If you’re celebrating these days because you’ve finally landed the job of your dreams but you can’t enjoy it that much because they are not willing to pay you as much as you requested, you must know that there are still a few things you should negotiate other than salary, things that will allow you to really enjoy this fortunate event in your life. If you do consider all those things you should negotiate other than salary, you might realize that all those benefits you might obtain afterwards will really make this potential position seem quite satisfying.
In my opinion, the most important of the things you should negotiate other than salary is your job title. It may seem superficial to some people, but I do believe that a better job title will really help improve the quality of your resume. For example, “corporate executive assistant” sounds so much better and more professional than, let’s say, “secretary” or “assistant manager.” That better job title will not only seem fancier, but it might also help you get a better job in the future.
You may be surprised to find out that a lot of employers nowadays are actually very open minded. They are extremely aware of the fact that some of their employees could obtain better results if they could do some of their work from home, and that’s why they might be more willing to allow you to have a more flexible schedule. As long as you do your job well it shouldn’t be a problem, so my recommendation is to definitely try to negotiate your work hours. After all, you’ve already got the job, so you’ve got pretty much nothing to lose.
You all know that most of the time it’s not cheap to commute into work and that this can definitely make quite a big hole in your pocket. Try to calculate your travel costs and ask for a stipend to help you ease those expenses. There are companies that might even add this onto your contract, so don’t be afraid to try to obtain a transportation reimbursement! You never know if you’ll succeed unless you try!
I think that this is definitely the most interesting thing I found while I did my research for this article. Due to all these economic problems that we’re all facing lately, there are actually no guarantees that your job will exist a year from now. That’s why you should talk to your manager and see if they can get you a guaranteed severance package that will be put into your contract, just in case their company becomes bankrupt or they have to lay you off due to no fault of your own. It’s quite a clever thing and you’ll be very lucky if you're able to obtain it.
Even if you don’t get your dream salary right now, that doesn’t mean that you won’t get it at your next renegotiation. You can always ask for a longer period of time before you renegotiate your salary, like every 6 or 9 months, because a 3 month period is just too short to evaluate your results no matter what an amazing employee you might be or how many results you might obtain.
You should know that you are not the only one who wants to grow or continue your education. A lot of companies want that too, because they need trained professionals that can help them profit or even expand in the future. That’s why a lot of companies would be more than willing to pay the bills for any workshops, seminars, conferences or even MBAs that you might attend because they would see it as a direct investment back into their company.
In my country companies are forced by law to offer their employees at least 20 days of paid vacation each year. I don’t know if that’s the case in other states, but I’m sure that nobody would say no to a few extra paid vacation days. Well, if you didn’t get that dream salary that you hoped for, you could at least try to get some extra free time so you could compensate the fact that you don’t gain as much money as you should, even though you are working very hard. You’ll see how that little extra time spent doing something you enjoy may even be worth more to you than a higher salary.
Did you ever negotiate other things than your salary? What were those things? Did you get any extra benefits or do you think you took the right decision by trying to negotiate at all? Please share your experience with us in the comments section!
Sources: salary.com