September, 2024 - TBest Services

24Sep

Negotiate Salary Without Feeling Awkward

Salary negotiation doesn’t have to be an uncomfortable conversation. With the right preparation and frame of mind, you can go into salary negotiations confidently without making it awkward. In this article, we will explain in detail the best way to navigate this phase, a very critical step in your career, while providing practical tips on how to negotiate salary like a pro.

Do Your Homework: Know Your Worth

Before you enter any kind of negotiation, you must have an idea about the prevailing market rate regarding your role, industry, and location. Sites like Glassdoor, Payscale, and Salary.com give a clear-cut range of what professionals with your skills and experience are making. Having this data in your pocket gives you a factual foundation to support your request.

Pro tip: when you negotiate for fully remote jobs, consider that salary patterns differ depending on where a company is based. Adjust your expectations to fit in accordingly.

Timing Is Everything

What’s the golden rule in salary negotiation? Timing. One wouldn’t want to get into it too early in the hiring process or at a certain point in time when one knows the company won’t accommodate one’s ask. Time the negotiation right: right after receiving a formal job offer, which means after they decided one is the best candidate for the job. The employer has already invested time and effort in selecting you, so there’s more chance they will meet your expectations.

Never talk about salary too early in an interview, say the first interview. If questioned, a polite answer could be, “I’d rather discuss salary once we know I am right for the position,” and thus steer the discussion toward your qualifications.

Enter the Conversation with Confidence, Not Apology

One of the biggest mistakes people make is coming into a salary negotiation with an apologetic tone. Setting up phrases like “I’m sorry, but could we talk about salary?” serves only to weaken your position. Instead, focus on confidence. You have just earned the offer—now it’s time to make sure the compensation reflects the fact.
Even better, “I’m very excited about the opportunity and I think that I would bring a lot of value to your team. Based on my research and experience, I was hoping we could discuss salary to make sure it’s at an industry-competitive level.”

Practice Makes Perfect

Before your negotiation, practice what you’re going to say. Find a friend or family member to role-play with you—or even practice in front of the mirror. This can help you feel more confident and less awkward when it’s time to have that real conversation.

Pro tip: Record yourself practicing and then analyze your tone, body language, and word choice to make sure you sound assertive and assured, not defensive or hesitant.

Build the Conversation of Value, Not Need

A big mistake that many candidates make while negotiating bases the negotiation on personal needs: “I need this salary because rent is so expensive.” It may sound unprofessional. Instead, highlight the value you can bring to the company. Remember to mention your skills and achievements that correspond to your demands.
It will go something like, “Given my experience of 5 years in project management and in view of my success with projects delivered always on time and under budget, I believe a salary in the range of $X aligns with industry standards.”

Be Prepared to Compromise

Not only is it important to know one’s worth, but it is equally important to stay flexible. Many times, companies may not be in a position to meet your inquired salary, but they could offer bonuses, stock options, extra time off from work, or even flexible working conditions such as working from home. Be open with regard to discussing job benefits related to your salary that could make it more attractive.

Pro tip: If the employer is not able to provide your expected salary now, ask if they will consider a six-month salary review based on performance.

Don’t Fear Silence—Make Use of It

Though awkward silences may feel incredibly uncomfortable, they’re actually one of the most powerful negotiation tools. After making the request, give them time to contemplate the request. Don’t fill the silence with unnecessary justifications or backtracking. Sometimes, the best thing to say is nothing.

Be gracious, whatever the result

This can be gratifying whether this is the employer’s salary expectation or not. If getting the salary one wished for, probably express your excitement and appreciation. If that can’t meet your number but offer a decent compromise, acknowledge the offer and request some time to consider. Whatever the outcome, a professional and positive attitude always leaves a good impression.

Conclusion: Negotiate Salary without the Weirdness

Salary negotiation doesn’t necessarily have to be uncomfortable. The right preparation, confidence, and value-based approach will do the trick. Remember, this is all about being one’s own advocate of their value in a professional manner. So, go ahead, empowered, into your next salary negotiation—you might just be surprised at how easy that can be!

05Sep

7 Ways to Support Employee Career Advancement

The best employers want to make sure that their workers get good professional development. Some even make development one of the goals of their company. This is because a talented worker will shine in a company that helps him become better and improve his skills.

Managers should also help workers advance on the career ladder. If they do not support the employees, they will worsen the morale and teamworking spirit. They will make talented employees feel that their talent is not valued by the organization. The company may even lose these talented workers, if they decide to move to an employer that will truly use their potential.

So, if you own a company, then now is the time to show your employees that you value their unique skills and abilities. You can use these strategies to stimulate the development of your workers:

1. Act and be interested in employee goals

If you have ever worked from a distance, you will know that it is important to talk to the workers frequently to keep in touch with them. This also means meeting often, or even having one on one meetings with especially talented members of your team. This kind of behavior helps your workers know that they are being valued, and it makes them more loyal and happy to work.

Help your workers find a perspective path in your organization, so they will be able to see a future rise in careers. Point out milestones and achievements that they can make in your company, and support people that are trying to work hard and make progress. Keep in touch with your employees, and this will make the workers feel more respected and engaged.

2. Make sure employees get the necessary training and assistance

People should not stop learning new things, and it is good to keep your workers training and learning new ways to perform their work even more effectively. Encourage people that work for you to keep their business knowledge fresh and their skill up to date. Learning new opportunities and exploiting new methods is always a priority, if you want to be first. Even if you think your budget is lean at the moment, still try to invest in new equipment and methods of work.

You should find people in your company that show signs of talent and growing skills, and nurture this in them. And you should also find and integrate new methods into your organization if they seem to work better. Video sessions with skilled people should be held sometimes. Invite speakers that have knowledge in this topic to talk to your employees. Have skilled workers share their knowledge and skill with others in your group.

3. Encourage mentoring and job shadowing

Making a stable mentoring program in your collective is key to encouraging skilled workers. When people educate and help each other, the whole collective grows in skill and talent. Mentoring is also important for remote workers.

Mentoring is always two-way. It is not as if a skilled worker is teaching a non-skilled one. They will be sharing experience and teaching each other. This will make both sides smarter and more skilled.

4. Rotate employee roles

Variety is important, and doing the same job over and over will get tedious. So you may rotate worker responsibilities, having them trade places once in a while. This will keep work from getting old and tiresome. And this will also keep people training and getting new skills that will be important for everyone to have. And people will have a better understanding of the business as a whole.

This will also help people collaborate more effectively, and a remote team will also benefit greatly from such a rotation. The whole workforce will have a better set of skills then.

5. Support work-life balance

Hardworking people help the whole collective advance, but that does not mean your workers should work overtime and spend their life at work. Work smart, and balance time wisely. Leave people time and energy for recreation and fun. This is very important for remote workers, who need to keep their work and everyday life separate from each other.

The pandemic caused people to rethink their life in many ways, and almost half of all employees started to emphasize their personal life over their careers. This shows that employers will have to make even more free time for their workers nowadays.

Take an active approach to the well-being of people in your team. Make them see that you are concerned, and that you want to help them overcome stress and have a lot of free time. This will boost morale and make you look like a kind employer. Also, listen to personal demands and keep an open dialogue with all your workers.

6. Paint the big picture

Remind each worker that his contribution pushes the whole team forward. This adds a lot of meaning to their role, and increases motivation to not only work, but excel at the job, whatever it may be.

Do not assume that they know, how much they are needed. Show them, how much their unique contribution helps the company as a whole, and give an insight into the difference their contribution adds. Highlight how much they have helped the team. And also, remember to thank the best employees for specific outstanding achievements.

7. Create a succession planning program

Having a program like this will show people that work for you, that you are not just willing to help them learn and get better, but that you are genuinely interested in helping them get higher in the career ladder. Do not put this process behind others, but create a plan that will let the best people advance to more important positions in your organization. This will make people motivated to learn and get better since that will lead to getting a better position and a better salary.

The employees will be more motivated if they know the managers also support them. This plan will work even if you have a remote team, and a wise employer will be able to create a succession plan even with a totally remote team of workers. Emphasizing carrier growth will make a lot of benefits for everyone, and it is a thing that you have to do if you want a truly successful team and a competitive business.