my book “The Profit Bleed.“
• Looking to grow your construction business? Check out our exclusive group "The Contractors Collective.”
• Want employees to take more ownership? Check out our course - “Build Your Dream Team.”
• Are you struggling to hire the right people? Check out our “Contractors Hiring Blueprint” course.

Connect with Vicki on social media:

• YouTube: Vicki Suiter
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickisuiter
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuiterBusinessBuilders

If you love listening to this podcast, please leave a review in Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

Hello, welcome to another episode of the Profit Builder. My name is Vicki Suiter with Suiter Business Builders. And today I want to talk about how do you know what's the right amount to give somebody when they want to ask for a raise and how do you create a win-win for you and for them when they're asking for more money? You know, we're in a time right now where we're in a high inflationary period. Cost of living is going up, right? And there is this shortage of qualified employees, and there's a higher demand for them. So wherever you're in a high demand, low supply situation, costs go up. So with both of those conditions, it might be your first inclination when somebody comes and asks you for a raise to think, well, I just have to pay them more money in order to get them to stay, in order to get them to ⁓ not quit, go look for another job.

And while that sometimes is absolutely true, there's an other element that I would invite you to consider when you're looking at somebody wanting to get more paid more or when you're considering giving raises to people. I had a client, Alison, who came to me a couple of weeks ago and she said, know, my office manager had been working for them for about six months and he's asking for a raise. And it was a kind of a good chunk of money that he was asking for.

And she said, what do you think? And I said, well, first tell me, how's he doing in his job? Like, is he doing a good job? And she said, yeah, he's like fast. He's doing a really good job. I said, great. And then we looked at like how much he was getting paid. there's a little bit of research that had to go into what's the market bear to pay for somebody in that position. I had some sense of it. I said, it's not an, it's the amount isn't necessarily unreasonable, but.

I said, here's what I would invite you to consider with him is if he has a greater capacity to do more and contribute more in that job, because while it may be that he's worth paying that $5 an hour more to, it could also very well be that the thing that you want to do is look at his job and look at that position and ask yourself the question, how can I actually have him bring more value to our company?

with that increase in pay. I don't, you in, you know, her first reaction was, well, that feels a little manipulative. And I said, well, no, not really, because here's the thing that's important for you to understand is that our job as leaders is to bring out the best in the people who work for us and to understand that as human beings, our fundamental desire is to have a sense of contribution, belonging and mattering.

And while people want to be valued for their contribution, people want to get paid well for the work they do, which is absolutely appropriate. And we should pay people really well for the job well done. But there's this other thing that motivates us. And you've probably heard this before. Like it goes beyond just what somebody gets paid. It actually has more to do with their sense of contribution, their sense of feeling valued, their sense of ability to be able to feel good about what we do. And it's true for all of us. And when somebody comes to you and wants more money, it's a wonderful opportunity for you to actually start to look at your employees instead of like it's a transactional thing and they just want more money.

But to ask yourself a different set of questions, which is, how can I empower that person to rise up to their next level of contribution? How can I help them and support them in making a greater sense of having a greater sense of value for what they do and be able to make a greater contribution for the company and thus feel more valued in that way? And what it does is that there's a win-win on both sides in that way. So first of all, you're paying somebody possibly more money, but you're also giving them an opportunity to up their game. Which also creates an opportunity for them to take more ownership in their job, to be a greater contribution to the company, and to have a greater sense of pride in what they do. And for you to feel like you're actually getting an exchange of more value and you're building a stronger team in the process. And, you know, we all want to be able to have teams that take ownership and take responsibility that they shift from being just helpers to being taped with people to take ownership. No matter what the level of position, there's always that opportunity to up the game with people to their next level of greatest contribution, their next level of greatness for them as human beings. So I think there's a great opportunity that's here in front of us right now as leaders to be able to build stronger, better teams.

And so when you're faced with this whole idea of somebody wanting more money or somebody wanting to, you know, or somebody asking for a lot of money, even when you're hiring them, what I invite you to do is rather than look at it like, ⁓ I got to just pay more because it costs more for employees. Look at how you can look for them to be able to make a greater contribution to your business and for you to be able to start to build a team that takes more ownership that gives them a greater sense of contribution and value and gives you somebody who is a greater contributing member to your team. So ⁓ I invite you to ⁓ think about that and see where maybe there's places. And even if you're considering giving raises, right? Because we should all be considering that this year. If you haven't done it in a year, if you do a little bit of research on the cost of living increase, and depending on when you're listening to this, ⁓

We're in a high inflationary period, as I said. So as you're considering giving raises, maybe give this whole idea some thought of how can I up the game with my team in a way that they have a greater sense of contribution, value, belonging, and mattering. And I actually get more productivity and more ownership on behalf of my team.

Alright, hope you've enjoyed today's video and if you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to leave them below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic and we'll see you next time on The Prophet Build.