Salary negotiations with a new employer can be tricky. On one hand, you may feel disappointed with their offer - on the other, you don't want to seem ungrateful or risk aggravating your future employer. Perhaps it's not the salary you'd like to change, but the overall benefits package or role. Whatever it is you would like to negotiate, we've created this guide to help nudge you in the right direction.
1) Be Sraightforward and Honest From the Start.
While it would be an obvious mistake to broach the subject during early stages of the interview, make your feelings clear to your employer as soon as you have their interest. If they can’t offer you the salary you need, they will resent feeling as if they wasted their time with you - so make sure to be straightforward and clear about your expectations as soon as possible. Equally, it is important to be totally honest about your motivations. Before you negotiate, sit down and think about what it is you need. Do you want to raise the salary to your expected salary, a better package with a more impressive bonus, a training course or something else? It might be a good idea to write your goals down so you can keep them in front of you, especially if negotiating over the phone.
Remember to be consistent once you have communicated your expectations - no employer wants to bend over backwards to get you the salary you’re after, only to hear ‘just one more thing…’ Decide what you want and stick to it.
2) Know Your Worth.
It’s good practice to start every job hunt with a salary target in mind. Not only should you know your target, for example a 3% salary increase - you should also be aware of your actual worth. A good way to do this is by researching similar positions on job advertisements to create an average salary value although bear in mind some adverts will inflate salaries to attract applications. Another approach is to speak to any contacts you have made in your industry about the issue. Be wary of outright asking for people’s salaries, however. You don’t want to offend anybody.
Remember to look at the package as a whole, if the salary isn’t quite where you want it but other benefits or opportunities are good it may still be worth considering. Also, if a job matches your salary target, don’t dismiss the employer’s offer merely on the grounds that it is their first offer. If it looks right, feels right, and fulfils the criteria that you have set, then there’s nothing to negotiate. The last thing you want to do is a push an offer off the table that you would have accepted.
3) Don’t Underestimate Careful Planning.
While you may have been offered the position, it’s important treat any negotiations like a continuation of the interview process. Don’t forget that you are, as yet, unproven in their eyes. You are in the process of building a business relationship likely to last several years - this isn’t a time to come across greedy or ungrateful unless you want to destroy that relationship before it’s even started. The key to this negotiation should be careful and tactful planning. Plan your responses to any tricky questions you can think of. If they catch you unawares with an answer you haven’t prepared for, you risk saying something you don’t mean - or worse, making yourself seem unprofessional or rude.
4) A Middleman Can Help.
While some candidates in the sales industry, for example, are expected to have excellent negotiating skills, it doesn’t come naturally to others. Negotiating salaries with a new employer is a minefield. In a worst case scenario, you risk losing your job offer altogether. Using a recruitment specialist to assist you with your job search can be really helpful in times like these. Often, recruitment consultants will negotiate between both parties, reducing any tension that might have otherwise arisen.
5) If They Won’t Budge…
If you find that you’ve reached an impasse with your negotiation, but you’re still interested in the role, consider taking the position and asking for a review after a three or six month period. This will give you a chance to prove your worth to the company. On the other hand, you may receive a counteroffer from your current employer. While this may be tempting if your negotiation hasn’t gone as planned, remember the reasons you decided to move in the first place. Have your priorities changed? Will they be fulfilled by staying put? We advise sitting down to make a pros and cons list. Whatever you do, don’t rush into anything - any company worth their salt won’t ask you to make a decision in an unreasonable time frame.
