What Else in My Offer is Negotiable?
While company culture and progression opportunities are important in any decision to potentially change jobs, salary will always be near the top of the list because, let’s face it, we all need to make a living. There’s no shame in admitting this and ensuring you get what you deserve.
Unfortunately, in 2021, things may be a little more complicated than usual. Many companies will have had to slash costs across the board this past year, and unfortunately, even within the procurement function which has proved more vital than ever, salaries will be impacted, or at least more constrained.
Don’t get me wrong. You should absolutely negotiate your salary—and you can find out more about this here—but it’s possible you might reach an impasse if there have been prior redundancies or a pay freeze, and the hiring manager might genuinely not be authorized to offer more.
This doesn’t mean that a deal can’t be reached though, especially if you’re looking at an offer more holistically. So aside from base salary—what else is negotiable?
Job title
Job titles aren’t the be-all and end-all (we all know someone with an inflated one), but they do matter.
Job titles help the stakeholders you are dealing with understand where you sit in the organization and can be useful in negotiating with suppliers by denoting how much decision-making power you have. They can also help open up networking opportunities and may improve your career opportunities in the future.
Depending on the organization’s structure, you might be able to negotiate a more advantageous job title. Make sure you do your research, looking at positions in other, comparable corporations, and come up with a few options to bring to the table.
Guaranteed first-year bonus
Sometimes a signing bonus can sweeten the deal—but again, this might be hit by post-COVID cuts.
Instead, consider recognizing the constraints your future employer is under, showing your commitment to the organization, and also improving your offer by concentrating on a future bonus instead.
Asking for a guaranteed first-year bonus, or at the very least insisting on a certain percentage of your bonus target for year one, is an excellent way to compromise here. You might have particular targets that will lead to your bonus already laid out in your contract, but it can be hard to predict how realistic these will be in the first year as you find your feet in the new job.
This is particularly useful if you’ve been with your current employer for some time and have been accustomed to receiving a bonus payout at, or above, target every year (and have therefore come to rely on it as part of your income).
Vacation time
Part of what a salary reflects is time and effort. If you feel the offer doesn’t match this, then there are ways to make sure that your employer appreciates how hard you’ll be working, and the level of responsibility you’ll be taking on—like having more vacation time.
More companies these days are giving their employees added flexibility in terms of how they manage their time off and how much they take, especially at the Director level and above. However, it’s slow progress and the US is still well behind many other developed countries in terms of the amount of PTO provided, on average. If you’re going to ask for more time off each year therefore, make you sure understand the market you’re in, and your worth, by taking a look at what other employers offer for similar roles.
Be realistic—don’t expect to double your vacation time and understand that there might be constraints on how many days you can take during busy periods. However, your employer might be more flexible on this than you would expect.
Flexible hours
Depending on the company and the nature of the role, you should be able to negotiate a little flexibility in your working hours, especially now. Often, this kind of leeway will denote the trust that your employer has afforded you to get the job done and meet your targets in a way that suits you.
If you do want to negotiate flexibility, you should be realistic. Come to the table with a plan as to how you will be productive while setting your own hours, and expect that even if you have a late start or an early finish, there will still be expected “core” hours for things like meetings.
Working from home
Working from home is a given amid a global pandemic, right?
Wrong. Even after the year we have been through, the ability to choose to work where you are most productive is still seen by many as an added extra that should be bestowed upon employees at the employer’s approval—and can be taken away.
Where this is a point for negotiation, again you need to come in with a clear ask. Let them know how many days a week you wish to work from home when life returns to normal, and reassure them you have a reliable work from home setup and will be readily available on phone or email. As with working hours, set core times you will be in the office.
Even if the company is currently offering remote work, this may not be part of their policy going forward, so ensure you get what you’ve agreed to in writing.
These are just some of the points you can consider in negotiations, so make sure you look at an offer in it’s entirety, even if the salary is a little lower than you would have hoped. You should also make it clear that you fully intend to accept the offer once it meets your requirements, so the hiring manager will go to bat for you.