Why Do They Always Get a Raise Right Before the Offer?

Why is it that candidates ALWAYS seem to get a review, raise, additional responsibilities right before your client is about to make them an offer?

Alright, it doesn’t ALWAYS happen.  As recruiters we tend to exaggerate just a bit, but it happened again this week to not one, but to two recruiters I know and have great respect for, and it drives me mad when I hear this.

This should never happen.

We, as third party search professionals, shouldn’t let it happen.

I have a rather simple strategy for keeping the incidence of this occurring with my candidates to a minimum, and it is something every recruiter knows they should do, but sometimes just forget or get lazy about doing.

Right after I cover a candidate’s work history, just before I am about to get to the meat of my interview with them, where I want to know how they have made a bottom line difference for their organization by how they  made money, saved money or changed a process that did one or both of these things, I go through a quick salary history review.

And it is quick.  By doing it fast, they don’t have time to “create,” and I am more likely to get the just the facts.

Usually I start three jobs back, and I ask what they started at, what they ended at while in that job.

Next job back, their starting salary, when they got their last raise, how much it was, and what it took them too.  Plus whatever bonus opportunities, or anything else they had that would show up on their W-2.

With the job they are in now, I ask them what they what hired at, have them break it down to each W-2 component.  Then  I ask them to very methodically tell me about every raise or salary and/or bonus adjustment that brings them to what their current comp package is as we speak.  I also ask if there is any bonus money that has been earned but not yet paid out, IF, IF, that seems to be the case, as it sometimes is with delayed bonus payouts commonly used today by employers.

I am not done yet.

To end this thread, I then ask them when their next scheduled review would be.  They always know when it is.

I push even further by saying, “So, you know the quality of work you have done and the place your employer is at, what raise do you think you will be getting?”  I follow that question up with what will your W-2 be this current year (unless it is late November or December, when I would ask about next year).

Very few candidates have failed to have at least some awareness of the likely range their next raise/bonus increase will fall into, or what this next year’s W-2 will be.  Often they know it very, very, exactly, and in great detail.  Occasionally, it is one of of the several reasons they were motivated to work with me in the first place (though I seldom have success working with candidates that are just money motivated).

Doing this has given me several items of use::

• a useful salary history
• the % increase in salary and W-2 earnings that occurred with each of their last two career/job changes
• because they were talking from their actual salary/W-2 history, these are probably not inflated numbers
• a sense of what their historical raise pattern has been
• an accurate idea of when their next raise will be and how much it will likely range
• and a clear notion of any money really being left on the table with as of yet unpaid bonuses

Simple enough, but I can’t tell you how many times I have done a split with another recruiter where they don’t know this information.  Didn’t even think to ask it because they were in such a rush to get the sendout.

How can one negotiate intelligently for your candidate or client if you don’t know this information?

It takes all of 2-4 minutes to accomplish.  When you remind the candidate that you remember this information as you begin down the path to close a deal and negotiate a salary for them with your client, my experience is it is unlikely that a sudden and unexpected salary review is likely to suddenly occur, unless the candidate really is playing you, and well, that is nice to know too.

Note also, this has NOTHING to do with the conversation that needs to take place about what their NEXT salary expectations are.   This is just the necessary background information that YOU, the search professional, the middle person of this search dance between the candidate and the client, must know for when and if that conversation is required.   Getting the information NOW, ensures that you have accurate information that isn’t “clouded” or “manipulated” because the offer dance has commenced.

In my process, those conversations do not happen in the first interview I have with the candidate.  Then it is a conversation in abstract.  How could they really know an answer to this without knowing the myriad of additional details, unique to each job or career opportunity, that accompany the money?  They can’t.  It is different with each job.  It should be, as each job has intangibles and non W-2 values that must be weighed into the final yes or no calculus.

More on that final negotiation dance in a future post.

Today, let’s learn, or for most of my readers, re-learn, this simple interview best practice for taking a salary history, and projecting if forward just a bit, so we can best represent our candidates to our clients, and through this information create the intelligence necessary to negotiate a fair and competitive offer that will make everyone thrilled with the work we have done to bring the search to a successful conclusion.

.

Got a technique or two on taking a salary history that I missed, please share with a comment here or with an email to me at AskJeff@JeffersonInc.com.  I look forward to hearing, and learning from you and your suggestions.

Jeff Skrentny, CERS, had an inauspicious start in the recruiting profession as his first placement quit after 93 days.  Then he was sued.  Despite that start, Jeff  has been an executive recruiter for 23 years, and has also been a trainer, author and motivator for his profession for the last 15 years, as well as being a business consultant and adviser for its producers, managers & owners for the last 10 years; all while still running a busy IT search business in Chicago at his firm Jefferson Group Search.