At this time of the year we are not only thinking about this Christmas or shopping time, but we are also thinking about how the end of year will be in our companies, if we will achieve our targets and something very important: if we have some option to improve our salary conditions for the next year.
Money isn’t everything but feeling that we have a competitive salary and we are well paid according to our contribution is crucial for us.
Negotiating our own salaries is a relevant part of our professional life. Many of us forget about it or don’t pay adequate attention to it.
There are different factors to be considered when negotiating our salary. It is not the same to negotiate a salary when we are starting a new job neither it is when we are changing a position inside the company we work in or when we have to renegotiate our salary from the position and job we are serving.
Each one can have a diverse casuistry and each case must be treated in a different way. However, each one has common characteristics that make possible treating this important negotiation under winner premises and strategies when we negotiate our salaries.
One of the first things that happen when we consider negotiating our current or future salary is our mind chatter or internal dialogue and how our emotions influence our decisions and the way we face this kind of negotiations.
It is true that the negotiation does not only depend on our own situation but also in which type of company we’re working at. It is not the same to negotiate with a family-owned company than with a multinational, and it is not the same with a big structured company than with a “start-up”.
The first thing we need to have when we start a negotiation process is references that will permit us a consistent approach to our current or future company. These references consist on knowing the salaries paid in the market to professionals with an equivalent experience to the required for the position, the required education, personnel depending on such post, and which position they have in the organizational chart considering companies with the similar size and in the same industry.
It is good to consider certain flexibility grade and being creatives when we start a negotiation process of these characteristics, so we should evaluate the possibility to get rid of part of our monetary compensation in order to obtain other kinds of alternatives as compensation in kind. We have to focus in the long term, not only in the short term when considering how important is our potential development in the company. We have to keep in mind, that after a negotiation of this nature we have to continue working and keeping a balanced relationship with our employer that will be also vital for our future.
Finally, I want to remember that the company we serve or the one we are applying to, won’t be the last one in our lives. Moreover, our current opportunity will determine in a big portion which will be our next professional challenge. If our mindset changes in that sense, from that moment we will start noticing new opportunities that will drive us to develop our experience and this one, will be decisive for our next job and the following.
