Photo by Denys Golub
Some employers have been unsuccessful extending job offers to applicants. Sometimes the offers aren’t substantial enough to suit the candidates.
It’s not uncommon to screen job applicants who aren’t shy in negotiations with their inflated egos and salary expectations.
In fact, bosses have lamented some candidates have unproven skills but are tactless and have unrealistic expectations about compensation.
For good applicants you still might have to use all your skills to entice the candidate, and it’s important to have a negotiating plan before you start the process.
For good applicants you still might have to use all your skills to entice the candidate, and it’s important to have a negotiating plan before you start the process.
Here are four tips:
1. Return-on-investment mindset
In making sure you get a strong ROI from a new hire, keep in mind that salary and benefits represent recurring costs.
So be careful about your limits and don’t give away your power by falling into a trap of feeling cornered. No applicant is that good. You’re the boss, so keep the upper hand.
Even if you encounter someone whom you feel is a dream candidate, don’t stop looking until you hire the person. Always have options.
2. Research
Do your due diligence. Determine what your budget will allow and what your marketplace pay ranges are.
Business is competitive like sports. There are a few parallels for researching and winning.
You can learn from the approach of Seattle Seahawks Coach Mike McDonald enroute to winning Super Bowl LX in only his second year on the job. The team had been failing to even make the playoffs under the previous coach.
More than football skills, he prioritizes players who are smart and are quick to learn complex schemes. Moreover, the team recruits for professionalism with humility and resilience.
So delve deeply into your applicants’ intelligence, team spirit, skills and potential to help your business succeed.
Start by looking for the three A’s: Attitude, appearance and ability. Notice attitude is listed first.
Some possible examples: They need to be capable of either developing new business, providing profit-making ideas, or be capable of assuming additional responsibilities to save the company time and money to increase cash flow.
3. Non-financial incentives
If you want to make an offer to a highly qualified candidate but have a tight budget, try being creative by offering non-financial incentives.
If you want to make an offer to a highly qualified candidate but have a tight budget, try being creative by offering non-financial incentives.
Your options can vary from discounted gym membership to telecommuting days.
Your offer might also include a performance clause with the chance to earn more via commission or profit sharing if your business attains certain revenue goals.
4. Discussion of evaluations and salary reviews
A new or existing employee must know that any salary increases would be contingent on performance. An existing employee is a known factor and an educated risk. A new employee — no matter the track record — is an unknown risk.
Use open-ended questions to learn the mindset and goals of applicants, and what motivates them.
For negotiating with applicants, you need t0 focus on value, market rates, flexibility, total compensation and benefits, and possible bonuses. Again, if your budget is limited, discuss perks such as professional development opportunities.
Finally, if it’s a too-difficult interview process, it’s a red flag. Pass on the applicant.
From the Coach’s Corner, related tips:
Hiring Impact An Impact Person Starts with Screening Resumes — 5 Tips — If you want to hire an impact person, your hiring process is really important. The place to start is using best practices in screening resumes. The wrong hires result in costly turnover — a waste of money and time.
Hiring for a Small Operation? Conduct Behavioral Interviews — Whether you run a small operation in a big company or you own a small business, you’re wearing many hats. So you need employees who can successfully wear multiple hats, too. What does that entail? It entails several things. To compete successfully, small businesses especially need people who are a good fit culturally.
HR — Avoid the 10 Most Common Background Screening Gaffes — In human resources, all background checks are not equal. “An organization that runs background checks on all of its incoming employees is already doing a lot of things right,” writes Michael Klazema, marketing director of Backgroundchecks.com.
HR – Interviewers Give Higher Marks to Applicants Interviewed Early in the Day — Study has implications for HR professionals and job hunters, alike Interviewers often mistakenly give higher ratings to job job seekers – whom they interview early in the day – at the expense of other applicants. That’s one of the conclusions from research of 10 years of data from more than 9,000 MBA interviews.
“As a business owner or manager, you know that hiring the wrong person is the most costly mistake you can make.”
-Brian Tracy
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