The New Salary Negotiation - 范文无忧网

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For the first time, employees he access to the equivalent of a Kelley Blue Book for jobs. The ailability of online pensation information has leveled the playing field between employer and employee when it es to negotiation and job offers. Employers who are confident in their pay practices should wele these new data sources, as they provide external validation that their pensation is petitive with the market.

Before there was online salary data for everyone, disappointments and disconnects like these were mon.

* The irrelevant request. Employee: I need 10 percent more because I just bought a new house. Employer: Why is funding your lifestyle the pany's responsibility?

* The annual increase. Employer: We're getting 4 percent across the board this year. Here's your 4 percent raise. Employee: Oh, thanks. I guess.

* The counteroffer.

Employee: I got a job offer for 10 percent more than I'm making. Employer: Um. Let me see what I can do.

* The done deal. Employer (passing employee in the hall): Here's your paycheck with your new raise. Employee: When did we negotiate this?

Better access to data improves the quality of salary negotiations by making it possible to start on mon ground. The new salary negotiation is starting to look more like this.

1. Agree on a benchmark job.

2. Agree on your proficiency and performance level.

3. Agree on the market value of the job.

4. Agree on where your salary should fall.

5. Agree on what performance is necessary for future salary increases.

Step 1. Agree on a benchmark job

You and your employer pare your job deion to that of a benchmark job. Your responsibilities should be at least a 70 percent match to those of the benchmark position. Chances are, your employer has already done this. Make sure you know what job the pany has pared yours to, and understand any discrepancies between their idea of your level and your own. For example, they might think you are at the middle level of a job (e.g., a Level II) while you think you're at a senior level (e.g., a Level III). If so, work with your boss to understand each other's reasoning and resolve the differences.

If you really are working at a higher level, you may be able to negotiate for a promotion. Or you may he advanced as far as you can in your position. If there is no path for you with the pany, you may he to choose between doing the same job for a long time and moving to another pany. On the other hand, if you he shown that you can handle additional responsibility and the pany has room for growth, this may be your time to move up.

Step 2. Agree on your proficiency and performance level

Whether you are receiving a job offer from a pany or going through your performance review, you and your employer should agree on where your performance fits in relation to the benchmark job deion. If you are new to the position, for example, chances are that you already he some of the required skills but are developing others. In the new salary negotiation, your level of proficiency and performance will determine how close to the median you'll be paid.

Proficiency and performance are related, but not the same. You bee proficient in a job as you acquire the relevant skills. Your level of performance is how well you do that job. Proficiency is only one ponent of your work that should be measured in your performance review - attitude, punctuality, teamwork, and other general skills are also taken into consideration.

If you are very good at the technical requirements of your job, but he not developed solid soft skills, your performance review is likely to reflect these deficiencies. Conversely, if you he a winning attitude and are a solid team player but aren't yet good at the specific skills required for the job, your lack of proficiency could hold you back.

Step 3. Agree on the market value of the job

You've researched the numbers, and so has your employer. Online pensation data is a good starting point for the conversation about what your job should pay.

If you he agreed on a benchmark job in Step 1, it should be relatively easy to agree on the market value for that job. Your employer is likely to he access to additional sources of data that provide a better level of detail than what is ailable to you. The data your pany has is generally very specific to the pany's pensation philosophy.

For example, if your data is from the Salary Wizard, it reflects the current month's national erage for your job - for all size panies across all industries, ad

justed for the region in which you work. Your employer's data might show what your pany and a dozen or so direct petitors are paying for the job. Depending on the industry and the region in which you work, this number could be higher or lower than your number.

If you get to the point in a salary negotiation where you and your employer are discussing the applicability of various data sources to your situation, you're doing great.

Step 4. Agree on where your salary should fall

After you and your employer he agreed what job you're doing, how well you're doing it, and what the market pays for that job, you're ready to discuss what you're worth to the pany.

Let's assume for a moment that your performance is at exactly the midpoint of what is expected for someone in your job. You he shown your employer an erage proficiency and erage performance. You should expect to earn the approximate median for the job.

The pany's pay philosophy and pay structure e into play here. (See related articles on pay philosophies and pay structures.) Depending on the importance of your job to the pany, your employer might actually pay you more than the median as part of a pay philosophy geared toward retaining people in your position.

For example, a law firm might pay its administrative assistants above the market rate, because they are critical to anizing the firm's work and maintaining relationships with clients. Or, a software pany might pay its programmers above market because their skills are so scarce.

A pany might pay you less than the median in base salary as part of an overall total pensation program that could be at or above market. In other words, some panies provide higher or lower pay levels to balance with their bonus plans, stock options, benefits and even intangible rewards. Still other panies might pay people in your position less than the median because your job is not as critical to the pany's success as some other jobs.

The pany might agree that you're worth a certain amount, but be unable to pay it. If raises really are 4 percent across the board, you he to make the case why you he earned a bigger increase. From the manager's perspective, a larger raise for you often means a smaller one for someone else. But if you agree on what you should be paid, you can start to create a path for how your employer is going to bring you there - maybe not during this review period, but over time.

After you've discussed where you should fall in the context of the pany's pay philosophy and structure, you're ready to agree on a number and and start earning your new salary.

Step 5. Agree on what performance is necessary for future salary increases

Performance reviews and salary negotiations are continual processes. The last step of one salary negotiation should be the first step of the next. With this in mind, talk about your future - the next three to six months.

Now is a perfect time to set the groundwork for what specific performance objectives you need to achieve to get a larger raise or promotion in the near future. One of the major reasons people are dissatisfied with their salary increases is that the raise is less than expected and the boss doesn't he room to increase it. Setting the expectations early doesn't guarantee anything, but it does cause your boss at least mentally to reserve that money for you from the next raise pool.

By talking about future performance and expectations, you are jointly mitting to a positive working relationship going forward. This helps end your negotiation on a positive note for both sides.

Negotiate for a win-win The data itself is neutral, but subject to a great deal of interpretation. It is a set of facts, but it is not law. You should negotiate in relation to it - and so should your employer. Demands and ultimatums based on any published data without open discussion are likely to lee everyone dissatisfied. A good negotiation is a discussion in which each party understands and respects the other's position and it ends when all parties feel their positions he been heard and their needs he been optimized within the other party's limitations.

Steps 1 through 5 above outline the new salary negotiation. If your negotiation turns out like this, tell us about it. Although we can't offer individual salary consultations, your story may be selected for an uping article. Good luck!

Also check out our job offer assessing tool, The Job Assessor, in order to pare job offers.

- Johanna Schlegel, Editor-in-Chief