Can a company proactively increase your salary like this?
I’m curious to get some opinions from people who have experience with corporate HR/management. I work for a large financial services organization in Canada.
My AVP recently called me out of the blue and told me that HR had reviewed my salary against the industry/market standards for my role. She said they were increasing it by around 3% and congratulated me, saying it was a reward for my hard work.
I never asked for a raise or requested a compensation review.
One thing that makes me curious is that a little while ago, I applied internally for an AI-related role and mentioned it to my manager. She said thanks for letting her know, and I didn’t think much of it.
When my AVP called me about the salary increase while my manager was sitting right beside me. My manager saw the call and even messaged me asking, “all good?” After the call, I told my manager about the salary adjustment, and she seemed genuinely unaware that it was happening.
So I’m wondering: Is it normal for HR/leadership to proactively review someone’s salary and increase it without the employee asking? Could the internal AI application have triggered some kind of compensation/retention discussion? And is it possible for an AVP/HR to make this kind of adjustment without the direct manager knowing beforehand?
I’m not complaining at all 😄 — I’m very happy about it. I’m just curious whether this is a normal corporate thing or if there’s more context behind it that I’m missing.