The following is a compilation of resources to allow you to best determine and define your negotiations for salary and benefits packages. These are guides only and you still need to factor in items such as varying economic and regional conditions.
IDEAL FIT – VS – SALARY
Is this the best job for me and my family or future family? It might sound trivial and maybe it is, if your focused on only the pay. But often we need to see that the salary or hrly figure might not be all that you desire ( at least not after your minimum needs are met) Meaning once you know what pay it will take to pay your bills, you need to look at Compensation Packages in several ways 1) Work Life Balance 2) Career Goals 3) Economic Goals 4) Overall @ Work
Work Life Balance:
Family/ Personal time off * PTO * Vacations * Alternate benefits that effect my personal or family life ( ie: Gym memberships, ball game tickets, live music festival tickets, museum passes, company time share, etc)
Career Goals:
Ability to learn something new/ be challenged * Opportunities for future growth/ development * Training and education opportunities * Ability to hone my skills or take classes * Leverage this experience for a better job later
Economic Goals:
Immediate budgetary needs * Savings plan * Added $ to package w/ insurance/benefits/perks/ per-diems *Retirement and long term potential
Other:
Short term goals: will this job help me meet certain short term objectives that I desire?
Management: is this the kind of management I desire to work under?
Co- workers: is this the type of environment I see myself being happy in daily?
Negotiations
If you do not have a professional Recruiter or HR Consultant working with you to negotiate for you, here are some quick tips to keep in mind:
1) Do your research, know salaries for the region, for the competitors and for the firm your interviewing with
2) Have a plan in mind, but always be flexible.
3) If it at first glance it is not what your expecting , ask your self “is it within my threshold ?”, then kindly ask for a few days to talk it over with your family ( use this time to come up with your strategy)
4) Strategy is either to: accept; negotiate or decline
5) Negotiate doesn’t mean you automatically increase everything to your maximum, it means you use a little give and take and decide what’s most important and where you can be flexible ( ie: Bonus might be more important to you than salary, stock options, vacation time ( how much and when avail), tuition reimbursement etc )
Final Suggestion:
Weigh it all out, it may sound silly but this works, write it or type it out on your IPad and weigh the pro’s and cons. You might just find that there is more to your job opportunity than meets the $ eye.