Have you received a job offer? Congratulations! What do you say? The salary is too low ?? Let’s see how we can rectify the situation in your favor!

 

Reopening discussions at the end, is it… doable?

Yes it is. Even if you made a mistake at the start of the process (in the telephone interview or in the first interview), you can try to readjust the amount upwards.

Too low a salary offer could be the source of one of these three (3) errors :

1. You gave a range  at the start (eg $ 45,000 to $ 55,000) instead of saying “At least $ 52,000” for example.
2. You disclosed your old salary or had no choice because the recruiter will have asked you explicitly. You will thus be limited to 8-10% of total increase compared to this one, which the recruiter will judge as reasonable. For example, if you go from $ 35,000 / year to $ 38,000 / year, it will be difficult to negotiate for $ 42,000 / year when the old salary is known.
3. You were not ready to receive the call from the recruiter , he asked you about your salary expectations, you panicked.

 

Be sure!

HR will tell you “ This is really the maximum we can offer!  “

When we know that it is not them who decide on the account , we have very interesting possibilities.

You will soon understand why it is not they who settle the question of salary but first, first advice …

 

1st tip: avoid returning a proposal by email

Before we begin, I have to tell you about an important recommendation: you want to have them on the phone, in person or by videoconference to execute against-offer in the rules of art.

You are not buying a house, so drop the handwritten counteroffer.

If it reassures you, after the interview, to send an email to confirm the amount discussed, then that’s fine.

During the counter offer however, you want to get  the exact pulse of how your negotiation is going.

 

Decision criteria

Is it all about the salary scale?

No.

Every salary goes through the HR approval exercise, but that salary will have a good level of flexibility .

Read carefully because we will get into the more technical!

The construction of a salary scale is carried out with the help of a specialist agency which performs a comparative analysis of the market ( external equity ).

But wait, that’s not all.

This agency takes the company’s data at that time, including the company’s workforce forecast.

It will base its analysis on internal equity factors .

Salary is usually the most worrying subject for the employee. The latter typically wonders about three points:

 

• Is my salary competitive compared to what I might receive in another organization?
• does my salary reflect my qualifications and responsibilities?
• is my salary comparable to that of my colleagues who are as competent and efficient as me?

 

All of these questions feed off the concept of fairness. Equity refers to a feeling or a perception of justice in a given situation.

 

And on top of all that …

In addition to internal and external fairness, the company has a responsibility for individual fairness , that is, the employee’s perception of fairness in relation to internal processes.

So I named performance appraisal, salary increases…

This is the “employee self-assessment” portion of his worth. From his perspective, is retribution fair vs. what he gives?

The skills, abilities and direct contribution of the advisor to the company count a lot in the calculation of his total compensation. Human resources specialists call this element “individual equity”.

 

“It’s the consultant’s contribution that makes the difference,” says Marc Chartrand. In the world of sales and customer relations, there can be a lot of elasticity [in compensation] and this is where individual fairness can make a difference. “

 

To illustrate his point, Marc Chartrand underlines that two people can have the same title and the same responsibilities, but that one of them obtains a much higher salary.

 

Frédéric Roy – Three keys to reasonable compensation: external and individual equity

 

Now the REAL decision criteria during a renegotiation

So HR and its salary scale is one thing.

But a salary decision is first made on three (3) things, internal equity, the urgency to act and the budget:

1. Internal equity : based on the premise that one day or another, the salary will inadvertently become known to colleagues ” What will Johanne and Yassine say if we give our candidate $ 3,500 more?” “.
2. Urgency to act : did you feel the urgency to act on the part of the manager and HR during the hiring process? ” We must close this recruitment, it is urgent!” “. It could play a big part in your negotiation process.
3. Budget : can the manager’s department pay the amount you request? If he found you himself, he will have saved some money. It could mean a bigger salary for you. “ We did not have to pay $ 5,000 for the placement agency so we have plenty…!  “

 

The manager in the HR office

When a manager has a burning desire to hire someone, he’ll walk into the HR office in order to come out with an approval:

• “ That’s fine, my Michel, the salary is in the grid, then with what Johanne and Yassine earn. We are moving forward with the hiring of Xeng Li, at the salary he asks for. “

 

If the scale is exceeded, we come back to Johanne and Yassine:

• ” Yes, but compared to Johanne and Yassine are going to say if we give $ 3,500 more to our candidate Xeng Li?” “.

Manager Michel will sometimes find a way to justify hiring anyway , to elasticize (new word) the scale for a moment, to overestimate the skills or the number of years of experience of our friend Xeng Li , to give him a job title in a higher rung of the ladder …

You know what I mean?

And I have even seen cases where Johanne and Yassine are offered increases following the hiring of Xeng Li !!!

These magnificent reversals, these outbursts of creativity on the part of managers, are situations that, just like in the case of Xeng Li, can happen to you.

Because if there is desire, there will be means! 😉

There is only one condition to succeed in this feat. Are you the # 1 choice?

 

Very important factor: are you the # 1 choice?

The best clue to whether we are choice # 1 is revealed by the length of the process. If you’ve been stuck in this for 5 weeks, including 2 weeks where you were held in suspense for XYZ reasons, it may be a sign that you are a choice # 2, the candidate in s tand- by .

In such a case, I would not dare to renegotiate the salary.

Conversely, if you are a # 1 choice, you will often find yourself way ahead of # 2.

Why?

There is an undeniable advantage to being # 1 and it is the distancing caused by the aspect ” We want to cane this!” “.

The hiring manager will want to go back to his main activities and the more time passes, the more he will have convinced himself that he made the right decision.

If you approach a salary renegotiation with a good attitude, he will be all the more convinced that you are the right person. ” He has teeth, Xeng Li!” I like this. We made the right choice! “.

A manager who makes a decision becomes a rationalization machine.

Be desirable, maintain that desire and your counter-offer, you will succeed.

 

Negotiate a signing bonus: use the confidentiality of the offer

I will give you a graph, you will better understand… here it is (click to enlarge)! And thank you for not judging my artistic talents too much!

 

So on the left, we have things that can potentially irritate Johanne and Yassine, because they are less confidential.

On the right, we have the things that are more likely to be overlooked.

So for example, it’s fine to negotiate a signing bonus or accreditation. We could also think of profit-sharing in the company (shares).

 

Semi-confidential salary

The salary is still supposed to be kept private, so I put it on the right.

But the risk is still there that …

That Johanne and Yassine learn that you are paid the same as them when they have been working in the company for 3 years.

You understand?

This is the downside .

As for the up …

The advantage of negotiating your salary is that not only will you get more right away, future increases will reflect your higher base salary for years to come!

While negotiating holidays, teleworking or reduced hours for example, it is more difficult because it is VERY obvious to Johanne and Yassine that you have 1 week more vacation than them.

There are less important items, like a cell phone for example, which are negotiable on the strict basis: do you need it for your job or not.

This is what will determine your bargaining power, but from experience, you are better off acquiring all these strengths from the start , including the phone worth more or less $ 700 per year.

One negotiating trick taught at Harvard is to negotiate multiple points at once :

If you are offered an offer and you have some concerns, bring them all up at the same time. Don’t start by listing a few things and then say others much later in the conversation.

 

The best bargaining power

I will always say it again, your best bet is to get a competing offer.

Syncing your appointments to bring down 2 vacancies at the same time is one of the only parts of the process that you control.

Use it well!

At that point, the potential employer’s instinct in your counter-offer will be whether you are comparing apples to apples.

Finally, you have the option of inventing the simultaneous offer from another employer. In poker we call it bluffing . Others call it lying.

Personally, I have always managed to synchronize my job postings by getting multiple interviews in the same week.

For this reason, I know that it is the strategy to recommend to play with the dates of his appointments and to negotiate the number of days to think about it once the salary offer arrives.

They will give you 3 days to think about it, negotiate 4 or 5 days to have flexibility. Say you will be at the chalet (yes that’s an acceptable little lie).

 

Salary renegotiation technique # 1: figure and openness

We must come back with a precise figure and an open question so as not to close the discussion. A pretty unanimous piece of advice in the world of negotiation:

• I was expecting an offer of at least $ 140,000 / year, so I’m still thinking about it. Do you have other forms of remuneration to consider to compensate for the wage gap?

 

This method implies that the sale has already been made, we stop selling, like Kevin O’Leary in Shark Tank.

In other words…

That when we talk about numbers, we are talking about numbers!

 

Salary renegotiation technique # 2: arguments, figures and openness

The other strategy is to go with a short pitch to justify your value again:

• I would really love to work for you! But my expertise in what you are looking for is very broad and requires an attractive salary … 

Then, your number , as in # 1:

• I was thinking more of $ 95,000 / year.

Finally, your closure which is meant to be an opening :

• What do you think?

 

This 3-step response (argument, number, open question) avoids two dangers: appearing arrogant and closing the discussion. 

Nicolas Galita –  Negotiating his salary in interview without using a fork

 

What I like about Nicolas’s technique as well is when he uses the word “legitimate” to present the number.

For example :

• $ 78,000 seems more legitimate to me , what do you think?

 

Conclusion

When the HR person tells you about the “ budget ” and not the “salary scale”, you know when they are reporting what the manager is saying . It’s good, it’s very very good. You are in the zone .

The role of HR in the story is to suggest other ways to close the deal for the manager, as well as you. He is the negotiation intermediary.

For example, he will suggest one (1) extra week of vacancy during the hiring year. It will go more incognito or will be perceived as acceptable to colleagues because you will have legitimately negotiated it when hiring.

Other creative means will be considered, such as a salary review in 6 months instead of one (1) year for example. These clues tell you that they’ve hit the budget, but they want you !!!

When it comes to negotiating, creativity can pay off big, but never forget that the “salary” box pays the most . You can’t make a week in Cuba grow.

If in doubt, refer to Pawn Stars as needed and offer to meet you in the middle!