Salary Negotiation

The following is NOT standard interviewing advice, it is standard tactics to employ when conducting a salary negotiation ONLY…

Identifying the right person to approach
Where a negotiation approach is made when you are already in employment and is not part of an initial job offer, before you even begin the negotiation itself, you will need to identify the right person to approach. First off, understand that there is no set rule or procedure when negotiating for a salary increase, other than following the observances of your companies policies and guidelines when approaching people within your organisation. With that being the case, there are a few common sense steps you should follow…
…When planning to negotiate a salary increase one of the very first things you must do is identify the right person to approach. This is where following your companies rules and policies is really important. Most people will have a line manager or immediate supervisor who they report to, and a section manager who is above that. However, in some jobs they will have nothing whatsoever to do with negotiating a salary rise. Alternatively, some companies may require you first to report any queries to your line/ immediate manager before going anywhere else, and although the majority of companies will have open door policies, it is very important you don’t overstep the ‘chain of command’ – otherwise instead of negotiating a salary increase you could find yourself getting into trouble instead. You’ll find that because of the way most organisations are structured, it’s just another one of the reasons why salary negotiation is usually reserved for those either in executive levels within an organisation, or for people working within a very informal management structure (i.e. people in jobs who are ‘making a bit of extra money on the side’). The person to approach will vary from situation to situation and from company to company, and although in many instances most people would approach the person highest up in their organisation, in companies with a more formal management structure, approaching your immediate line manager first before taking your request further would probably be the most sensible choice. That’s why because each organisation is different, it cannot be advised here who the right person to approach in any given instance would be. This having been said, the person who knows your own workplace best is you, and sometimes that means you’ll need to be a bit shrewd when taking such a bold step as trying to negotiate your own salary increase

If you do not approach the right person – your attempt to negotiate a bigger salary might lose momentum before it even gets started. In this respect, a rule of thumb you should consider is that if you don’t have access to, or are not allowed to speak to, the person you need to in order to negotiate your salary, or if you’re in a position where you need to do an extensive amount digging in order to ascertain who this person even is – then the position you currently hold within your organisation is probably not geared toward salary negotiation


Know your market value
Any salary negotiation should always be based on what your actual worth to your company is. You should never go into a salary negotiation based on what you feel you deserve, or what someone else has told you you should be getting. When negotiating a salary, it needs to be based on solid reasoning and fact, and you will need to show/ explain your worth to the company on that basis

There is a wealth of information on salary sourcing available both online and through local resources such as libraries, government employment offices, etc – which is great because as a conscientious employee it means that there are numerous sources from which you can research your market value from

Remember that a crucial part of salary negotiation research is not only about knowing your own market value, it’s also about researching your employer/ or prospective employer as well – you’ll need to try and find out their historic salary levels, negotiation policies, and performance appraisal factorizations if you can. This way you’ll have a good understanding of how much they might be prepared to offer before your negotiation begins

Plan your approach
There are no hard and fast rules when planning on how to make your approach when attempting to initiate a salary negotiation. This is another area that is highly subjective and comes down to the circumstances you find yourself in at the time. What can be pointed out though is that there are some key things in business that people respond well to, and it is important that you try to incorporate these things into your approach as much as possible

To start with, in the business world, as in life in general, you will get a much better response if you are completely confident and self-assured about everything you are saying. That’s why you need to go in with the attitude that as far as you are concerned, you are great at your job and everything you’ve done so far for your organization has been amazing.
Objection handling – While your employer may acknowledge your merits, remember they may challenge you if they feel there are any inconsistencies regarding the facts you are presenting, or if they are simply unwilling to concede some of the points you are making. When you are attempting a salary negotiation it is important you deny these challenges and use objection handling to the best of your ability. (This applies even when you know some of the facts you have presented may be inflated). Only acknowledge a point or objection if you feel you will be able to use it to gain some traction during your negotiation later on

Keep an unassailable veneer. Everything you are saying and presenting should sound impressive and reflect well on yourself. When you think about how a salary negotiation will normally go – there’s no room for anything else in your conversation – so it makes sense! The likelihood is that you’ll have a very brief/ moderate window at most in which to make a pitch purely on your own terms and you don’t want it overshadowed by a lack of direction. That’s because in most business environments, it is a well-known fact that people who exhibit traits of aggressive competitiveness, a ‘go getter’, as so to speak, are usually picked out over their peers for faster advancement, and this should be reflected to some extent in the conversation you have too

The last thing to note is a cardinal rule that applies to lots of important things like job interviews, and it definitely applies to salary negotiations too! It’s very simple – Keep everything positive and upbeat. The only time you should ever introduce a negative remark into the discourse is when you want to emphasize how important a contribution of your own has been or how you’ve done something better than someone else. Anything else, and it will start to sound like you are griping instead of showing your employer your true worth