Later on this week we’ll be doing a series of articles for Workforce Recruiting, most of which deal with the topic of pending pay equity legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act.
I know that sounds boring, but it’s not. Here’s why – the focus of most of those articles is how
candidates who have better negotiating skills tend to end up with higher salaries than equally qualified candidates who refuse to negotiate. Is that good or bad?
Regardless of your opinion, my ears perked up when I heard this last week:
Me – Sally (candidate in play) has another offer, so we need to think about that before we make ours.
Rick (name changed, perhaps gender changed to protect the ID of the manager) – Kris, I’m not going to tolerate a lot of negotiating on this one.
Me – OK… It’s been a little while since we last talked to her and she was obviously on the market, so it’s not surprising that she’s been offered elsewhere.
Rick – Fine, I’m just not going to play a lot of games.
Me – Cool. Let’s talk about the base, we’re 10K short from the competing offer. What do you want to do?
Rick – Hold tight. I’m not going to bring her in at a higher rate than my incumbents.
Me - I understand that and think that’s a good call. If you budge 5K, the probability of closing this one goes up from about 30% to about 70%.
Rick – No dice. With this position, she can make it up on the incentive pay. She can pull herself up via her performance.
ME – OK, we’ll move it forward – not likely to close this one, however…
I run down that scenario for you for the following reasons – even though legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act is being proposed due to equity issues caused by effective candidate negotiators getting more $$$ for the same job, I run into a lot of managers who take it personally when a candidate wants to negotiate.
It’s personal to them. Doesn’t matter what the candidate’s gender, race, national origin or zodiac sign is, they REFUSE to consider negotiation, unless I put their arm behind their back like Tony Soprano. Telling them the job will remain open for an additional 60 days seems to get their attention.
For all the problems that can be caused by compensation equity issues, it makes me wonder if bigger problems are caused by companies and managers who refuse to negotiate. After all, the same approach can spill over from recruitment into performance management and merit pay.
If you’ve ever been insulted by a candidate asking for more, you might be a manager with control issues – or pride yourself on being an effective negotiator.
Talent be dammed!
Kris,
Interesting (but understanding approach) by your manager, Rick (or whatever he or she is called). He must have an extreme vein of arrogance to think that not negotiating will yield a result. Why would the candidate even consider dropping 10k to join? Admittidly we don’t know all the facts, and these would obviously have a bearing on negotioating against 10k.
But you have highlighted something that I think is more closely linked to pride and self esteem – especially for any Gen Y’ers. I think candidates ‘expect’ to negotiate, so when that option is not there, I wonder what effect that has on pride. I think it is probably a negative one, which in turn will then give them negative feelings about the company.
The overide is of course, that if the company makes it clear from the start, the level of salary packages available, managing their expectations from the beginning, then there would surely be a better chance of closing the deal.
PS. I like your double,double bluff of your managers name – he is really called Rick isn’t he??
When I took my most recent job I was told the position paid $5K less than what I was currently making (not counting my bonuses). They were willing to bring it up to match my base salary, but that was the best they could do. I told the manager that we could get creative on benefits to try and work something out. I was given an extra week of vacation as part of the hiring negotiation. I am working for a better company and while I miss some of the perks of my last job, because they worked so hard for me, I work even harder for them.
Also, in defense of the bargaining, I am on the older end of Gen Y, and I was always told to not settle for the first offer. In addition, there are lots of studies that show that women make less than men because they don’t ask for more. There are a lot of sources out there that encourage specifically women to negotiate.