Salary levels and self-worth on your return to work

Following on from our recent guest post: "5 steps to successfully negotiate your return-to-work role", Kate, our Lead Coach, shares her experience to help you to work out what salary to ask for and how to value yourself when you're negotiating your first role back at work.

• How confident do you feel about knowing what you are worth?
• How confidently could you articulate and communicate your value in monetary terms to a potential employer?
• How confident are you at negotiating what you would like to be paid?

Salary negotiation is another phrase that along with mentions of “networking” and “elevator pitch” can conjure up groans of despair and sheer dread! I often see clients visibly shudder when contemplating this subject.

The reaction above arguably applies to the majority of people who find this a particularly tricky area to negotiate. In the UK, it’s partly a cultural thing – we are too polite to talk about money! But if we don’t have these frank discussions with an employer it can lead to problems later on. Research suggests that whilst money alone is unlikely to be an intrinsic source of motivation for most people, if the money side is wrong and you feel underpaid and thus undervalued, then that is likely to become a source of de-motivation.

How does this work when you throw a career break into the mix too?

It can be particularly challenging for those returning to the workplace following a career break as you may be feeling out of touch with current salaries as well as convincing yourself that the break inevitably means that you must be penalised financially. As our guest blogger, Natalie Reynolds recently commented, “Many returners are more likely to gratefully accept any terms rather than to consider negotiating…” However selling yourself short is unlikely to be helpful in the long term and indeed could cause you problems later when it comes to moving into new roles. So what can you do to become more confident at negotiating your salary successfully first time back?

Get clear and confident on what salary you should be asking for

Collect up-to-date salary information upfront

• Research the marketplace for the type of role you are seeking to gain a benchmark of the salary range that you can expect to be targeting. 
• Be realistic - there is likely to a range dependent on variables such as the size of the business, the location, and how structured their internal salary grading structures might be. 
• Consider how specialist your skill-sets are and how easy or not it is for employers to source these. 

This should also happen well before you get to the point of job offer - be informed throughout the whole process, ideally before you begin any form of job search.

Best ways to gain this information

• Websites such as www.salary.com, www.glassdoor.co.uk and www.payscale.com provide a plethora of advice and information on the market value for current roles as well as tips and information on approaching negotiation.
• Professional membership bodies such as the ICAEW and CIPD may also have useful salary information relating to your specific professional field.
• Ask recruitment consultants and contacts in the relevant industries. There are several recruitment firms listed on the Women Returners website who actively support the hiring of Returners; they will have a broad view of companies and what people in similar positions are paid.

Be clear on your value and believe it!

Salaries that are out of kilter with the role you are actually doing can lead to misunderstanding by future employers or recruitment consultants. Equally being clear on your financial worth is also a test that the employer understands the match of the role on offer with your skills and experience. Returners often believe that they need to take a role many levels below their skill-set and worth just to get back in the workforce, but our experience suggests that this will quickly be problematic as the role is unlikely to be a good fit (unless you have a clear rationale such as moving to a very different sector or getting a foot in the door in your ideal company). By the time you are at the point of negotiation have a good convincing story to prove your skills are up-to-date and to demonstrate the value you offer.

Be confident in the negotiation

• Don't apologise for your career break when you enter into negotiations. Be confident that your skills remain your skills and they hold value to the employer.
• Don’t answer immediately if you're offered a salary - deflect and say you would like to think about it. This gives you time to prepare your counter offer and state clearly and confidently what is behind the figure you have come up with.
• Think about the broad picture – what is the total remuneration on offer not just base salary?
• Explore the opportunities for trade-offs. If the company has a budget below where you would like to be, what can they offer in return? Flexible working perhaps, extended annual leave, or the opportunity to review salary within a 3-month probationary period rather than wait for an annual review.
• Don’t be afraid to have a walk-away point. If you feel very unhappy with the salary, and don't have a clear rationale for taking the role or an agreed progression plan, ask yourself whether this role is a match with your skills and the type of organisation you want to work for.
• Remember that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to successfully negotiate what you want will be a surefire confidence boost for your return to work!

Posted by Kate Mansfield, Lead Career Coach, Women Returners

The 5 steps to successfully negotiate your return-to-work role

We know that many women returners are more likely to gratefully accept any terms rather than to consider negotiating when offered a job after a career break. However, it's important to make the role work for you for it to be sustainable. That's why we're happy to welcome this week's guest blogger, Natalie Reynolds, a negotiation expert, to help you to sharpen up your negotiation skills.

We negotiate every day, in many different ways and with many different people. It is a fundamental requirement in reaching agreement, resolving dispute and succeeding in business. We might find ourselves negotiating our salary, a contract or a deadline … or in the case of those returning to work, negotiating a job which fits our new circumstances, maybe with a whole new way of working.

Negotiation can be intimidating at the best of times, never mind when it’s going to impact on our family and lifestyle. With this in mind, the following DEALS approach is designed to highlight the key steps to take when you're planning for and negotiating your job offer with your potential new employer.

Discover: Before you get anywhere near the negotiation table you need to discover as much as you can about the role and the organisation. Do your research, know the facts, understand the market and look at what has been agreed with current employees in terms of pay and ways of working. If you want flexible working, check who is working in this way currently and on what basis (part-time/job-share/remote working) - this will give you a sense of what's feasible. It is essential that we are creative with this process as we often just think about the obvious issues … but perhaps the key to unlocking this deal sits in an area you just hadn’t considered:  could you ask for extra leave in the summer holidays, or annualised hours for example? Find out who will be involved in the negotiation process - are you talking to the decision maker? As you're likely to be out of touch with salaries, are there ex-colagues you can talk to for current data or industry baselines you can look at (see website such as Glassdoor.co.uk for salary data)? Crucially, make sure you're clear on what you are bringing to the business and any unique skills that you can offer.

Establish: Next up is to establish some boundaries and priorities. Establish what your key priorities are … as well as what theirs might be. To create a win/win outcome you need to understand what success looks like for them also. Reciprocity means if they feel they have won, they are more likely to help you win too. You also need to establish the areas where you can't compromise and your breakpoint or walkaway point. This is the worst case outcome for you. Once you’ve established it – stick to it! In the heat of a negotiation we often agree to things we wouldn’t if we were more calm or confident.

Ask: This is about making sure you make your proposals in the most effective way. Package all the issues in your proposal (eg. base pay, bonus, benefits, working hours, holidays) rather than going issue by issue. When you make a proposal always make sure you open ‘ambitiously but credibly’. Ask for slightly more than you need to give yourself wriggle room to explore what they might be willing to give you, but don't go for a completely unrealistic opening offer. If you can, try and make the first move in the negotiation. Anchoring is a phenomenon from the world of psychology that means we are often overly influenced by the first number put on the table and you are then likely to finish closer to that figure. Don’t worry if you don’t manage to go first though; just remember to not reinforce their proposal by going on and on about it. Instead recognise the best way to beat their opening proposal is to make one of your own. Simply, the more you talk about what you want and why, the more likely you are to get it. It’s also essential that you plan several moves in advance … and again, be creative! Think of lots of different angles to try and reach an agreement and don’t be afraid to make lots of suggestions. If you're asking for flexible hours/location make sure you present the business case of how it can work for the team rather than just for you.

Lead: This refers to taking the lead in the negotiation. Be confident. Take a deep breath and speak calmly and professionally. Don’t allow your emotions to control you. A simple tip to help with this is to remember that even the most confident of people will often feel awkward and nervous when negotiating; they are probably just doing a better job of hiding it!

Seal: And last but not least is to seal the deal in the right way. Get it in writing as soon as you can. One of the most dangerous phases in a negotiation is the ‘post-deal, pre-paperwork’ phase. This is the period after the deal has been agreed with a handshake or verbal agreement, but the ink is not yet on the contract or formal agreement. This is the phase where if your counterparty has any doubts about the deal they have just done, they will come back and try to alter terms they are unhappy with, or walk away from the agreement in that form altogether.  To try and limit the risk of this, be gracious rather than over the top if you get a great outcome and make your counterparty feel satisfied with their result. Agreements are stronger if each side feels like they are winning.

Natalie Reynolds is an negotiation expert at Advantage Spring. She has also written the popular  book ‘We Have a Deal: How to negotiate with intelligence, flexibility and power’ which is published by Icon Books. To find out more about advantageSPRING’s negotiation programmes visit www.advantagespring.com

See also: https://leanin.org/education/negotiation/

How to Negotiate Flexible Work

Anna Meller, a work-life balance specialist, offers her advice on how to negotiate flexible working, as a returner.

On 30 June 2014 the legal right to request flexible working was extended to cover all employees after 26 weeks' service. Many forward thinking employers have already embraced the benefits of flexible arrangements and extended these to new joiners. While this is good news for returners and everyone concerned about their work-life balance, an employer is still able to refuse a request if they believe it will have an adverse impact on their business.

Preparation is key

Time spent preparing to negotiate - reviewing your desired working arrangements and the potential business benefits of working flexibly - will be time well spent. Before you start attending interviews, develop a compelling business case that can provide a foundation for future negotiations.

Building your business case

Begin by clearly identifying the key skills and experience that make you valuable to an employer. This will not only enable you to craft a flexible role from one that’s full time, it will also enhance your confidence as you begin negotiating. In every job there are specialist tasks that will require your skills and experience and more general ones that could be delegated or eliminated.

Questions to consider

• To what extent could your new job allow time and location flexibility?  How will you manage the work/non-work interface?
• Will you always need to be in the office to carry out every aspect of your role (an increasingly unlikely proposition with technology) or can you do some of your work at home?
• What additional support will you need to be able to work from home?
• What’s the likely impact on your workplace colleagues, your clients and customers?
• How can you minimise the disruptions to them and ensure smooth working arrangements?
•  Are you happy to receive calls and emails from colleagues outside working hours or do you guard non-work time for non-work activities?

And, finally, but most importantly, how will the business benefit from you working flexibly?

By now you should have a clearer picture of your preferred flexible working arrangement and the business benefits. While you may not always be able to work to your preferences, understanding them will enable you to agree clearer ground rules with your future boss and colleagues.

It’s also useful to have a fall-back position. Are there alternative arrangements which might also suit you, or issues on which you could compromise?

Having completed this ground work you’re ready to begin negotiating.

When to start negotiating

It’s best to be upfront about your need for flexible hours. Raise the matter at the end of your first interview. The response you get will give you a good indicator of the organisation’s cultural attitude towards flexible working.

Rather than starting with a request for a specific arrangement, begin with questions. Almost every organisation now has a flexible working policy, so ask what arrangements the policy covers. What options are there for arrangements not covered by the policy? What experience does your potential manager have of managing flexible workers? Is there anyone else in the team already working flexibly?

The time to discuss the details of your preferred arrangement is when the organisation asks you back for second interview. Make it clear that, while you have a preferred option, you’re open to negotiation. And don’t feel you need to agree to an arrangement there and then. If you need time to consider alternative suggestions ask for one or two days to mull things over.

For further support

A series of forms that can help you in your planning can be found on my website here: http://www.sustainableworking.co.uk/negotiating_flexible_working.htm

By Anna Meller