How to negotiate salary during interviews and appraisals

Here are important insights you must keep in mind while negotiating salary as freshers or during appraisals

There aren't many things more satisfying than winning a salary negotiation. Salary negotiation is different for a job seeker and an employee during the appraisal. However there are some important but simple points to consider before you get into a salary negotiation with your manager:

• Understand the role: Understanding the role specifications clearly will help in positioning yourself. Try to gather information about the pay patterns and salary range for similar positions in other companies through job ads or job postings which will enable you to arrive at a realistic negotiation.
• Introspect: Analyse what is your expectation vis-a-vis your value contribution to the role and the organisation. Introspection of your strengths and emphasising its advantages to the organisation would lead to a persuasive negotiation.
• Right timing: Gauge the right time to express your expectation; be sure that your candidature and competencies are recognised for you to be offered a particular job. There are certain instances where employers use salary expectation as an indicator to screen out the candidates who do not fall within the projected cost of hire.

Amit Bansal is the CEO of PurpleLeap (http://www.purpleleap.com/) an employability skill enhancement initiative of Pearson-Educomp Solutions Pvt Ltd.

During salary negotiation

• Initiate and sell your worth to the organisation and relate your deliverables to your expectations. Use your earlier performance and accomplishments for strengthening your stand. Never emphasise your commitments or financial set back to justify your expectations which is a negative approach
• Ask, so that you are not deprived of getting the best salary within the range specified
• Understand the components of the salary offered, seek clarity about the fixed components, variable components, benefit scheme to be sure before you accept
• Do not prolong negotiation on offer, if you feel the offer is deserving, ensure you freeze it ASAP preventing loss of opportunity to another contender

Observing these measures will avoid common pitfalls of early disclosure of your expectations and quoting a salary that is either too high or too low.

Counter offer decisions

Once you have successfully persuaded the hiring manager the counter offer decides your success. If the counteroffer is in line with your expectation you win, else you have an offer that does not meet your expectation. Decisions you make at this juncture have long-term implications on your career.

Let's take instance of a counter offer which has a marginal change in the salary yet doesn't seem deserving to a candidate or an employee of your calibre. It's important to look at opportunities available in the market and understand pros and cons before deciding on the best opportunity.

The best way to evaluate a counter offer is to consider import factors like desired job nature, better career progression and benefit plan over the monetary components. Do not buy time at this juncture as there are possible risks of losing either of the opportunities.

Perceived value

It is you who decides the value you have won through the salary negotiation. To avoid errors in value realisation you have to clearly focus on insights of pre-negotiation, negotiation and counter offer.

These insights would guide you to the most desirable pay package of your calibre.