You have likely shared your current or most recent salary with the potential employer; the potential employer may have shared the salary range for the position with you. The posted job ads may also have given you an idea about the salary range. Don’t count on this, however, since employers don’t want to lay their cards on the table first. After all, what candidate wants to be offered and accept a position in the low to mid-range of a stated salary range?

Salary Negotiation From the Employer’s Point of View

Consequently, the employer’s salary negotiation leeway depends on these factors:

• the level of the job within your organization,
• the scarcity of the skills and experience needed for the job in the job market,
• the career progress and experience of the individual selected,
• the fair market value for the job you are filling
• the salary range for the job within your organization
• the salary range for the job within your geographic area,
• the existing economic conditions within your job market,
• the existing economic conditions within your industry, and
• company-specific factors that might affect the given salary such as comparative jobs, your culture, your pay philosophy, and your promotion practices.

Bottom line? How badly do you want and need this candidate? If you are too needy, your negotiation strategy will quickly turn into a capitulation. And, capitulation, paying more than you can afford, paying disproportionately to the pay ranges of your current employees, and paying a new employee salary and benefits outside of your comfort zone is bad for the employer and bad for the candidate.

The new employee’s work is scrutinized under a microscope; employer expectations may be way too high. Fellow employees may resent the negotiated salary and think of the new employee as a prima donna. In a win-win salary negotiation, both employer and employee leave the negotiation feeling ready to get started on a long term, successful relationship.

If you’ve ever been involved in an intense salary negotiation, you know that the negotiation can consume your mental and physical energy way beyond its importance. This is because, by the time you reach the stage of making an offer, you have spent the time to develop a pool of candidates. You have interviewed various candidates for weeks.

Your organization has invested significant time and energy in wooing and getting to know your final choice candidate. More sophisticated candidates, higher level candidates, and candidates with significant career progress will counter your initial offer letter, so expect it.

Additionally, expectations and needs of candidates can sometimes blind side the employer. If multiple people have conducted interviews – which I recommend – you have little control over the expectations expressed and what the candidate comes to believe about the position as a result of the interviews. You also have no control over the content of offers from other firms that can occur simultaneously.

Salary Negotiation Tips

While they are not meant to comprehensively detail how to conduct a salary negotiation, I offer you these hints and tips to ensure you conduct successful salary negotiations.

• Negotiation is not about winning – unless both parties win. If either party feels they have capitulated, not negotiated, both parties lose.
  
  
• Make every effort to identify the most recent salary and benefits your candidate received. Most organizations ask for salary on their job applications and in their job postings and ads. Some candidates offer W-2 forms and other proof of salary. You can also ask former employers during reference checking. You may not be able to match the salary but you will have a good idea of what the candidate will seek during salary negotiations.

1. Show your experience and know-how
Put your past experiences on the table and let the employer see exactly why you're fit for the position. Hands-on experience is a very efficient salary-negotiating tool.

2. Put numbers where your mouth is
Flashing your past job titles isn't enough; you must also demonstrate exact figures of what you've accomplished. Show your employers that you've increased department sales by 20% and doubled your productivity in 6 months.

3. Don't ask about salary
Let employers make a first offer, as it is primordial to push off any actual salary talk until after you've secured the position. At that point, it'll be much easier to negotiate since you'll know that the company wants you on board.

4. Show excitement about the position
Motivation is the key to good productivity. Be sincere about this emotion and put on your happy face, in order to show the employer that the only thing stopping you from taking the job is the compensation.

5. Visualize yourself already having the job
As a personal tip, perceptual visualization is a great way to follow through and get something done. This is the same technique professionals use to sink the 8 ball in the corner pocket. See it happen and it will.

Many employment agencies and companies alike use the following 3 tactics to get a better deal for the company.

1. Read the contract! Generally speaking, the person who creates the game has the advantage. So don't negotiate a superb job offer verbally, only to push a lot of gold across the table by not reading their contract. It does take time and usually isn't written in easily comprehensible language. If you have a friend who's an attorney / lawyer or knows about labour law or contracts, then have them read it after you have. Don't be afraid to ask your employer about anything you are unhappy with or doesn't make sense.

2. Stay out of Range. Your future boss or HR may try to persuade you to state your salary range early on. Try to avoid this if possible by asking what salary range they are offering instead, or say you will consider any reasonable offer. If you have a fairly good idea of what salary ranges are applicable to your situation, and are pressed into a corner to be specific, go for the top end of the salary range. You can always negotiate down.

3. Do not fill in salary boxes. Seen the forms that ask you for your last positions' salary or contract rate? Leave it blank. If they ask for your salary expectation, tell them that you're 'open' or are 'negotiable'. Why? Once you state a salary, this rate will form the ceiling beneath which the negotiation game will be played. Similarly, if you give a salary range, you can guess which end of your range you'll be anchored to.

4. Don't take "No" for an answer. No, doesn't necessarily mean no! You're not the only one trying to get the best deal out of the negotiation. Just because they said they can't meet your salary or compensation range, doesn't mean they won't call back and up the offer later. It happens all the time. Often it's no more than a negotiation tactic. After all, if they won't meet your price, maybe it's time to ask yourself whether this is the company you want to work for in the first place!

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