Hot Tips For Salary Negotiation - Boost Your Income
1. Avoid Salary Negotiation At Interview
It is important that you present the right image to a prospective employer at interview and salary negotiations conducted at this stage are rarely beneficial, even though it is often the burning question for both the Interviewer and Interviewee. The key reason for avoiding salary negotiations at this stage is to prevent the prospective employer being left with a negative impression of you. Many excellent interviews have been soured by the discussion of salary and a first interview is not the time or the place, even if the employer raises the question. If you are asked what salary you are expecting consider offering a response like this; "The practical details can be worked out at a later date." This response provides an indication to the interviewer that money is not your primary motivation and provides a great indication of your character and integrity. Interviewees who appear anxious to discuss money at a first interview, even for the most genuine of reasons, often come across as greedy. My experience is that those who avoid the discussion of salary at first interview often end up getting made a higher offer than they would otherwise have received.
This approach to salary negotiation needs to be handled politely but assertively. When a prospective employer contacts you to offer a new job and makes a salary offer it is important to be enthusiastic and positive about the call but explain that you need 24 hours to think it over. It is important that you call them back the following morning and stress that whilst the job offered to you is excellent and you like the prospect of working for their organisation, the salary offered was below what you expected. Explain to them that should they make a final improved offer that you will accept. This approach regularly receives a positive outcome and I have known interviewees get up to £4,000 more on their basic salary for politely turning down the first salary offer made to them. The key to this method is to remain positive and upbeat throughout salary negotiations and to convey the impression that you are enthusiastic about working for the organisation.
3. Speak To A Decision Maker
Many multinational organisations have specific recruitment departments managed by Human Resource staff, that are responsible for making job offers to interviewees. These departments regularly have rigid salary bands that they have to operate within, based upon the grading of any given job within the organisation and salary negotiation in this context can be almost impossible. However it should also be stressed that these departments are frequency out of touch with market trends and salary levels and are often more concerned about fitting you into an existing salary bracket, than offering you your true market value through structured salary negotiations. They also have little knowledge of your specific skill set and the value that this has within the organisation. Should you receive an offer from the recruitment department which you feel is inadequate and which they refuse to negotiate upon then you should bypass them and go to the hiring manager who was involved in your interview, as they have the real decision making power when it comes to salary negotiation . The hiring manager will have an intimate knowledge of your worth to the organisation and will lobby senior management on your behalf if they feel that your skills are essential to an organisation. The best way to approach to this is to ring the organisation and request a discussion with the hiring manager who was involved in your interview. Do not criticise the salary offer that was made to you but instead thank them for the interview opportunity and stress that it is a shame that the salary offer made by the recruitment department was inadequate, as you were looking forward to the prospect of joining the hiring manager's department. Leave the conversation on a positive note before you call off. My experience is that you will frequently receive a further call from the recruitment department within 24 to 48 hours, who having been contacted by the hiring manager, wanting to make a revised offer that is much closer to what you were expecting.
Remember that if you do not get the right salary offer, you should go above the individual to a decision maker, but ensure that you are polite throughout any salary negotiation, or you may run the risk of appearing greedy.
4. Provide Evidence of Market Rates To Boost Salary Negotiation
Typically an employer will make a salary offer based on what they think you are worth to their organisation. This is usually balanced in favour of the organisation or responsive to their budget restrictions. However if you really want to negotiate an improved salary offer it is vital that you demonstrate that the salary you are demanding is in fact in line with market rates and is not unreasonable. The way to do this is to provide evidence to back up your salary negotiation ascertains in the form of job vacancy advertisements from online job sites, specialist magazines and newspapers, which support your claims. Produce a portfolio of these and work out the average salary offered and then present this information to the prospective employer as a starting point for your salary negotiations. Whilst some organisations are resistant to changing their salary bands, it could be that they are not in tune with current market rates and may offer you an improved salary based on the research you provide. Organisations love working with factual information, so thoroughly research your salary demands and present the information in a professional manner. Remember that successful salary negotiations work on building a business case for your demands.
5. Read Recruitment Magazines in the office
If you are an existing employee and are approaching your annual salary review then a great way to help you assist future salary negotiations is to take employment pages of newspapers or specialist recruitment magazines into work, to read at lunchtimes. Consider circling a few job vacancies that are similar to your own and leave the publication open on a prominent page on your desk. Management will quickly notice that you are actively browsing job vacancies and are likely to be mindful of this in any salary negotiations in the near future. They are unlikely to want to lose a skilled or valued member of staff if by offering a slightly higher salary this will enable you to remain in post and continue contributing to organisational success.
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