How to negotiate salary with candidates during interview

Salary negotiations can be stressful for both parties, the employee and the company. However, it is a completely different story when it comes to negotiating salaries while looking to recruit a new candidate. While the company may have allocated a budget for the job and even advertised it on its job posting, a very talented candidate can still leave the company in two minds about how to negotiate salary with them. 

With the advent of new service industries such as Artificial Intelligence(AI), there is now again a discussion on how to negotiate a salary. According to a 2024 survey from Monster, 81 per cent of employees said they were not satisfied with their salary. They argued that their salary was not sufficient to keep up with the cost of living and inflation.

There were other findings in the report, such as:

• Fifty per cent of the surveyed employees stated that they needed a raise.
• Seventy-five per cent of the surveyed employees stated they felt burnout in their current roles.
• 42 per cent of the surveyed employees stated that they would be more motivated in their job if offered greater 
• 46 per cent of the surveyed employees stated that due to their full time office role they were feeling stressed and experienced burnout.

Poor salary negotiations can have disastrous consequences for a company. A recent example is the current workers’ strike at the global aircraft manufacturer Boeing. The strike has greatly affected the company’s manufacturing capacity, especially its best-selling aircraft, such as the 737 MAX, the 787 Dreamliner, and the 777 models. This has also affected Boeing’s suppliers, who, too, have to furlough or lay off their employees due to the decreased demand.

That’s why negotiating salary from a company’s perspective is important, as it is significant in building brand recruitment and a healthy work environment.

Also Read: How BarRaiser eliminates the need for interview debriefs

How to negotiate salary with candidates/employees 

Communicate clearly 

Establishing clear communication is a great way to ensure there is no confusion in the candidate’s mind. This can be done by mentioning the salary in the job posting itself. However, salary should be mentioned as a range rather than a specific number to attract more potential candidates. A key advantage of this is that it sets expectations as soon as possible and allows the candidate to be better prepared while negotiating for salary. 

This also means that both parties are on the same page. This pattern should also be followed when negotiating salary when one of your employees is asking for a raise. However, this is more tricky as despite making fixed appraisals, employees generally want as much raise as possible. This is why recruiters need to communicate clearly and present them with all the things that they have done across the year.

Also Read: How BarRaiser offers end to end solutions for hiring

Conduct a thorough market research 

One of the ways that both the candidates and the company can better negotiate for salary is by doing quality market research. This will not only help them understand the market but also give them an indication of the pay range they might get at a particular company. Quality market research on salary data should include the following:

• Job titles and roles as different companies can use different roles differently, greatly affecting the pay.
• Check for the type of industry, especially for candidates whose skills allow them to transfer their jobs between multiple industries.
• The size of the company, as a multinational company with multiple offices and a large workforce, will provide more cash flow, allowing for better salaries.
• Check nonsalary components such as bonuses, HRA, stock options, travel expenses, health insurance, etc.

Also Read:How does compliance check help in improving hiring

Try to gauge the candidate’s interests

The problem with having a good job posting is that a plethora of people apply for it, and not all of them are passionate about the job. Some might be applying to use the eventual job offer to get a better pay raise at their organization, while others may just be looking for a job irrespective of whether it will be a suitable fit for them or not.

This is why it is important for a recruiter to gauge how interested or passionate a candidate is about the job. Only when they are sure should they start to discuss their salary package. Another advantage of having a suitable candidate is that both parties are aware of their needs and thus will try to ensure that negotiations are done as quickly as possible to get the discussions over so that the vacancy gets filled.

Also Read: Things To Remember While Selecting Interview Intelligence Tool

 Explain the salary breakup 

One of the major reasons candidates feel dissatisfied during the recruitment process is the hidden details of the salary package. For example, a company may advertise an exorbitant salary package, but it will be during an interview that they state that a large part of the salary is in stock options or other benefits that are not part of their monetary remuneration.

However, companies need to realize that explaining the salary structure clearly benefits them in the long run. First, it will increase the candidates’ trust in the company and improve their image. It will also help separate the candidates who really want the job from those who may not be the best fit for the role.

Also Read: Why is Industry knowledge important while hiring

Take detailed feedback 

A company learns more about its recruitment process from feedback from the unselected candidates than from the selected ones. This is why companies need to prioritize detailed feedback from the candidates. Organizations should urge the candidates to be completely honest. A good recruiter is an active listener. So, when presented with a counteroffer from the candidates for their salary, they should listen to the offer before answering it.

In addition, all the feedback generated from such recruitment processes should be made into a database. This will help the company continuously improve its hiring policy. Recruiters must also remember that salary negotiations are usually the first time candidates engage in detailed conversations with the company. This is why it is important for this process to be clear, concise, and a positive experience for the candidates. That will ensure that even the candidates who are not selected will have a positive brand perception of the company and will likely recommend the workplace to their peers.

While salary negotiations are an important part of the hiring process, companies today usually want to establish that the candidate is a suitable fit for the role. Determining this is a difficult challenge for recruiters. That’s why today we bring you BarRaiser, an AI-backed interview assistant that will make quality hiring much easier than ever before.

Also Read: Myths and Facts related to AI hiring

So, how does BarRaiser work? Our platform integrates an AI bot into the company’s Application Tracker System (ATS). This is very convenient, as companies don’t need to install a new app and require minimal training to master our platform.

Before the interview, a recruiter can ask our AI bot to create a detailed questionnaire, depending on the role. The number of things that an interviewer can decide is vast such as:

• The questions for the interview 
• The number of rounds for the interview 
• The duration of the interview 
• The number of parts that the interview must be divided into and their individual durations 
• Must have questions 
• The number of experience required for the job posting 

For example, an interviewer has to just write the following:

“Create me an interview questionnaire with two rounds for the senior software system architect role. The first interview should be divided into five parts and last one hour: Introduction, Career up to now, skill testing, problem solving, and expectations from the company. 

Also Read: How to Write Interview Scorecard for Effective Hiring

The second interview should be of two parts and 30 minutes long: salary negotiations and joining date.

This information will go into our AI Interview Copilot, which will then create a structured interview for the candidates. During the interview, if the candidate exceeds the time limit on a specific part, our bot will send an alert to the interviewer to speed up the process. In addition, we also strongly believe in the principle of conducting unbiased interviews. This is why we record and transcribe every interview. Our AI bot is trained to recognize language that may be of a biased nature and immediately raises an alert.

Also Read: How to Transition from Slapdash Hiring to Quality Recruitment?

After the interview is conducted, the AI bot asks for detailed reviews from the interviewer. However, BarRaiser is an interview assistant that does not make decisions on its own. It just provides a detailed date for the recruiter, who can then use it to make the decisions.

While the recruiter is making the report, our AI bot is creating another report on its own. This report analyzes the interviewer’s conduct and is sent to the hiring manager. We believe in a system of checks and balances, which is the only way to establish a trustworthy recruitment process.

Using BarRaiser, we guarantee you quality hiring that will also bolster diversity and inclusion. BarRaiser is the best AI interview platform that features structured interviews and tools to ensure quality hiring while eliminating biases from the recruitment process. With BarRaiser’s support, you’ll be well-equipped to build a strong team of sales associates who will drive sales and deliver exceptional customer service.