Month: December 2020

Job Offer Questions: 6 Questions to Ask before Accepting a Job Offer

Offer Questions: Mutual understanding starts with great questions. Here are questions you should ask before accepting a job offer.

When a company makes offers you a job, you have done a lot of work. Writing your resume, scheduling interviews, company research, job interviews, follow up, and other steps along the way.

Now you are in control of the process. You have the power to accept or decline the offer.

Before you do either, ask yourself some questions.

Job Offer Questions: Have you met the supervisor?

As a recruiter, I have seen situations where people had not met with the supervisor before starting to work.

In one case, a man quit three days after meeting his supervisor for the first time on the first day of work. He returned to his former employer.

Do you understand the job description?

I have learned from working on recruiting assignments that job descriptions can create confusion. Here are some things you might want to clarify before you take a job. This question is one the most important job offer questions.

  • If the job involves travel, where will need to go and how often?
  • What are the reporting relationships in the new company? If the job title includes a word such as “manager,” what does that mean? Will you manage a budget? Will you manage people? If so, how many?
  • What is the job? If you think that you are joining an innovation team and you find that you are joining a planning team, you will need to do a lot more analysis that creative thinking.
  • What is the promotion opportunity or expectation? If you want promotions and there is little opportunity, you are facing frustration. If the company expects you to take promotions and you want to settle into a career position, you could find that you face pressure to leave for people who can keep the promotion pipeline fluid.

Is the workplace right for you?

  • How long is the commute?
  • What type area surrounds the office?
  • Does the job allow you to work at home or require that you commute daily?
  • Do you have affordable transportation?

Do you have any special conditions?

For example, you sunk a few thousand dollars into a family vacation that will start six months into your new job.

If you cannot get your money back or if this vacation has special importance to your family, the time to raise the subject is before you accept the offer.

In taking my first job after military service, I came to an agreement that I would be able to take an early vacation for my honeymoon. The management team at the new company fully supported the honeymoon vacation time.

Discussing the matter in advance was important. I was able to prevent any surprises to my new employer. I had the peace of mind of knowing before I started the new job that my plans worked well for the company and me.

Do you understand the benefits?

There are a few things for you to consider about benefits before you accept a job offer.

  • What the start date of the benefits? This information is critical to transitioning your healthcare coverage from your current coverage to the coverage at your new job.
  • What are the out-of-pocket costs for the benefits? There are differences from one company to the next. I placed people with a company that had terrific coverage for people who lived in California, the home state of the company. However, the costs to people who lived outside of California were several thousand dollars a year.
  • What benefits are you giving up in the transition? If you have prescription, major medical, primary care coverage, dental, and optical coverage at your current company, and the new company does not cover some of these things, based on your health, you might find a big gap between what you are getting and what the new company will give you.
  • What are the deductibles in the plans at your new company? Insurance companies offer lower rates for higher deductibles. You not need in any surprises in these potential gaps.

How often will the new company pay you?

If the new company pays you twice a month, you get 24 checks a year.

If the new company pays you every two weeks, you get 26 checks a year.

I went through a counteroffer interview when I left a fulltime job while working my way through college. I didn’t accept the counteroffer. However, in hindsight, I did learn that my pay raise at the new job was not a great an increase as I thought.

Salary Increases: Changing Jobs for More Money

Salary Increases: Some people recommend changing jobs every few years solely for an increase in base pay. The benefits could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.

Most companies give pay raises of three percent. On the other hand, in changing jobs, you could see salary increases of 10 to 15 percent. Additionally, when you change jobs and move into a job with greater responsible, you could see even greater increases in your salary.

Immediate Gains of Salary Increases

Increases in salary have a compounding impact in your income. At 12% for each job change, your salary increases look like this example.

Current Salary: $50,000
First Job Change: $50,000 + 12% = $56,000
Second Job Change: $56,000 + 12% = $62,720
Third Job Change: $62,720 + 12% = $70,246

Longer-term Gains of Salary Increases

Another powerful reason for changing jobs for salary is that, as your salary grows, the amount of your pay raises increase. In other words, changing jobs for more money not only gives you a short-term boost in income; the change affects your long-term increases. Here are two examples for comparison. In both cases, I used 3% increases you might expect at your current employer.

Base Salary: $50,000 plus 3% pay raises

  • Starting Salary: $50,000
  • First Raise: $51,500
  • Second Raise: $53,045
  • Third Raise: $54,636
  • Fourth Raise: $56,275
  • ($50,000 + $51,500 + $53,045 + $54,636 + $56,275 = $265, 456)

However, with a salary of $70,246, your 3% annual increases would look like these examples.

  • Starting Salary: $70,246
  • First Raise: $72,353
  • Second Raise: $74,524
  • Third Raise: $76,760
  • Fourth Raise: $79,063
  • ($70,246 + $72,353 + $74,524 + $76,760 + $79,063 = $372,946 )

Negotiating higher starting salaries can also have a huge impact on your earnings.

Counteroffers: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Job counteroffers are ways companies avoid losing employees at the wrong time. ~ www.jaywren.com

Counteroffers

When you resign, should you consider a counteroffer? You have packed your bags. You are ready to walk out the door. Then, your boss tries to convince stay.

Before you resign, prepare to deal with a counteroffer. You may never know when one is coming. Anticipating a counteroffer is smart. Preparing for a counteroffer even smarter. Like buying a car, dealing with a counteroffer can be a negotiation. The car salesman may try to close the sale on the features of the car. On the other hand, the salesman may be willing to sweeten the deal. More money, better working conditions, greater responsibility, or promising other changes to keep you with the company.

Pressure

Additionally, you may find the negotiations stressful. The easiest thing might be to say “I quit!” Then just walk out the door. On the other hand, as I discuss later, you may want to make a graceful exit and not destroy relationships. In this case, you will need to hear your boss out and ask for time to give a response.

During this time, you can get advice on how to handle to counteroffer. You can compare the counteroffer to the reasons you want to leave in the first place. You can consider how comfortable you will be staying at a company where you just resigned.

Risky Negotiations

There are risks in negotiating a better deal. There can be greater risks in staying with a company. You have shown yourself disloyal. Moreover, if you negotiate a better deal for yourself, remember that your boss will have to live with that deal. Maybe you will be happy, but your boss may find that the newly negotiated deal doesn’t look and feel so great as time passes. Did you get more money in the deal? Did you get a promotion? Did you get shorter hours? Your boss will have to live with these concessions.

Needs of the Company

Company hire people to fill work needs. When those needs decline, there is no reason to keep employees who aren’t needed.  At that point, well run companies fire people.

This issue goes to the heart of a counteroffer. Companies make counteroffers the company cannot afford to lose at that time. As you go through you a counteroffer, you may begin to think of making a decision with a company for the rest of your career. You see yourself as a member of a team or a family. Your boss may even frame the counteroffer as a personal matter. Your absence will be a personal loss to the company.

However, remember that people work at the pleasure and need of the employer. You may have friends at that company. Your boss may be your friend. But the issue of your employment is more than personal. It is financial and has lifetime impacts on your career and your security.

Summary

A company prefers to lose people based on the company’s timing. This concept is easy enough to understand if you follow sports. Some players are valuable in the middle of the season. They are trained and they know the playbook. When the season ends, the value of players value declines. The best teams evaluate even the greatest players on the value they will bring the team for the next week or next season. After all, perhaps much to their regret, the Red Sox sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Therefore, when you are considering a counteroffer, be selfish. Act in your best interest. Companies can always find other employees, but you only have one career.

Resigning Gracefully: The Do’s and Don’ts of Leaving a Company

A former employer is a future reference. Leave them with a smile. www.jaywren.com

Resigning Gracefully: When you’re leaving a company, knowing how to say goodbye gracefully is important. Using the following steps will reduce the stress for you and avoid burning bridges with the company you are leaving.

Review You Decision

Before resigning, once again weigh the pros and cons of leaving your current company. This review will help you ensure that you are making the correct decision. Moreover, reviewing your decision will help you think your way through discussions in your exit interview.

Once you have assured yourself that you are committed to leaving, give the company two weeks’ notice. Two weeks’ notice is common courtesy. It most cases, a company expects no more than two weeks’ notice.

Remove Your Personal Property

Also, before you resign, remove your personal property from your workplace and delete your personal files from the company computers. You do not want to have your company holding your property until someone gets around to doing an inventory of what belongs to you and what belongs to your employer.

When you go into an exit interview, bring the company property: for example, keys to a company car, company laptop, mobile phone, etc. Since you have already recovered all your property, put the burden on your employer to give you an inventory of any other property they believe that you need to return.

Additionally, having your personal property in hand will make things simpler if your company decides to walk you out the door during your exit interview.

Exit Interview

Prepare for the things to do in the exit interview.

When they are preparing you leave your current company, there are benefits to attending and even excelling in the way you handle your exit interview.

Whether you are going through an exit interview with your supervisor or an HR person does not matter. Remember that the person who is conducting the interview is simply doing their job. Whether you like the way they handle the exit interview, they are human beings. There is no benefit to you for being rude or disrespectful.

As I said in the first paragraph, somewhere down the road, you may need the people involved in your exit interview to help you find you as a reference.

Firm but Positive

You should remain positive firm that you are leaving. Allow the interviewers to express their point of view. When they have finished, simply tell them that your decision to leave is final.

Politely explain that it is time for you to move on. Thank your employers for the support they have given you.

Financial Details

Do prepare for questions that you have about compensation and benefits you receive when leaving: unpaid vacation time, unpaid bonuses, and unpaid salary. Your company should explain to you what money you have coming and when they will pay you.

Furthermore, know the questions you need answering in transitioning or continuing your health benefits after you leave the company.

Continuation of Health Coverage

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) generally requires that group health plans sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year offer employees and their families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage (called continuation coverage) in certain instances where coverage under the plan would otherwise end.

COBRA outlines how employees and family members may elect continuation coverage. It also requires employers and plans to provide notice. (http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm)”

Don’t Discuss Your New Job

Don’t say where you are going to work or how much money your new employer is paying. Avoid giving any details about the function of the new job or your capacity in the new job. The information about your new job is confidential information between you and your new employer.

Wrongful Termination: You’re Fired. Now What?

Wrongful termination is a legal issue. I am not a lawyer (IANAL).

I read questions on Internet forums every day. Often these questions are about handling termination situations. A Company fires a person. The person goes on the Internet to get advice on suing the company that fired them.

The people responding with advice don’t always give their qualifications. Some state that they have so many years of experience in management. Others state that they have so many years of experience in human resources. These people are just responding with their feelings or opinions or examples. But if they are not an attorney, I suggest that you not use input from forums to make decisions about claims of wrongful termination.

However, pursuing a settlement in the courts for wrongful termination is a legal matter and is often a complex legal matter. You may want to research the costs and commitments of working with an attorney. This page on the CONSUMER PROTECTION DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-4-8000-consumer-protection) may help you with your research.

Additionally, before you threaten to sue your employer, I recommend that you get legal advice from an attorney.
Legal Issues for Wrongful Termination

There is no single law for matters relating to termination. Employment laws vary from state to state. In some states, companies can require employees to agree not to go to work for a competitor. These contracts usually limit the agreement for a certain amount of time after leaving a company. Some states do not allow companies to impose non-compete restriction on employees. Before signing that type of agreement, research the legality of that agreement in terms of the contract and in terms of your location.

In conclusion, I do not recommend that you act solely on the advice from an Internet forum. At the same time, you can learn a great deal about the best thing to do when you believe that your employer has violated your rights. You have rights. Your employer has rights. Act intelligently in respecting the rights of your employers while protecting your rights of employment.

error: Content is protected !!