Salary negotiation tips - responding to salary surveys

Salary negotiation tips – responding to salary surveys Salary negotiation tips can help employers deal with employees and prospective employees who demand ever higher wages. Salary negotiation tips can help human resources staff and hiring managers respond to employees and candidates who produce salary surveys from websites. Here’s how.

Tips for responding to salary surveys

Find out if the data is relevant to the job. Some surveys are vague.
Make sure the survey comes from your region. A salary survey from a major urban centre may not correspond to your local market conditions.
See whether the salary includes a bonus or benefits. The survey might appear higher than salaries at your firm, because someone has converted medical, dental, vision, insurance, vacation and sick leave benefits to a dollar figure.
Triangulate the data. Very the information with three other salary survey sites you trust. The employee or job seeker most likely sought out the surveys with the highest rates.
Check dates. Make sure that the employee’s survey and your own salary information are based on the latest market figures.
Understand motivations. Find out what motivates the employee who brought up the survey. You may be able to counter a high salary with other benefits, such as flex time, vacation, leadership opportunities or work environment.

Your organization should work out a policy for dealing with compensation surveys. If you’re constantly behind the salary curve, you’ll need to explain yourself to employees. Although some employees will stick around for non-financial perks, you should work out your overall salary and benefits strategy. That way, you can recruit and retain the employees that best fit your firm.