How to negotiate your salary raise? Factors to be considered beyond salary raise

How to negotiate your salary raise? Factors to be considered beyond salary raise

Negotiating a salary raise out of your future employer that meets your expectations might seem like an impossibility in this economy, but there are other benefits that you can negotiate for that will satisfy your need for a ‘better opportunity’.

Negotiating beyond salary raise, as easy as it may sound, can be a difficult exercise for the candidate – especially if he is unsure of the reason for his job change. Any candidate primarily looks for a change for better salary raise, but it is not the only reason. To negotiate one need to first understand the actual reason for change. A systematic interview process followed by career discussion can lead to exploring multiple aspirations. Recruitment and selection is similar to a sales pitch.

If we may consider an interview candidate to be a consumer, we can label an interviewer as a salesman – the product in question here is the job. The salesman can either display products with fixed price tags or keep them open for bargaining. It’s similar in case of a job opening, where an employer can either have perks specific to the candidate’s requirements or offer whatever is available. Therefore, in some cases the candidate can opt to negotiate beyond salary raise. Some of the common facilities which candidates look forward to are: flexible working hours, working-from-home, incentives, well connected offices, diverse workforce, and onsite opportunities among others.

Factors like job location, work culture, health care benefits, day care facilities, etc are important while considering a particular job. Parents usually prefer to stay closer to their kid’s schools and often don’t mind travelling that extra mile to their office.

Work culture: Besides salary, employees look for some comfort zone and benefits with the organization. Working-from-home, though an option initially given to women employees returning from maternity leave, this benefit is widely recognised by many MNCs for all genders. Companies have this as a policy where employees can opt to work from home once a week.

Health care benefits: Companies with attractive health benefits covering the employees as well as their spouse as well as parents can often be a pull factor.

Day care for employees’ kids will be a boon for young parents who do not have family support to take care of their toddlers.

Other areas: Flexible work timing, more vacation time, professional classes, tuition reimbursement.

As much as one hankers after that fat pay cheque at the end of every month, the satisfaction of working for the right employer or doing the right kind of work is immense. It is therefore important to look into other factors besides salary while accepting a job offer. If there’s future growth prospect and basic working comfort within an organization, an employee should consider this before dismissing the offer!