negotiating beyond the standard 5
I have recently interviewed for another position at my company. The position is one grade level higher than my current position, and corporate standards stipulate an increase of 5%. I believe that 5% + my current salary would put me at best in the 25 percentile for the job, so do I have room to negotiate? I realize that it would probably involve a lot of head-butting with HR, but it's a lot easier to negotiate now than after the ink has dried. There's no way for us to know if you can push for more and get it or not. You need to consider, is the 5% increase the kind of "standard" that really is set in stone, or is it the kind of standard that is a guideline? It isn't really a battle with HR, it is a battle with your new boss who is going to lose this money from his budget. Also, if a higher increase puts you over the midpoint or up against the top of the range, you may not see another increase forever. Keep in mind that promotions have value bigger than the paycheck. They are giving you the chance to do a job that probably no one else will hire you to do since you haven't done it yet. If nothing else, you can take that higher title and greater responsibility elsewhere down the road. And if you pass up (or screw up negotiations for) a promotion, you won't see another one in this company, so you may want to tread a bit lightly. Tess About all you can do is politely ask if the salary proposal is negotiable and see what they say. If it is, and they ask you what salary you have in mind, I think you can counter with a range by saying something like, "I was anticipating an offer in the 10% to 15% range," but I think you also have to be fully prepared to support the higher percentage increase on the basis of what you can bring to the new job that will make it worth that much more to the employer, based on your experience, training, past job performance, skills, education...whatever. The point is, there has to be some basis for asking for a larger percentage increase other than the percentile you believe you're in. Just out of curiosity, what makes you think you'd be in the lowest 25th percentile for this particular job with only a 5% increase? On the other hand, if the proposed increase isn't negotiable, I'd still think twice or ever three times about now accepting the promotion for reasons that have already been mentioned. Paul W. Barada The Negotiation Expert The previous poster who mentioned the salary decision being from the manager is pretty much correct. The manager has X Dollars in the budget. They can't arbitrarily get more money. At my current employer if a group wants to add a person and money for that job was not included in the yearly budget the request goes all the way to the President of the company. If your wondering the company has 4 Billion in sales so not a mom and pop shop. Companies also need to keep in mind the parity of staff salaries. An employee may think they should go straight to the 50% or higher for a job but their new coworkers may not be at the 50%. It happens all the time. What really messes thing up is when a manager hires one or two people way below the midpoint (people caught in a lay off and now unemployed). Anyone applying to the job who wants the midpoint are way above their coworkers. Now that's a mess!
Good feedback from everybody. Thank you for that. I have a few responses/clarifications I'd like to make that might help us understand each other better. HR has decided that all promotions will come with a 5% or a bump to the minimum of the pay grade you were promoted too. I agree that the manager will have to sign off on it, however I have to get HR to the point to where they will present the counteroffer to him. I'm not looking to get midpoint necessarily, but at least closer to it. I'm coming in rather low as it is, and the market value for this position is a good bit higher than it is being comped at our company. The other employees tell me that they have been lobbying to have a new/separate job classification for this position, which would garner a multiple job grade increase. I'm not going to hold my breath for that and believe that now is a better time to negotiate than 6 months down the road. I hope that makes sense, and again, I thank all of you for your feedback thus far. Negotiate all you want, but my point is it has to be on the basis of what you have to offer and what you've accomplished that will make the job more valuable to the employer, not on what some external salary or market survey says jobs like this one should pay. Performance is what earns people higher salaries, not surveys. Paul W. Barada The Negotiation Expert | |
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