Category Archives: Negotiation

Develop the powerful skills of negotiation that all great business leaders use

Jobs: How to Negotiate Anything from Pay Raises and Promotions to Job Offers

Negotiation

How to Negotiate Pay Raises, Promotions, and Job Offers

Whenever you negotiate anything, do your research.  For example, when negotiating a pay raise, research the salary range of your job.

If you have an open, comfortable relationship with the human resources, simply ask for the salary range for your job.  Some companies publish internal information on salary ranges.  Some companies even post salary ranges on public job listings.

If you have the actual amount of the salaries in your company, ask for the pay raise in the increments of pay.  If your company pays once a month, ask for a monthly pay raise that matches what your company actually pays for a month of work.  If your company pays you once each month, you get twelve payments a year.  If your company pays every four weeks, you get thirteen payments a year.  Knowing the difference is important.

The arithmetic works like this.  A monthly salary of $1000 per month is an annual salary of $12,000.  A four-weekly salary of $1,000 (4 X 13 = 52) is an annual salary $13,000.

Knowledge from the Internet

On the Internet, you can research salary ranges for your job.  Some companies do not show their compensation ranges to their employees.  To learn the value of your job, click on the “Salaries” tab at the top of the page on JayWren.com.  You will find a custom search engine built on multiple compensation sites.

Negotiating promotions is a fundamental part of your career.  If you want your career to grow, make promotion negotiation an ongoing progress.

  1. Watch for internal job postings.
  2. When you see internal job postings, check your skills and education for a match.
  3. If you do not have skills or education for a job that you seek, get them.
  4. Apply for positions you would like to have.
  5. Ask your supervisor for support in applying for a promotion.
  6. Periodically update your supervisor on your accomplishments.
  7. If proper, discuss your accomplishments with other managers in the company.
  8. Treat everyone with respect.  Your coworkers may someday be your boss.
  9. When you go in for a performance review, write your own review of your performance.  Give a copy to your boss.
  10. Do your research.  Network within your company.  Say great things about yourself.

When you interview, you are negotiating for getting a job offer.  Some people start negotiating the terms of an offer before they even get an offer.  You should know the range of compensation and the details of a job during the interview process.  However, before you can negotiate the amount of a job offer, you must first go through an interview process and get an offer.  In other words, you are negotiating for an offer.

Apply the same principles of any negotiation in the interview process.  Do your research.  Show the hiring managers how their company benefits from hiring you.

Layout the Details

To prepare yourself for negotiating the details of a job offer, you can use a comparison chart.  You can use nearly any word processing document or spreadsheet to create this table.  You can use a pen and paper as well.

Here is a sample:

Details Current Job Job Offer Difference
Salary
Bonus
Car
Investments
Retirement
Vacation
Health Ins
Dental Ins
Life Ins
Job Title
Job Function
Commute
Location
Travel
Job Interest

Once you have created your comparison table, you can begin a meaningful negotiation.  If you believe that your table can help you as a presentation in your negotiation, you can give a copy of the table to the hiring manager.

Should You Discuss Your Income?

Negotiation

Should you be prepared to discuss your income?  My answer as a veteran headhunter is that you should discuss your income only if you want to get an interview.

I have placed 100’s of applicants with dozens of companies. I never referred an applicant for an interview without first knowing that person’s income.

What are you really keeping to yourself?  At one time this advice may have had some basis for negotiation purposes, but today there are plenty of websites that have nailed compensation for every possible position in every possible location.  Right here on JayWren.com, I provide employers and job seekers with a free salary custom search feature built on a database of compensation sites.

For nearly every job seeker, discussing income is private matter.  Many employers have a company policy that instructs their employees never to discuss their income with anyone inside or outside the company.  These are solid, meaningful, valuable policies that benefit the company and benefit the employees.

However, if you intend to leave your current employer, you will need to work with hiring managers and perhaps with headhunters who will need to know your compensation.  Many of these hiring managers work for companies that have policies that require applicants to provide a truthful statement of their income.

Why burn bridges?  The interview process can be costly to recruiters and to hiring companies.  If you make $150,000 a year and you require $300,000 to accept a job, put that information out there before you have your first interview. If you plan on running a lot of people through an expensive, time-consuming process to spring a fantastic compensation negotiation on them at the finish, you are more likely going to burn a bridge than double your income.

You can double your income.  I have placed people in positions where these people have doubled their income.  Small growth companies often offer large performance-based and stock-connected compensation packages.  I have helped a lot of people pay off their home early.  The way to go about doubling your income is to work with a recruiter who has the connections that will enable you to accomplish your financial goals.  The best way to help that recruiter is to start by telling the recruiter where you are financially and where you want to go.

The people to whom you discuss your income needs to be people you know you can trust to keep that information to themselves except when you have given them explicit direction to discuss the information with a specific employer or explicit circumstances.

If a hiring manager or headhunter calls you and you have no interest in making a job change but would like to begin to develop a relationship so that you can have people to contact for future needs, you are smart to avoid a discussion of income. These people have no need to know your income until you get serious about making a job change.