The other day I got a reader question about negotiating his job offer via email. In my 20+ years in the career field -- coaching, teaching, writing, speaking, and recruiting – I hear this question a lot. It got me thinking about all the other questions on job offer negotiations that I hear over and over again. Here are the top five questions I get asked about compensation:
I have a job offer that I would like to negotiate. Can I email my response?
When I tell job seekers you should never negotiate by email, I get push back: “With email, I can draft and edit my response.” “I get nervous/ forget my talking points/ give in too easily. But if I write my arguments, I won’t be interrupted.” “This way, I get everything in writing.” OK, these are reasonable advantages. However, even if you plan on a call or face-to-face meeting to negotiate, you can still draft and edit your responses. You should also role play your arguments with a trusted partner (ideally someone who has negotiated offers before, like a friend in HR), so you can practice pushing through your nerves, talking through all of your points and pushing back instead of giving in. Finally, do you really want the back and forth in writing? It’s hard to convey the right tone and nuances via email. More importantly, it’s impossible to gauge the prospective employer’s reaction because once you send an email, you’re not there to see or hear their empathy, surprise or annoyance in reading it. If you can’t get a reaction, you won’t know how to adjust your arguments. The negotiation falls flat. Never negotiate by email. Pick up the phone, or meet in person.
I have been unemployed for several months and finally got an offer but it’s low. Do I have any leverage to negotiate?
You always can negotiate. Yes, having a current job is more leverage because it is a clear alternative. However, even when you’re unemployed, you have leverage. You might be in play elsewhere -- having other offers or potential offers is leverage. You want your prospective employer to know that you are actively interviewing. Your skills and expertise may be exactly and uniquely what the prospective employer needs. If this company has been looking to hire for a long time, it would be a huge step back should you not accept the offer – that’s leverage. Maybe the company has a looming deadline – a project in the pipeline that you would need to lead, an event or launch that you would need to organize. This time sensitivity is leverage. Don’t assume that just because you’re feeling vulnerable or anxious from being unemployed that the prospective employer holds all the cards. The company may be just as vulnerable and anxious and really need you to accept.
The company says it has no wiggle room on the base at all. What else can I ask for?
I paraphrased this question to be broad, but I’m often asked about the ability to negotiate specific items other than cash, such as benefits coverage, paid time off, or work schedule. When you look at your total compensation package, you should pick apart all items as if they are negotiable. Some items will be easier to personalize than others. Benefits coverage, for example, is typically company-wide as dictated by the insurance providers giving the coverage. A company can’t easily change enrollment dates or coverage options, so hoping to personalize your benefits in this way is probably futile. You might be able to ask for additional items that you pay for, such as coverage for your immediate family – the rates the company can negotiate could be better than what you could negotiate on your own, so this could still be a worthwhile request. (You could then negotiate for more money as a sign-on or allowance to cover that!) This is why you should assume everything is negotiable, and ask for what you want. Just because the base salary number can’t move doesn’t mean you can’t get other items that you care about paid for – effectively increasing your cash picture anyway.
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I’ll be relocating for this job. How do I protect myself?
I’ve written before how even the smartest professionals forget to negotiate downside protection. You can protect yourself by asking for a severance guarantee. The bigger the risk (e.g., relocation), the bigger the guarantee should be. One client I coached got a year’s worth of severance written into her offer if she would be terminated without cause (i.e., laid off). If you don’t get a severance guarantee, you’ll get whatever company policy is, and when you’re new, severance is typically not much, if anything. Relocation isn’t the only risk job seekers face. You might be tasked with turning around a failing line of business or a shrinking market. What if you don’t get the resources or enough time to execute the turnaround? You might be tasked with leading a brand new initiative. What if the company changes its mind? What if new management comes in or the company is sold? Relocating poses risks, but a new hire is exposed to a number of other risks through no fault of his/ her own. You want to protect yourself by negotiating for severance even before you join.
The offer comes with an attractive bonus component. How do I know it’s for real?
Employers love to pay with bonuses. It aligns compensation with performance, giving employees incentive to out-perform. Unlike base salaries which creep up year over year, bonuses do not. Sometimes, bonuses are even paid out of a different account, say the firm-wide budget instead of the department’s funds. Bonuses can be great for the new hire too. You can negotiate more aggressively on the bonus than the base for all of the same reasons above – you need to perform to get it, it’s not guaranteed year over year, it may not cost the hiring manager anything. But bonuses are only a good deal if they’re feasible. Look at the history of bonus payouts. Has the company paid out at the levels it estimates? Look at what the bonus is based on. Can you hit these objectives? Look at the resources and timetable the company is giving you. Are you getting enough support? You can and must do due diligence on the bonus to determine if it’s for real.
Keep in mind that you don’t only negotiate money in your job offer. In fact, the non-monetary aspects of an offer package are too often overlooked. In the next post, I’ll cover key aspects of your job offer that you should negotiate that don’t have anything to do with compensation.
Caroline is a career expert with SixFigureStart and the author of Jump Ship: 10 Steps To Starting A New Career. She has coached executives from American Express, Citigroup, Condé Nast, eBay, Goldman Sachs, Google and McKinsey.
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