How to properly negotiate your salary when hiring? How to negotiate a raise? With a job market that is clearly favorable to job seekers, negotiating salary upon hiring becomes essential. You can also use your experience to ask for a raise. Here are all our tips to help you get a better salary.
From the start of your career, it is important to master the techniques to successfully negotiate your salary upon hiring. Indeed, during recruitment interviews, the manager in front of you will very quickly get an idea about you and your skills. But your background and your CV are not the only determining criteria for defining your salary. Your behavior will also be a key asset!
The worst idea for negotiating your salary when hiring
In his latest book, Gary Burnison, CEO of Korn Ferry (a company specializing in strategic consulting), describes the somewhat “strange” interview he conducted with a candidate. He brought back a basket of fruit during the last stage of the recruitment process. Surprised, he waited to understand the link between the candidate, the company and this gift, but he quickly realized that it was just an act of kindness.
This attention did not have the desired effect since Gary Burnison explains that it is “THE worst salary negotiation technique. This is very manipulative. When people think “kindness,” they think of being kind, but that’s a way of masking one’s weaknesses. » For the CEO, it is unthinkable to believe that being nice will get you better paid.
A Harvard study of 1,500 people tends to prove that being nice can be counterproductive. On the contrary, candidates who were much more direct in the way they communicated tended to negotiate their salary better. To ensure a paycheck worthy of your skills, Gary Burnison shares his advice.
How to negotiate your starting salary
Before giving you our tips, there is one piece of advice that you must take into account: DARE! You must dare to negotiate your salary when hiring. It is not because you arrive at a company that you must accept the remuneration that is offered to you. Often, the employer or recruiter will offer you a salary that is slightly lower, to anticipate a possible negotiation.
To convince you to properly negotiate your salary when hiring, we have gathered advice from Gary Burnison. Although he indicates that you should not be too nice, his book is full of tips that will allow you to successfully complete this salary negotiation.
5 tips for negotiating your salary when hiring
#1 Don’t be too nice
You will have understood, the best is the enemy of the good. For Gary Burnisona person who acquiesces all the time and never dares to contradict may appear naive, or even desperate. For him, the collective process of creativity arises above all from the divergence of opinions.
#2 Work together
To negotiate your salary, the author recommends not imposing your will or bending to that of the recruiter. He recommends working with your future boss on the best compensation. The person with whom you negotiate your salary will be your daily contact in the company and “ he will never forget the behavior you showed during the negotiations. »
#3 Highlight your skills
If an offer is made to you, it means you stand out from the crowd! You must therefore take advantage of the fact that the recruiter really wants to integrate you into the team during salary negotiations. By focusing on the strengths you bring to the team, it will be easier to get better compensation.
#4 Prepare for the interview
Before going to the recruitment interview, it is imperative to find out about the company, of course, but also to know the average salary of the people who occupy the position you are seeking. This will give you concrete data to better negotiate.
#5 Think like your boss!
Trying to think like your recruiter allows you to better understand the levers they can use to negotiate your salary. This also allows you to select the assets to highlight in the hope of obtaining better pay.
Salary negotiation: How to ask for a raise?
How to ask for a raise? This is the question that many employees ask themselves every year. Indeed, once you have properly negotiated your starting salary, you have taken your position. After several months of hard work, you are finally ready to ask for a raise. We tell you how to talk to your manager about it.
Negotiation is an art that must be mastered. You must first focus on the reasons for this request and the people involved: are you going to speak to your manager? To a human resources representative? The speeches are not the same. With HR, you may have to emphasize your experience and your seniority in the company. Your manager knows you better. So, to ask for your raise, you can emphasize your results, your motivation, etc.
How to ask for a raise? Some advice
To ask your manager for a raise, you must emphasize two very important aspects: on the one hand the results, and on the other hand your skills. First, you can approach the discussion by starting by reviewing the major successes that marked your year. Have you contributed to the increase in your department’s turnover? Have you significantly increased the number of followers and/or interactions on social media? Have you managed to convert prospects into customers? These are a whole bunch of tangible elements that your manager cannot argue with and which justify a raise.
Skills and their development are also important elements. In any company, you can progress, obtain new missions, take charge of new departments or even a team. To ask for your raise, you must demonstrate to your manager that you have been able to grow with the company, that you have developed unique know-how on strategic subjects for the company. You can highlight some soft skills, such as motivation, daily involvement, your determination, your ability to bring your teams or colleagues on board with you. All these elements also justify an increase and you should not hesitate to ask for it.
Ask for a raise if promoted
Of course, one particular case requires an increase: promotion. You evolve in your company and that’s normal. Over the years and with the experience you develop, you master your product, your subject and you become more and more indispensable to your employer. So, he entrusts you with new missions and a position with more responsibilities.
How do I ask for a raise during a promotion? In general, financial compensation always occurs at the time of this major evolution in your career. However, you need to make sure you get the raise you deserve. You should not be paid less than the person you are replacing, even if salary differences can be justified by the experience acquired in this position by your predecessor.
On the other hand, you must ask for an increase in line with the responsibilities you acquire. If you become manager of a team of two people in a less strategic division, your salary increase will necessarily be less significant than if you take charge of a business unit. You must therefore be careful to ask for an increase consistent with your future workload, but also in line with the strategic level of your new functions.
