Many people complain about doing jobs that pay way less than what they deserve. Well, the first step out of this situation is realizing your worth and demanding better pay.
However, you can’t demand better pay, if you don’t know how to negotiate for one. That’s why you need to learn the art of negotiating the salary you deserve. Follow the guide below for a step by step approach to negotiating salary at your workplace.
1. Know Your Worth
The importance of knowing your worth cannot be overemphasized. When you know your worth, just any offer won’t appeal to you. This is because you know how hard you’ve worked to reach your current level.
It is only when you know your worth that you can market your skills, experience, and credentials well. This knowledge will help you to leverage your worth for a better pay package.
To evaluate your worth, you need to analyze your skills, experience, and credentials. You can do so by calculating the expected salary range for your academic qualification. Then add the expected salary range for the experience, professional skills and qualifications that you may possess.
You can seek the help of a career consultant to help you evaluate your worth. You may also consider using web tools such as Glassdoor’s Know Your Worth and PayScale to calculate your professional value.
2. Average Salary
Aside from knowing your market worth, you need to know the average salary for your proposed job role and industry. This will help you gauge your own specific salary range. Once you can tell what the figure range is, you’ll be able to negotiate your deserved salary appropriately.
When you know your average salary, you’ll know which organizations to apply to and the ones to avoid. This is because some firms may not have the capacity to pay you the salary you deserve. You’ll also know how best to table your salary raise if you already work in an organization which offers low pay.
However, before you negotiate your pay, you should realize that you can’t possibly negotiate for a salary higher than the normal range, except if you are bringing more value to the table. So, before you request for a raise, try to improve your skills and add value to your workplace.
3. Do Proper Research
It is not enough to evaluate your worth and average salary, you also need to research on “what is a good salary” for your job role.
It will be great to know how much individuals with similar qualifications and experience are paid within your industry. Knowing this will help you negotiate your salary well. Moreover, the knowledge will take away the risk of selling yourself short.
After finding out the necessary information about the salary range, you need to compare the market salary range with your professional worth. Once you’re done with the comparison, you can determine the salary range to negotiate with your employer.
It is better to do this research before accepting a job offer because it’ll be painful to find out later that you’re severely underpaid.
4. Discuss Salary Raise, Promotion and Other Perks
Apart from your salary, you need to negotiate other job-related perks such as salary raise, promotion and career advancement. Other benefits such as maternity leave, paid holiday, flexible work schedule, health care pension plans, etc. shouldn’t be left out either.
The outcome of this negotiation will impact the amount of your salary. This means that even if your salary is not as high as you expected, the perks attached to it may make the offer attractive.
5. Pitch Your Negotiation Well
To get the salary you deserve, you need to pitch your case well to the recruiting team. List out your selling points and what makes you a great catch as a candidate. If you have special skills, now is the time to bring them to light. This will make the interviewing team know that you will be of great benefit for their company.
Highlight occasions at your previous workplace where you were so productive that the firm got significant benefits. Top recommendations from past employers can also help you seal the deal. Finally, when negotiating with the recruiting team, exude confidence and stability.
How To Successfully Negotiate Your Salary With Recruiters
1. Provide Evidence to Show What You Truly Deserve: You need to prove that you’re worth what you’re claiming to be. Leverage your top soft and hard skills, experience, additional degrees, etc. Give examples with statistics of how you increased the productivity and revenue inflow of your previous working places.
2. Be Ready to Answer Questions: Your interviewers will tackle you with several questions to know your competence and whether you are worth as much as you claim. For you to negotiate your salary successfully, you need to answer those questions appropriately. Leave no room for any doubt in their minds.
3. Be Firm yet Flexible: Since it’s a negotiation, there is no right or wrong answer. There is no yes or no answer. You should be able to haggle back and forth with your interviewers until you reach an agreement. Stay firm on your acceptable salary range but also be open to flexibility. The flexibility should come into play if attractive perks are added to a proposed salary to make the package more interesting.
4. Be Realistic: Try not to overvalue your professional worth, because you may lose the job offer if the recruiters feel you are requesting much more than your skills and credentials are worth.
Before salary negotiation, try to research the salary range of the place for which you are applying. Also find out the salary range for professionals in your field. Be open to settling for a salary within the typical salary range of your proposed workplace and industry.
5. Have a Salary Range Instead of a Specific Amount: You will definitely be asked for your salary requirement. The recruiters will expect you to give a specific amount. Try to shy away from that. If you provide a particular amount, you may be preparing yourself to get underpaid.
Instead of a specific salary, give a salary range you expect. The salary range should be based around the salary range you’ve researched. This way, you’ll be able to compromise flexibly without getting yourself underpaid.
6. Previous Salary: When asked about your previous salary, you are not necessarily obliged to talk about it. You could mention your previous salary if you were well-paid according to your real value. If you weren’t well-paid, it is better to avoid discussing the amount. This is to avoid getting a pay close to the payment standard of your previous workplace.
Conclusion
Salary negotiation is one of the most important parts of the recruitment process. When you negotiate your salary appropriately, you will get job satisfaction. Besides, knowing that you are receiving appropriate pay will make you more productive at your workplace. Follow the tips above to get the pay that you deserve and gain fulfillment in your chosen career.
