It can be difficult. You don’t want to sound greedy but you want your company to value your worth.
A client, who has just completed a 6-month internship, recently asked me about this and these are the points I gave him:
1. Understand the value you have brought to the organisation. Do you have tangible outcomes/activities that needed your assistance to complete them successfully?
2. What and how much have you learnt that you are now putting into your role since Day 1?
3. What creative/ideas/strategy input have you been able to contribute?
4. What have you enjoyed?
This will help you answer the obvious question ‘how do you think you’ve been doing since you joined us.’ And will help you relay the positives (80%) and the learning points (20%). It will reaffirm your contribution to the organisation.
Explain how you have brought value with examples, that you love working for them and that you have great colleagues.
Tell them they have brought you from intern level to someone with experience and confidence in the industry. Next is salary.
If you work for a small company – best not to spout industry salaries as it is too vague and general. It is not needed in a more informal review session. Tell them what you have in mind but suggest a salary slightly more than you would be expecting and gauge their reaction.
You can also discuss how often the salary could be reviewed.
If you are gently persuasive(!), then you could negotiate a pay increase ahead of time so that in 12 months your salary will automatically increase if you have accomplished agreed performance criteria in between.
If after all this, you don’t get a pay rise, check your career management strategy:
Is there value in remaining for further experience because you enjoy it, it has a good atmosphere and you will continue to learn
Are your motives mainly monetary, in which case consider other opportunities?
Check out any job openings in the organisation that offer an increased salary and scope for development.