Promotional Interview Strategies - Why Isn't Pay Most Important?

Pay is important but not the most important consideration. To explain why, please meet Frederick Herzberg. Dr. Herzberg is a noted psychologist who became one of the most influential names in business management. He is most famous for introducing job enrichment and the Motivator-Hygiene theory. His 1968 publication "One More Time, How Do You Motivate Employees?" had sold 1.2 million reprints by 1987 and was the most requested article from the Harvard Business Review.

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Herzberg did research to understand the role that money plays in a job. He asked people to describe when they had felt good about their work. Based on his research, he discovered that the key contributors to job satisfaction (feeling good about your job) were: Achievement, Recognition, the Work itself, Responsibility and Advancement. These are the exact values you need to consider as you seek out your promotion. They are really important!

Herzberg also found from the people he interviewed that there were key dissatisfiers (Those things that may keep you from feeling good about your job). These included: company policy and administration, supervision, salary, interpersonal relationships and working conditions.

What struck him the most was that the satisfiers and dissatisfiers were in separate groups, each had a separate evaluation. If a company could fix all the dissatisfiers people had, it still would not create job satisfaction. OK, you might be asking, how does this apply to a pay increase that is tied to my promotion?

Here is what Herzberg found out about how people view their pay:

  • I need to be paid on time each month so I can pay my bills.
  • If I am not paid on time, I get really unhappy. But when I get paid on time, I hardly notice it.
  • A pay increase makes me feel good. But within a short time, it has little or no impact on how I feel about the job.
  • On the other hand, when my boss gives me a pat on the back, I feel pretty good for quite awhile. I don't expect this every day and don't especially miss not having praise all of the time.

So....An increase in pay along with your promotion is a good thing. But it isn't everything.  You are also looking for: Achievement, Recognition, the Work itself, Responsibility and more opportunities for Advancement. If more pay is the only good part of the new position, you will not be very satisfyed with the new job for very long.