Better to sell skills than price

Should you outline your salary expectation in a letter of application? Dr MARIE WILSON is associate professor of management at the University of Auckland, research director of the ICEHOUSE business accelerator and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business.

Do you think I should put my salary, or the range, in the covering letter for a job I am after?

I am looking for a step up in my profession, but I am not quite sure what the protocol is about putting salary in. I know it is wise that advertisers put salary range in job ads, but I am not so sure that job seekers should do that too.

Your covering letter should be selling yourself for the potential job, in terms of your skills and abilities, not your price.

Some employers might construe your putting salary requirements up front as indicating that this is the only thing you are really concerned about, which is probably not the impression that you are trying to create.

If you are concerned the job may not pay enough to make it worth applying for, then inquire before putting in a letter.

Salary negotiations take place after a match between job and candidate is established, and reflect a combination of the job characteristics, the market for that type of job, the reward strategy of the company and the applicants' skills and ability given the range of performance possible.

I am due for a performance appraisal, and I want to ask a question - but I need help in wording it.

I want to ask why I didn't get as big a bonus as another person when my job is much harder.

How come only the pets get the full bonus and I get half, when my customers are the toughest of the lot?

Making comparisons between bonuses is tough, especially using the "my job is harder" line of reasoning.

Most companies pay on results rather than effort.

If your territory is tougher then you should focus on influencing targets for your performance to reflect the nature of your territory.

Be prepared, however, to fully justify why and how your territory is different.

It is perfectly reasonable however to ask how your bonus was determined, and what performance would be expected if you wanted to gain a greater bonus.

My company is about to be taken over. I feel quite safe in my position, but that may not be the case for some of the people who report to me.

Consequently, morale is low and I'm not getting the performance I should. What can I do to help keep them going, given that they are, understandably, fearing the worst?

The worst part of restructuring and redundancy is the lack of communication and resulting uncertainty.

Morale, and productivity, are increased when clear, consistent and correct information is provided. A programme of outplacement, or redundancy support, are other features that reduce fear and maintain morale.

Maintaining good management practices of rewarding good performance and celebrating successes are ways of keeping the attention focused on positives and Some of your staff may need the services of an employee assistance programme to help them with their concerns in confidence and perhaps to anticipate redundancy with a pre-emptive job search.