Negotiation Skills: What to Negotiate for Besides your Salary

After months of hard work and some tough interviews, you’ve landed a job offer at the company you’ve always dreamed of working at.

Congratulations!

At this point, you can do two things: either take the offer as it stands or negotiate certain aspects of it to ensure that you can get ahead in your career.

It is extremely important to stress at this point that you want to wait until you have received a formal, written offer before ever considering asking for more.

Many a deal has been killed by asking for a bigger ring before they have been formally proposed to.

It is hard to think of another skill that can be applied to more areas of your life than Negotiation Skills.

Negotiation skills are important in literally every aspect of human interactions. Learning these skills and applying them to your career helps build confidence and tells your employer that you’re equipped with the right tools to move up the corporate ladder.

Most people think negotiating is only limited to salaries— but that is far from the truth. There are many things you can negotiate for at the beginning and over the course of your time as a valued employee of the company.

Here are the top 3 things open to negotiation besides your base salary.

A Signing Bonus

So the offer you got is great, but it’s always a good idea to ask if your potential employer offers a signing bonus. Signing bonuses are a one-time payment used by companies to thwart competition in the event that you receive an offer from a higher paying company or a counter-offer from your current company. Although sign-on bonuses are not currently very common, with the right candidate some companies may be likely to offer it, especially if they feel there’s a chance that a promising candidate might reject the offer without the additional incentive.

A signing bonus is a win-win for both you and your potential employer. They’re not offered to every candidate. So if you think you’re a promising and valuable addition to the company, don’t be afraid to ask for it!

Flexible Work Schedule

Many jobs today don’t work the conventional 9–5. According to research, four out of five graduate employees globally have access to flexible work timings. That being said, give some serious thought to what it is that you’re actually looking for.

Would you like to work from home on Fridays or would you like to come in an hour earlier and then leave an hour early a couple of times a week? Speak with the HR department or your supervisor to inquire if there is an existing flex timing policy in place or if they’re willing to consider it.

Reassure them of how you’ll continue to fulfill your responsibilities despite flexible timings and present it to your supervisor, preferably in writing. If they seem reluctant, propose a trial period to show them how well you can work with the modified schedule.

Vacation Days

When recruiting a candidate that has accrued significant vacation days from a company, it is often a point of negotiation when they go into a new company that starts them off at the standard 2 weeks of vacation per year. Depending on the company, negotiating the number of vacation days, as well as when you can take those days off, is something that may be worth negotiating as you contemplate the offer.

Relocation Packages

There are multiple factors that go into moving a family and unexpected expenses almost always come up.

Rather than having your new employer paying you what the cost of the move will be, consider having them pay the moving company directly. That way you are not taxed on the money.

Depending on how big your household is, there is a big difference between a 'full-service' move when the movers come in, pack everything up and then unpack, down to the bar of soap. On the other end of the spectrum, we have seen relo's consist of the company paying for a UHaul to move the candidate and his dog and wine collection across country. It pays to be cognizant of the different types of services movers offer and then negotiate based on what you need.

Temporary housing is also something that is often times extremely helpful when searching for a new house. Multiple trips out for the employee and his or her spouse is typically part of any relo package, to help plan for housing, schools, etc.

Occasionally, we see companies buy a candidates house so they have the money to buy a new one, and then the company sells it to recoup the investment. We have also seen companies offer short term loans to candidates to serve as a down payment on their new house, and then they are re-reimbursed when their house sells.

Introducing a candidate to a local well-connected realtor is a smart common initial step. Smart realtors can be extremely helpful in making a move less stressful.

Moving is a pretty deal big, for all involved. Give some serious thought into what moving your family will entail, and then consider negotiating for things that will ease the transition.

Remember to Keep Your End Goal in Mind

The most important thing to keep in mind when considering asking for more when presented with an offer, is that if the goal is to join a company and start off on a positive note, you want to make sure to keep that goal in mind.

If you are working with a 3rd party executive recruiter, it is often best to ask them to approach the company on your behalf with your requests. Dependent on how long they have worked with the company, they can typically tell you if your requests are realistic, or not.

It is not worth it to lose an opportunity and burn a bridge over something that would be tremendous to have, but not worth losing the job offer over. So be sure to broach any request with an abundance of respect and have a crystal clear idea of what you are willing to walk away from an offer for, and if it is not something that you are not willing to lose the job over, do not push it if it starts to feel contentious.

• As long as you wait until you have a formal written offer in hand, and make sure your requests are realistic and requested in a respectful manner, as a general rule, it never hurts to ask.

ISC is an executive recruitment agency that has helped candidates across various industries find opportunities that match their skill set. Since 1999, ISC has established itself as a leader in executive recruiting with a strong focus on the following areas: financial services, sales, HR, energy and construction leadership.

Ann Zaslow-Rethaber is President of International Search Consultants and can be reached directly at 888-866-7276 or via email at [email protected]

Carolyn McClendon is ISCs Director of Recruiting, and can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or direct dial at 888-974-0086.