You May Have More Leverage Than You Think

As part of our ongoing “HR Won’t Tell You” series, we’re taking a closer look at the workplace realities that can have a major impact on your career—but aren’t always explained clearly by HR, your manager, or your employer. Our goal isn’t to make you cynical about work. It’s to help you become a more informed, confident professional who understands how organizations operate and knows how to protect and advance your own career. In this installment, we’re talking about your value to your employer and the leverage that comes with being difficult to replace—something employees often underestimate when negotiating their careers.

Employees frequently underestimate their value because they look at themselves through one lens:

Salary.

Your employer looks at the equation differently.

Replacing an experienced employee can involve recruiting expenses, management time, lost productivity, onboarding, training, institutional knowledge, and disruption to the team.

In fashion, that knowledge can be particularly valuable.

Maybe you understand the fit history of a difficult product category. Maybe you know which factories can solve problems quickly. Perhaps you’ve spent years developing relationships with merchants, suppliers, agents, retailers, licensors, or cross-functional teams.

That doesn’t make anyone irreplaceable.

But replacing a strong employee involves much more than posting a job online.

Remember that when evaluating your negotiating position.

If you’ve consistently delivered results, taken on additional responsibilities, become the go-to person for important projects, or developed expertise that would be difficult to replace quickly, document it.

Then use those facts when discussing compensation and career progression.

Instead of:

“I’ve been here three years and think I deserve a raise.”

Build your case around business value.

You reduced development time.

You took responsibility for another category.

You improved sell-through.

You lowered costs.

You landed an important account.

You trained new team members.

You solved production problems.

That’s leverage.

The mistake is waiting until you’re frustrated to start figuring out what you contribute.

Keep track throughout the year.

And recognize another workplace reality: sometimes an employer knows exactly how valuable you are but still won’t increase your compensation or advance your career.

That’s useful information too.

You can continue negotiating internally.

Or eventually take that value somewhere else.

Either way, know what you bring to the table before you sit down to negotiate.