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How to Negotiate a Salary change

Workshop held by Claudia Spinosa – Senior HR consultant and RBS’s Human Resources Lecturer

The situation of how to negotiate a salary change is a pretty common concern with good reasons, considering how dramatically even a small salary increase can affect our lifetime earnings. Is important to recognize opportunities to negotiate, not focusing only on our weaknesses and understand which will be the most equal solution before in our head to then apply it to the negotiation. 

Start by gathering as much information as possible so that you can strengthen your thesis and feel that what you are asking for is defensible. Be prepared to explain the value that you can bring to the organization. Develop alternatives to the current negotiation to increase your flexibility during the discussion remembering that the open party’s alternatives may be less attractive than yours.

Be ready to examine your vulnerabilities and plan ahead to explain them. For example, if you are insecure about a certain period of your working history, might be a gap or an inoccupation period, think about the important things that you were doing during that time and prepare to share them with convintion and enthusiasm. Large, established companies often measure job candidates against well-defined job categories with a set range of salaries and you may negotiate your salary compensation with recruiters or human – resources personnel first instead of your future boss. In this environment, when determining how to negotiate salary, try to understand what pay category someone with your education and experience would receive, then build an option based on that range.

There are 5 different types of negotiating strategies: collaboration (engaging in problem solving to reach the best possible outcome for both sides), competing (trying to maximize one’s own outcomes with little concerns for others), accommodating (preferring the other side concerns first), compromising (trying to get to an good solution for both parties) and avoiding (going around negotiation).