How do you negotiate a salary with your top candidates? Believe it or not, when it comes to salary negotiations, even the most experienced human resource personals can struggle; and when your personal skills are pitiable, your chances of hiring good candidates to help your business thrive are reduced. Not every hiring manager has pitiable “people skills”, and surprisingly, many dread negotiations because they don’t know how to approach an experienced candidate. Nevertheless, here are some win-win negotiation tactics you might want to consider to hire the best talent.
How Much Does Your Industry Pay?
Some industries are more competitive than others. The IT domain for example, is a cutthroat business field, and some companies battle each other to land the best talent. How do you persuade an executive to work for you and not for one of your competitors? Negotiating win-win deals with potential employees is more challenging than meets the eye. Apart from an attractive salary package, you must offer them something extra, something your competitor doesn’t have.
Don’t Over-Ask
Executives already have plenty of work experience, so they know how much money a certain job pays on average. However, they can’t know for sure how much money a company is will to pay them. Having a salary benchmarking plan in mind can help you negotiate better incentives. Websites like salary.com, indeed.com and payscale.com can be of great assistance.
Enter a job interview prepared with information. Leverage that information to gain an advantage. Executives with prior experience and a solid portfolio have the highest chances of negotiating a win-win salary package.
What About the Non-Financial Incentives?
Believe it or not, non-financial incentives have just as many benefits as financial incentives. Hiring executives without paying them a fortune is not something impossible to achieve. At the start of the interview, engage in a conversation. Get to know the person in front of you, ask about their goals and bring up non-financial incentives. Negotiate a win-win. If you can’t offer them more money, talk about better healthcare, more vacation time, flexible working hours and bonuses based on performance.
Don’t Exaggerate with the Counter-Offers
Counter-offers are pretty common in negotiations. Usually, the hiring manager speaks first. Your offer will be used as a benchmark for further negotiations. The executive you’re trying to hire may want more, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Let the negotiation begin. Have a limit and never forget that your opponent has one, too. If you’re being too pushy, he could leverage his experience and mention that he’s got 5 other job offers. You certainly don’t want that to happen.
Don’t Get Too Excited
Stay positive throughout the job interview but don’t get too excited. Interviewing someone with great potential and a solid CV can also mean that the candidate has high expectations, too. Play it cool and maintain a professional attitude. Control your emotions by controlling your body language. If you’re nervous that he’s decline your offer, talk less and if you sense that the whole situation is really tense, engage in a conversation.
Ask for more information about his expertise, talk about former employers with the candidate, bring up the workspace, and so on. Don’t allow for that “awkward silence” to settle in and always keep the conversation flowing naturally and smoothly.
Hiring executives can be just as nervous as rookies when interviewing for a job. Even though they are experienced in a certain domain, very few can master negotiations. As the hiring company, you should leverage your power, too. Talk about the numerous advantages you can offer, bring out extra incentives and perks, and showcase a genuine attitude to gauge his attention. Bargain for a win-win with poise and determination, and give the candidate a reason to accept your job offer, even if it may not be the best he’s got so far.
By Christopher Austin and TheGapPartnership.com!
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