Can you take it with you? New-job negotiation

The answer, it seems, depends on who you are and what you do.

Don Anderson knows something about the hiring process. As vice president of human resources for CoxHealth, Anderson had a hand in hiring 1,450 new employees in 2005 for the Lester E. Cox Medical Centers. The health centers employ some 7,000 people in Springfield.

Anderson said there is very little that can be negotiated for most potential CoxHealth employees.

For example, the health system uses an experience table to determine compensation.

Anderson said with an organization as large as CoxHealth, fairness is paramount.

“We try not to vary from that experience table much at all,” he said, “because if we hired someone last year with five years’ experience, and quote them one rate, and we hire someone this year with five years of experience and quote them a different rate, that just leads to major problems.”

Negotiating misnomer

Lynne Haggerman, president and owner of human resources consulting firm Haggerman & Associates, said her 15 years of experience have shown that “negotiating salary” is a misnomer. All companies, she said, have a salary range in mind.

That’s the situation at Great Southern Bank, which employs nearly 600 in the Springfield metropolitan service area, according to December 2005 statistics from the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce.

Hannah Bollenbach, assistant director of human resources for Great Southern, said salary is negotiable at the company – to a point.

“The negotiation is interwoven within the whole process. It’s based on the situation and what position is being filled,” Bollenbach said. “We have a formal salary administration program that is set up for compensation within the company. We use that, along with level of experience, to help us derive a basic starting salary, and then we can negotiate from there.”

And some companies – including CoxHealth and Great Southern, according to their HR departments – have little-to-no room to negotiate any other aspects of compensation.

Linda Milton, assistant manager with Great American Title Co., said her company does not negotiate salaries for new employees due to the possibility of appearing discriminatory, but she said the company does occasionally negotiate commissions in addition to the standard salary. Other benefits are not negotiable, Milton said.

Power to negotiate

How much negotiating power a potential employee has also depends on the individual situation.

Experience also can play a role, according to Great Southern Corporate Recruiter Kim Nash.

“The more experience they have, the more negotiating power they would have,” she said.

“Also, if we’re actively recruiting someone who’s possibly not even looking for a position, and we’re trying to entice them to come to work for Great Southern, there’s probably more negotiation in that respect than there would be if someone just walked in the door and filled out an application.”

The key to getting as much leverage as possible for salary negotiations, Haggerman said, is for job candidates to do their homework.

“If I were out looking for a job, the very first thing I would do is my own salary survey, to determine what people in my job make with my skills,” she said. “You can go on Web sites or call the career center, but you do your research and find out what the salary ranges in Springfield are for this sort of job.”

And don’t be afraid to ask questions – even if, as Haggerman said, most companies aren’t willing to give you the answers right away.

“I call and ask what the pay range is even before I’m interviewed,” she said. “Five percent of the companies will tell you – the rest won’t. If I’m told, and the range is (too low), it’s a waste of my time.”

Beyond the numbers

Salary, of course, is not the only aspect; compensation also includes insurance, retirement benefits, vacation and sick leave and other expenses. Certain things – notably insurance and retirement benefits – can’t be negotiated individually due to federal and state regulations.

Haggerman said there’s no harm in attempting to negotiate, even if companies seem firm in what they’re offering. She advises job candidates to be creative – asking about the availability of pay raises and even the length or starting and ending time of the work day.

It’s also important to know whether the job market is more favorable to employers or employees.

“After 9/11, it wasn’t a good market for job seekers, but over the last year, there’s a lot more negotiation,” she said. “Quality-of-life issues are very important to the majority of job applicants, and they’re ready to sacrifice a few dollars for those (benefits).”

Searching for salary data

There are several Web sites that offer salary surveys, including:

salary.com

salaryexpert.com

jobweb.com

salary.monster.com[[In-content Ad]]