Offering the Right Salary and Negotiating with Candidates

Offering the Right Salary and Negotiating with Candidates Offering the right salary is crucial when looking to recruit top talent: offer a package too low and there’s a threat of losing a great candidate, offer a package too high and you could leave your business vulnerable to budget overspend, or your other employees finding out about higher wages and forcing salary negotiations across the board. Robert Scott, Managing Director at Aaron Wallis Sales Recruitment, said: Offering an appealing salary in the context of the role and your company’s expectations is essential to attracting staff who will hit the ground running. Often it’s a balance between keeping your budgets on track but also providing an incentive for the top talent out there to join your business. With this in mind, here are some essential tips for offering the right salary package: 1. Review all possible factors both internal and external Every job role will be different, and for this reason, it’s impossible to give a ‘one size fits all’ blueprint for offering the right salary. It’s important to consider all of the internal and external factors that could feed into your salary offer decision, giving yourself the full picture of factors to review. Useful external factors to consider include how readily available the skills of a candidate you are after are and the fair market rate for your geographic area: which could suggest a higher salary offer if your business is located in London and the sort of skills you’re after are in high demand. Internal business factors can play a large part as well, for example, the length of time that you’ve been recruiting for a position and the amount of recruitment budget you have to play with. If you’ve been recruiting for a role for over six months without any traction, this could mean an urgency to fill the position: which may mean increasing your salary offers. 2. Consider implementing salary bands/grades A combination of salary bands and job grades can be an excellent tool for communicating expectations to your employees. Job grades are the definitions of your roles, assessing how junior or senior someone is by a specific job title and salary bands are the ranges of compensation that can fit within a job title. Having transparent salary ranges by job title can help guide your hiring managers around the ranges of salary they should offer candidates, as well as providing a clear motivation for your employees to work their way up a band through high performance. 3. Think carefully about bonus schemes/packages An appealing bonus or commission scheme can be a crucial pull factor for attracting top talent to your business, especially in a sales environment. Try to create a bonus scheme which creates a ‘win-win’ for both your company and the employee, where meeting targets will translate into a higher reward for both parties. Equally, as crucial as an attractive bonus scheme can be to recruiting staff, it can often be a common pitfall for businesses. It can be hard to change a bonus scheme once an employee has signed a contract, it’s essential to ensure that your commission systems are sustainable and that youre not placing your revenues under threat. 4. It’s more than just money Think about the whole package, aside from the monetary reward that comes with the job. Things like the amount of annual leave you receive within a role, as well the opportunities for flexible working and the workplace culture of your business can count for reasons why a candidate should choose your company. Similarly, if your business expects long working hours, outside of the regular 9-5, you could suggest that you may need to offer a higher salary to entice a candidate to join your company. 5. Be prepared to walk away As a hiring manager, the last thing you want to do is lose your target and have to start the recruitment process all over again. Maybe you had a second choice, but even having to go crawling back to them is not without its issues. However, you can’t be held hostage, and every role has its pay cap. If you’re simply not getting your candidate to see sense, be prepared to walk away. About the author: Rob Scott has specialized in technical sales recruitment, particularly engineering and electronics sales recruitment, and has over 12-year operational and commercial management experience.   During his corporate life, Rob won the coveted best-performing manager award 2004 for profitability (out of 315 group managers) and won numerous other group Awards for both achievements and excellence.   Since setting up  Aaron Wallis  Rob has steered the company to enjoy double-digit growth year-on-year through turbulent economic times by maintaining clients and making a difference.

Ladies, Lets Talk About Negotiating Lower Prices

Ladies, Lets Talk About Negotiating Lower Prices Prices seem to be rising for everything. Food prices are on the rise, mechanics are charging more, veterinarians are charging more â€" everything is going up. You might not be able to negotiate lower food prices, but when dealing with a service professional, you may be able to haggle your way to a better price. Theres always a time and place to negotiate, but when you know the basics, youll have a much easier time getting a better price. Asking for a Better Price Never Hurts I have never seen anyone negotiate a better price at the grocery store, but at the local farmers market, I have seen people haggle to much cheaper prices. The key? Ask. When the market is near closing, a lot of vendors will gladly lower their price because they want to offload their inventory â€" not hang on to it. It helps when you can back your negotiation. For example, lets say that you call Mr. Rooter Detroit, and they offer a $50 higher price than a competitor. Ask if they could match the price. Companies are becoming very competitive, and theyll offer to lower prices to not have you go to a competitor. Be Willing to Walk Away When a product or service isn’t a necessity, you can always walk away. One recommendation is that when a business says no, this is just the first part of the negotiation. You may have caught the owner on a bad day, or they may want to think about your proposal before walking away. Its important to be able to walk away. This is especially good at yard sales or flea markets. Say you walk up to a table and want a beautiful clock, but the price is too high. You might offer the vendor a price that is 30% less than the original. You dont need the clock, even though its beautiful. The vendor may say no now because they are hoping for a full price sale soon. But if you walk back a few hours or less before close and the clock is still there, it doesnt hurt to offer the 30% off price or even a 20% off price. If a vendor needs to make the sale or a salesman needs to reach a quota, theyll often budge on their pricing. Research Your Way to Success I would have never known I could negotiate down my cable bill by threatening to cancel. I also never knew that I could call up my credit card company and ask for a lower interest rate. Its amazing how quickly I was able to negotiate the prices down in my favor. But I also learned, through research, that store cards are impossible to negotiate down â€" in most cases. You need to know that you have leverage when youre trying to negotiate. This also means knowing when youre pushing the limit on the negotiation. You may be asking for a price thats so low that the seller loses money. In this case, your negotiations will be nothing more than an insult from someone trying to sell items or services to make a living.

The Job Sales Cycle

The Job Sales Cycle They say that sales is a game of numbers; the more calls you make, the more likely you are to close a sale. In some industries, that may be true. But professional sales people agree that treating everyone as a prospect is a waste of time. The same is true for your job search. I sometimes come across a job seeker who talks about the hundreds of jobs he’s applied to over the past few months. He’s incredulous when I tell him his “productivity” is part of the problem. If you take your career seriously, your job search should be like your search for your future spouse: a careful process of selecting a good match with an excellent chance of long-term success. Here’s how professional sales people approach the process, according to From Click to Closed, an Inbound Sales and Marketing Blog. There are four levels in a sales opportunity evaluation: A Suspect is everyone in your target market. A Prospect is anyone who has taken action to solve a problem that you can assist them with. A Lead is the right person with the ability to buy. An Opportunity is the right person who is ready to buy. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'VYOfbWFQTLVWYC4KwKr8TA',sig:'XhkLwYp4semSkAraoS2SlR9FmcIZeLTtPJctdnb3yUE=',w:'507px',h:'338px',items:'103576078',caption: false ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); So let’s apply this to your job search. You identify the suspects in your market through research. Don’t focus simply on the companies who are posting jobs; remember that the hidden job market consists of companies and managers who have a problem that needs solving, even if they haven’t made up their minds about hiring someone yet. List the companies in your market that interest you, with a list of reasons why you want to work there. Rank them in order of your preference and research them thoroughly. Once you have your list of companies, take a look at their projects, their strategies, and their hiring patterns. Have any of them taken action to solve a problem you can assist them with? This process will help you prepare for an interview; you’ll be putting yourself in the mind of the hiring manager by thinking about what his/her customers, operations, or employees need. Here’s where your strategy may take two parallel paths. You may pursue one of your prospects based on the company and your fit whether or not the company has an advertised opening. Work on creating connections within the company; LinkedIn is a great place to start. Your goal would be to meet with people who can help you understand the company’s needs and who can get to know you, your skills, and your interest in working there. At the same time, you’ll be looking for leads: actual openings within your prospect companies. Job openings indicate that the right person has the ability to buy. It’s important here to also be open to possibilities other than a job offer. You might uncover interest and the ability to offer consulting or short-term work. If you’re currently unemployed, consulting or contract work may provide an opportunity to show what you can do. Once you have a meeting with the lead, you have an opportunity, and you’ll be thoroughly prepared for it. You should understand the company, its product lines, and its challenges. You should have contacts inside the company who have provided you with information on company culture. You understand that this opportunity is a good fit for your skills, experience and style. Now it’s time for the close the act of making sure that the hiring manager understands it too.

15 Graphic Design Blogs that Every Graphic Designer Should Read CareerMetis.com

15 Graphic Design Blogs that Every Graphic Designer Should Read 15 Graphic Design Blogs that Every Graphic Designer Should Read No matter whether you are an experienced designer or a novice in the design industry, to become a competent and high-earning graphic designer, efficiency is crucial. And to achieve that, you have to continue to learn and take inspiration from the work of other graphic designers.The web is a great place for graphic designers. After all, they are the driving force behind many of its inventions.evalFor instance, when people look at social media channels, they think of how they interact with and what they see. Brand identity, brand images, mental images, real images â€" they are all created by graphic designers. The web is so thankful to them that it has plenty to give back too.From the past few years, blogging has become an integral part of the online culture. Earlier it was considered a hobby. But today, people are making great careers out of it and a lot of companies are hosting blogs as part of their marketing strategy.There are probably thousands of graphic design blogs, guides, and other resources online. But sometimes too many choices can be a bit confusing. That is why we have come up with this blog where we will be sharing the top fifteen graphic design blogs that can motivate every designer.Let’s get started!15 Graphic Design Blogs that Every Graphic Designer Should ReadAdobe Create MagazineDesignhillCanvaCreative ReviewCreative BloqDribbbleUnder Consideration â€" Brand New:BehanceThe Design BlogDesign CleverCreative NerdsInspo FindsDesign ShackGraphicMamaDieline1) Adobe Create Magazine: Create is an Adobe’s online magazine where you can discover, inspire, and educate yourself through their creative community.Regardless of which stage you are in your career journey, the content you get will provide the fuel you desire â€" from the latest trend tutorials to inspiring creative processes to profiles of innovative artists.It is also packed with interesting content and artist interviews. This provides a great opportunity to learn fro m the masters themselves. Interesting, right?2) Designhill: evalDesignhill is World’s No.1 creative marketplace for designers and artists.Their blogs are full of design tips and inspiration, helping both artists and entrepreneurs grow their careers and business respectively. In other words, you can educate yourself on how to use designs in a commercial context.The platform has thousands of professional designers that help businesses implement their marketing ideas. If you want to be hired for your work, you can do that by showcasing your talents and achievements in their separate portfolio page.3) Canva:evalCanva is another popular graphic design website.It allows users to create all types of designs, including logos, banners, social media posts, etc. Under their blog section, you will get to see great tutorials, intuitive graphic designs, business advice as well as branding and business identity insights.4) Creative Review:It is an online magazine that started in 1980. It provides monthly reviews, updates, and analyses from the design industry.Though the magazine provides practical guides and tutorials, it focuses more on the latest design trends. You may not find the basic design tips here, but you will surely get incredible resources that can help you grow in your field and stay updated with trends. It also provides you with great tips on artistic processes.5) Creative Bloq:Creative bloq provides a mix of inspiration and advice for traditional and digital artists, graphic designers, VFX artists, web designers, and more.This platform offers the best of creative work to their audience along with insights to help them stay updated regarding the latest developments and trends in the world of design.6) Dribbble:evalFounded in 2009, the company started as a side project. By showcasing the work of the finest designers, it has evolved into being a lucrative business, making it both a promotional tool and a learning resource.In other words, it is a community for all types of designers where they share their excellent work. You can browse the work of others for inspiration and also take advantage of promoting your work on this site.People from all over the world visit this website to discover and get connected with talented designers.7) UnderConsideration â€" Brand New: evalBrand new is a division of UnderConsideration. This is the place to read a wide array of opinions on corporate and brand identity work.Armin Vit, the website editor, offers a useful understanding of the intricacies of design thinking and often inspires solid debate on each post in the comments section.Here are their editorial categories:Reviewed: Extensive coverage and evaluation of the most newsworthy projects submitted as articles, depending on the size and reputation of the customer or the quality of the design.Noted: Small coverage with a concise opinion on small projects or customers with less data or pictures to be displayed â€" submitt ed as a summary.Spotted: Recognition of a fresh design or redesign for a broader spectrum of customers â€" submitted without any viewpoint and offering just one link to a new homepage or a press release.Linked: Small notes covering funny, interesting, sad stories or projects related to branding and logo design.Announced: Where they make announcements about the blog’s well-being, Brand New Conference, and the introduction of any significant under consideration projects.Sponsored:Posts written by sponsors helping them publish the blog daily.8) Behance:It is a platform that is owned by Adobe. Similar to Dribbble, it doesn’t have any separate ‘blog’ category. The platform itself helps designers showcase their most fine works and discover the work of top online portfolios across industries.Recently, the brand introduced ‘Moodboards’, where you can collect and organize inspirations on Behance.9) The Design Blog: It is a personal website curated by Ena Bacanovic.This website offers high-quality inspiration by featuring the work of design studios and designers globally. Articles are classified and can be searched through 26 distinct tags parallel to the separate graphic design areas. Their outstanding selection of designs complements their fitting tagline, “Don’t Just Be A Designer â€" Be A Good One.” The content of the website is categorized by weekdays.For example, every Monday, they select a designer of the week, a quote of the week, and a featured video. On Tuesdays, they find and feature cool internet shops, and so on.10) Design Clever: This blog was started by two aspiring graphic designers â€" Bethany Baker and Jonathan Ring, with a passion to offer everything related to design. Their blogs let designers upload and showcase their talents globally. You can take inspiration from the work of other designers here.If you want to be hired for your work, or if you simply want to increase followers on your social media profiles , you can do that by including your contact details and social media links.11) Creative Nerds:Creative Nerds is a web and digital design blog that started its journey in 2008. Initially, it started as an experimental blog.But later it became an innovating place with thousands of design resources, articles, tutorials, and online design as well as web development news to learn and be inspired from.12) Inspo Finds:Inspo Finds is a blog that was started by two aspiring designers â€" Naomi and Sarah.As designers, the two of them always looked for inspiration to fuel their creativity. Both of them kept sending each other their ideas over emails. One day, they felt like there should be an online space where designers can find and discuss inspirational work and explore new modes of expression.They came up with this website where creativity and inspiration go hand-in-hand.Apart from finding and discussing inspirational work, the website also aims to encourage collaboration and support within the design community.13) Design Shack:Design Shack is a magazine for designers, creatives, and developers. It publishes articles related to graphic design, web design, trends, typography, UX, business, mobile, etc. Their design gallery showcases creative work related to web, logo, interface, and print design types.Apart from that, it also has a separate ‘Inspiration’ category, where you can find beautiful, inspiring examples of graphic designs, mock-ups, fonts, icons, etc.14) GraphicMama:evalGraphicMama is a side project of 2create Studio â€" an IT company. This business received such a great response that it later came under the league of the world’s most-read graphic blogs.The website aims to provide high-quality vector graphic illustrations and strives to be a great source of inspiration for those who want to excel in the graphic design industry.15) Dieline:Dieline is a creative platform that came into existence to serve the most crucial niches of designing like packaging design. Currently, the website has over 19,442 projects and articles that are sources of great inspiration.So if you are a designer who wants to make ‘Packaging design’ a core skill set, this website is perfect for you.Conclusion:That’s all folks! Now that you have discovered all about the industry’s best graphic design, it’s time to keep checking them out every week.This routine will help you stay on top of the latest trends, news, graphic design skills, etc. with others who share the same interests.Are there any other graphic design blogs that you love or have inspired you?Do share with us in the comments section below.