Get a Promotion 12: Show Your Return on Investment

This continues our series on actions that will help you get a promotion in your current job

Doing the job the company wants done and fitting into the organization constitute two thirds of the actions to help you get a promotion. You show a return on their investment as the third action to get a promotion  Organizations cannot afford to hire people who do not generate either more revenues or savings than they earn in salary, benefits, or other compensation. This post begins several posts outlining how to show a return on investment.

Hidden Costs Companies Spend on You

Companies invest in their employees more than most employees recognize. You begin to show your return by acknowledging the investment. You can see most of the investments on your pay statement. Their investment includes:

• Salary: what is the gross dollar amount they pay you
• Employer taxes: employers must pay taxes on each employee
• Federal withholding
• federal MED/EE
• Federal OASDI/EE
• State withholding
• Wages paid for no work produced
• Holiday pay
• Vacation leave
• Sick leave
• Disability pay (if used)
• Employer paid benefits
• Federal Medical/ER
• Fed OASDI/ER
• 401K employer matching contributions
• Medical insurance premiums (if applicable)
• Master retirement (if offered)
• Life insurance (if provided)
• Dues and subscriptions for professional development (if offered)
• Training costs
• Salary, materials, and facilities used to orient you to the organization
• Salary, materials, and facilities used to help you learn how to do the job
• Conferences, seminars, workshops, and courses the company pays for
• Certifications, licenses, and other credentials the company pays for
• Educational reimbursement (if offered)

Acknowledge Their Investment in You

You can see that you cost your company a lot of money. Typically, you cost more money than you generate for the first several months—or even years—that you work for a company.

Hence, companies dislike employees who leave them quickly. They do not get a return on their investment. The employee leaves before earning more than they cost. Employees generate a return based the revenues or savings you generate.

Monday we continue our series on how showing your return on investment gets promotions