Salary Negotiation

Salary negotiation – already complex and challenging – is even more nuanced and touchy at the moment. In a time of record-high inflation rates, it’s more important for candidates to ensure they’re getting the salary they deserve, want, and need. Many folks realize that hiring budgets are more flexible than retention budgets. Changing jobs to jump to a higher wage and avoiding the so-called ‘loyalty tax .’ At the same time, economic uncertainties and recession fears mean that companies are keeping a close eye on the bottom line.

How can you ensure you get the compensation your experience warrants if you’re a job seeker? And if you’re an employer, how can you protect your company’s budget while ensuring that your compensation packages are competitive?

Know the Market – Salary Negotiation

Knowledge is power, no matter which side of the negotiating table you’re on. The era of transparency in which we live makes this more accessible than in the past. This helps you determine what you can reasonably ask for and expect as a job seeker. For employers, of course, this helps ensure your competitive compensation rates. There are lots of tools online that can help you determine the typical compensation for a given position. Some of the most common include:

• Glassdoor.com ?(where you can also read reviews by current and former employees)
• Payscale.com
• Linkedin Salary
• Salary.com
• Zippia

One caveat is that the information isn’t helpful unless you compare apples to apples. Factors such as industry, company size, location, and level of experience significantly affect average compensation.

This is how a recruiter like me can be of assistance. Because of the nature of my work, I have a real-time ‘bird’s eye view’ of the market. It allows me to give you compensation ranges that are current and specific to a given area and role. Another advantage for both employer and candidate is that, as third-party recruiters, we know the range in which the employer is looking and the range within which the candidate will accept a job offer. Few employer job posts include the salary range. Knowing the salary desires of each side makes it easier to match candidates to jobs.?

Know Yourself – Salary Negotiation

For the individual seeking a new job or a raise, it’s not good enough to?want?(or even?need)?a specific figure. It would help if you also came to the negotiating table with the information you need to make your business case. Accomplishments and outcomes – the results you’ve produced for your current and previous employers – are the most important facts to have at hand. Hiring and paying an employee is an investment. These facts help you show a company what the return on that investment will be.

It’s also essential to know in advance what your range is. Not necessarily a ‘top line’ (no one I’ve met yet has had an upper limit on the salary they’d like to earn). I mean the range between what you’d like to make and your bottom line – the minimum you would consider.

The final aspect is the negotiating points available to you outside of salary. Some people value flexible working arrangements, additional time off, sponsored training and education, room and board, and other non-monetary benefits just as much as they value a higher salary. Are there elements like these that you might request as part of a package if a higher salary isn’t possible?

The Art of Negotiation

Before you negotiate, check in with yourself to ensure you’re negotiating in good faith. Is what you’re asking for reasonable? If you receive what you’re requesting, are you prepared to accept? Don’t negotiate if you intend to use one offer to leverage a higher offer elsewhere: it’s a waste of the other person’s time and unprofessional.

When it comes time to negotiate, prepare to be confident and firm in making your requests and open to being flexible where you can. Start with your ‘must-haves’ – the items on which you’re not willing or able to budge. For example, if you have a bottom-line salary level below which you absolutely cannot and will not accept an offer, start with that as a must-have.

If you’ve asked for your must-haves, and the door is still open, move on to your ‘nice-to-haves’ – any additional perks you’d like to see in your overall compensation package (but ones that won’t prevent you from accepting an offer if not included).

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that recruiters help both employers and employees during these critical conversations. Negotiations have inherent ‘friction’ and can leave lingering resentments behind if not handled well. As an impartial intermediary, a recruiter removes emotion from the equation. We bring industry data and objective facts to each side of the table. Because we know what each party wants, we can help reach a balance that both can be happy with, allowing employer and employee to get a new working relationship off on the right foot.

You can read more about recruiting and productivity in our?blogs section

[Jim Newcomb has been a Senior Recruiting Partner with?Goodwin Recruiting ?since 2013.]