Nothing like a tone deaf email in the middle of a salary negotiation
Keep internal lingo internal
1:15 read | 3:30 video | Chime in on LinkedIn here
Ever hear this scenario?
šOffer extended. Lower than current salary. Candidate counters. Company emails back:
āWe like you but we donāt know if you're ready for the job. So weāre not comfortable going over the 50th percentileā¦ā
Real scenario. And not the first time Iāve heard it. John Roccia from Ama La Vida has a client who got that response recently.
Two thoughts:
1. Workplace culture is overly reliant on email. Itās time efficient, but impersonal. Tone can get lost. And you canāt instantaneously collect feedback to know if your message missed the mark.
Which is why itās terrible for delivering any kind of news that could have an emotional component.
Like a job offer. So talk to people. Live.
2. It never ceases to amaze me when people confuse internal and external messaging.
Itās a simple skill that client-facing types develop. Salespeople know theyāre not supposed to talk about their quotas or commission plans on sales calls.
Good recruiters get this, too. But it can fall apart when inexperienced people handle the conversation (e.g. very junior recruiters, HR or hiring managers who are new to it.)
No job seeker gives a crap about how you determined your comp range. Or what percentile you think they fall into. Comp bands are arbitrary. People are āworthā what the market is willing to pay at that moment.
If you come in below their current comp, a low ball is a low ball.
Thereās a lot of ways concerns can be better handled. Or comp could be structured it covers any skill gaps but is a win for both sides.
But they all need to be handled with a good old fashioned human conversation.
Iām all for transparency but āwe donāt know if you can step in and do the jobā is not the message you want to send.Ā
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