To be perfect

salary negotiation tips (3)

salary negotiation during and after new job interviews – tips for employees (and managers)
While these tips and techniques are ostensibly for employees, they also serve as a helpful guide to managers who are recruiting staff, and want to ensure that people joining are doing so happily and on a sustainable basis. People who join happy that they’ve been given a fair deal are more likely to stay, and less likely to harbour grudges or feelings of being ‘bought’ for less than they deserve.

Employers who recruit people at less than their market worth might think they’ve done a good deal, whereas in fact such employees are likely to become frustrated and feel ‘cheated’. Again, see the earnings survey example report below. Help employees to make good, right, and fair decisions about their careers, and they will respect you and your organisation for doing so.

That said, from the employee’s viewpoint, changing jobs is a very good opportunity to increase your salary level. Critically, to take advantage of this opportunity you must negotiate before you accept the new job offer, whether the job is an internal or external move. Any manager who fails to give this opportunity to a new recruit is likely to be putting a problem into store for the future.

The most important thing from the employee’s perspective is to secure the job offer first. There is no point in negotiating until then.

The employer’s initial offer will be based on their own budget and internal pay-scale reference points, and what level of reward they feel is necessary to secure you (or a suitable alternative candidate), and this salary/package level is nearly always negotiable.

The stronger you convince the interviewer and employer that you are the best person for the job – in all respects that need to appeal to them – then the more likely you are to do well when it comes to negotiating the package.

If the employer asks you before or during the interview to confirm your salary/package expectations, give them a broad indication at the top of the range that has already been indicated or discussed for the role (plus 10-20 per cent for good measure if you wish), and say that ultimately your decision will be based on comparing your options (think and behave as if you expect to have more than one).

Tell them ‘Let’s see if you like me first – then we can discuss/agree the detail.’

It’s a matter of personal feeling as to where you set your target salary level for a particular job, ie., how much you’ll eventually be happy to accept, and how firmly you hold out for it and anything above it. This will be a combination of what you want, need, whether you have another real offer, and generally what your market value is – these are the reference points.

In terms of negotiating salary and package, your best position is always to secure two job offers from two different employers, which gives you the huge advantage of choice. If you can’t or don’t, (which is normal), then behave as if you have other options, which of course you do, if not right now.

Do not allow the interviewer/negotiator to set, suggest or argue for a salary level based on your previous one (assuming it’s lower) – be very firm about this. It’s not relevant. What you earned before and why you worked for that wage is not their business and has no bearing on your value to them and the market now (make that point politely not aggressively of course).

What’s relevant is your value in the market, and how much the employer wants you compared to other candidates and their respective salary expectations. It’s important to give them the feeling that you are entirely confident in being able to go elsewhere if the deal’s not right. Bear in mind also that you can always buy some time to ‘think about it’ whatever they offer you. Time will generally work in your favour if they want you. They will worry that they’ll lose you, perhaps even to a competitor, and so will be more likely to increase their offer, and to justify some extra budget if required.

You do not need to give them a rushed answer whether to accept their offer just because they’d like one. Of course they’d like one quickly because they know they’ll get a better deal that way, and they’d like to finalise the recruitment ASAP.

Generally a good manager and employer will respect you more, and feel you are more valuable, if they get the impression that you are in demand elsewhere.

During the negotiation be sure to maintain a positive and committed view towards the prospective new company and the job (assuming of course you feel that way about them). This will prevent the risk of their coming to the view that you are wasting their time or stringing them along. It’s important to be fair and right with people, even while negotiating.

While acknowledging the appeal of the opportunity, conduct your discussions professionally, firmly, confidently, and at the same time ask for their understanding that you have a responsibility to yourself and your family to achieve the best ‘price’ for what you can do in your particular job market.

December 15, 2008 at 9:45 pm Leave a comment

salary negotiation tips (2)

Salary, pay and contract negotiation for a new job
If you are changing jobs, the best time to negotiate salary is after receiving a job offer, and before you accept it – at the point when the employer clearly wants you for the job, and is keen to have your acceptance of the job offer. Your bargaining power in real terms, and psychologically, is strongest at this point, and is stronger still if you have (or can say that you have) at least one other job offer or option (see the tips on negotiation). A strong stance at this stage is your best chance to provide the recruiting manager the justification to pay you something outside the employer’s normal scale. The chances of renegotiating salary after accepting, and certainly starting, the job are remote – once you accept the offer you’ve effectively made the contract, including salary, and thereafter you are subject to the organization’s policies, process and inertia.

A compromise in the event that the employer cannot initially take you on at the rate you need is to agree (in writing) a guaranteed raise, subject to completing a given period of service, say 3 or 6 months. In which case avoid the insertion of ‘satisfactory’ (describing the period of service) as this can never actually be measured and therefore fails to provide certainty that the raise will be given.

If you are recruiting a person who needs or demands more money or better terms than you can offer, then deal with the matter properly before the candidate accepts the job – changing pay or terms after this is very much more difficult. If you encourage a person to accept pay and terms that are genuinely lower than they deserve, by giving a vague assurance of a review sometime in the future, then you are raising expectations for something that will be very difficult to deliver, and therefore storing up a big problem for the future.

December 15, 2008 at 9:44 pm Leave a comment

salary negotiation tips (1)

Salary negotiation (asking for a salary increase, a pay rise, or simply more money) affects everyone from time to time. Salary negotiation can be difficult, and many people handle it poorly, causing frustration and ill-feeling. There are constructive ways to approach salary negotiation, and techniques to achieve good outcomes.

If you are a manager, you will need to handle salary negotiation positively. If you encourage people to adopt a constructive approach to salary negotiation, you will help to minimise upset and to achieve a positive outcome. As a manager dealing with salary negotiation or a pay increase request, it’s important to encourage a grown-up, objective, emotionally mature approach. These ideas and techniques will help achieve this whether you are giving or receiving the salary increase request.

There is no ‘proper’ or standard way to ask for a raise or salary increase. It’s not something that people are trained to do, and little is written about it. People use various approaches: they can write; discuss informally; discuss with colleagues and hope the boss gets to hear; they drop hints to test the water; they ask the boss politely; demand firmly; go over the boss’s head, or maybe even threaten to resign, secure another job offer, or simply resign.

Largely people do not look before they leap; they are often under pressure, and they feel uncomfortable and stressed asking, so they fail to plan and control the situation, which makes achieving anything difficult. Simple planning and keeping control makes a big difference.

Knowing relative market rates helps objective assessment of situations – for employers and employees. Here is an example of market information about salaries of the sort that you can find in relevant media (newspapers, magazines and websites, etc). Having a good amount of information about the market, and not just your own situation, is helpful for employers and employees alike, and can avoid discussions centering on opinion or emotion. Of course situations vary and industry averages are just a guide, but it’s generally better to have some external perspective than to approach pay and earnings issues in complete isolation.

The techniques here might not secure a salary increase immediately – there are usually very good reasons why this is not possible anyway – but these ideas will eventually bring a better reward and outcome than doing nothing, or doing something the wrong way. As a manager receiving a request for a salary increase, encourage people to follow this approach, and then respond fairly sensitively and openly. Only make promises you can be sure to deliver, and always try to understand the person’s needs and feelings before you explain the company’s position.

It is important always to recognise the difference between the value of the role that you perform (or any employee’s role if looking at this from a manager’s perspective), and your value as an individual (or the employee’s value). The two are not the same.

If you continually feel frustrated about your pay levels despite trying all of the techniques and ideas for achieving a pay rise, it could be that your boss or employer has simply reached the limit of the value that they can place on your role, which is different to your value as an individual. You could have a very high potential value, but if your role does not enable you to perform to your fullest extent then your reward level will be suppressed. For example does a professor who sweeps the street deserve a street sweeper’s salary or a professor’s salary?

Salary levels are largely dictated by market forces (notably the cost of replacing the employee), and the contribution that the employee makes to organisational performance (which is particularly relevant for roles which directly impact on profitability). When you acknowledge this principle you begin to take control of your earnings.

Aside from issues of exploitation and unfairness, if you find that the gap between your expectations and your employer’s salary limit is too great to bridge, then look to find or develop a role which commands a higher value, and therefore salary. You can do this either and both with your present employer by agreeing wider responsibilities and opportunities for you to contribute to organisational performance and profit, and/or perhaps with a new employer.

Focus on developing your value to the employer and the market-place, rather than simply trying to achieve higher reward for what you are already doing.

December 13, 2008 at 7:52 pm 1 comment