Negotiating a pay rise is never easy for employees and employers alike. Both parties can get anxious for different reasons, as it is not a topic that is openly discussed.

While in most cases salary increment and promotions are catered for in the law or company rules, there is no guarantee that this will happen at the end of each year. In other cases, when it happens, the increment will be insignificant, just for formality.

This, therefore, means that for a reasonable raise, the employer and employee have to sit and negotiate terms.

When salary increment negotiations kick off, an employer feels that they deserve to be paid more because they do A, B and C. As expected, employers also find their own reasons to deny a pay rise or at least delay it for a foreseeable time.

With the Covid-19 outbreak affecting organisations or firms in different ways, especially revenues, negotiating a pay rise has become even more complicated.

Laetitia Mugabekazi, 30, was expecting a salary increment in the financial year of 2020/21 as her terms of work stated. It is something she was looking forward to, but in March 2020, the Coronavirus broke out.

"Work as we knew it changed, we started working from home, some of our colleagues became redundant or were laid off and there was an air of uncertainty,” recalls Mugabekazi.

Keeping a job in the pandemic in itself was satisfying enough, considering that many of her colleagues were laid off as the corporate entity closed off some of its branches countrywide to minimise costs.

"The most important thing for me at the moment was to continue having a job. I forgot about the raise and didn’t even ask my employer about it because I feared I would lose my job,” she adds.

Every time she thought of bringing up the issue, she feared that she would be fired. 2020 went by and in came 2021, and the pandemic was still very much around, so she still couldn’t demand a pay rise. Then her worst fear came to pass.

"One of my colleagues also had a similar concern and he confronted the boss about it. After a week or so, a letter came in saying that his position had been rendered redundant because the company was downsizing to minimise costs,” she says.

What would you do if you were Mugabekazi? Ask for your raise and lose your job or keep the job with your current pay, even if you are unhappy? It depends on many factors.

According to David Ginchansky, a career coach at Korn Ferry, a global organisational consulting firm, some employees had more leverage to negotiate for a pay rise during the pandemic, mainly because their skills or services were in high demand.

This, however, meant that you really had to be sure that you are in that category of people whose skills are really needed and your employer can’t do without them. Ginchansky gives ideas to consider if you want to push for a raise.

Taking the right approach is the most important aspect of this delicate process. No matter what employee level you are at, the key to any negotiation now is the approach.

"Of all times, it’s critical for employees to emphasise all the value-adding projects they’ve done recently and how committed they are to the company.

"This can be particularly beneficial to essential-service firms like healthcare that are actually doing well in the pandemic,” Ginchansky says. So, if you were a doctor or healthcare worker of any form, Covid-19 was the right opportunity to push for a raise.

The language also matters. A confrontational approach is unlikely to deliver but if you approach it politely with words like "I know it’s not a conversation to have right now, but based on the promise I had been given, here’s what I’ve accomplished so far.” That way your employer might just listen. Also avoid overreacting. Something might be said to tick you off.

Avoid that. It is important to also note that the raise might not come in immediately or could be lower than your expectations for obvious reasons. Prepare for this mentally.

The other important aspect is to be knowledgeable about the organisation. Know how it is performing financially and whether this is the right time to have such a conversation. If the organisation is struggling to recover, you are better off not bringing up the issue of a raise. Good luck!