How to negotiate a better salary
Whether you are looking for a new job opportunity of feel you are doing a great job for your current employer & deserve to be rewarded more – salary negotiation is a key part of not only the recruitment process, but the relationship between employer / employee. Both need to feel they are being rewarded fairly in terms of either effort & ability or remuneration. Basically, fair exchange.
The first thing that is key is knowing how much your skills, experience & expertise are worth – this is vital. Then you then need to identify the best time to discuss a salary increase & then go about asking. We have put together some handy tips.
When is the best time to negotiate salary?
When being offered a new job – you might be offered a job with a new employer, but feel your experience & ability is worth more of a competitive salary / package. There is no better time to ask than at offer stage & your recruitment agency should be able to assist you here.
When bring promoted – when taking on more responsibility, this is always a good time to negotiate salary.
When your level of experience no longer matches your salary – if you have worked in a role for a long time, constantly gaining more experience, building better relationships with clients and your salary hasn’t increased accordingly, it might be a good time for your loyalty & efforts to be rewarded.
Market salaries have increased – when salaries for a similar role have increased, normally due to skill shortages and supply / demand.
Our top tips for preparing to have that difficult conversation would be:
- Ensure you know your value
- Research the market – employment agencies, job boards, companies advertising directly on indeed etc… print these out to back up your research
- Prepare a few bullet points as to why you feel you deserve an increase, just in case your mind goes blank
- Rehearse your pitch
- Be flexible – negotiation works both ways and only comes to a successful conclusion when both parties feel they have achieved fair exchange
At SDW, we see all too often employees looking for a new job paying more money, in the hope that when they hand their notice in to their boss, they receive a counter offer, effectively a pay rise.
We recommend have that conversation first, your manager will respect you much more. Then, if it doesn’t go to plan, you can look for another job that pays the money you feel you are worth, offers a clear career progression path, and ultimately that you are going to be happy in.
