You’ve likely had some experience with negotiating as an employer, and I bet you remember the negative ones with a lot of emotion really clearly. Or maybe a great employee quit sometime after a quiet negotiation where they accepted your offer, leaving you wondering, “why didn’t they ask for what they wanted?”

Employees also remember the negative negotiations as well. A market research survey completed by VSGD indicated that more than 80% of people in the vet industry would prefer to leave a job than negotiate.

Yikes, that is NOT good news for employers in this market.

Negotiation around salary is an incredibly sensitive topic, mainly because in western cultures, our value is often measured in dollars. Salary and compensation can be equated to how much an employee feels appreciated, seen, and valued within the workplace. The same can feel true for employers. We’re all human, and we can often feel complex emotions around people asking for money from us, or asking for it from other people. When contemplating quitting, employees often speak about a galvanizing moment in negotiations where they felt undervalued and it caused them to look elsewhere for a job.

At the same time, you have a business to run, and need to ensure you can pay your own bills. Most of us also did not go to school to learn to negotiate!

How can you turn negotiating into a positive scenario, keep your bottom line in the black, and not pull your hair out?

1. Encourage employees to ask for what they want

This may run against everything you’ve been taught about negotiating, but hear me out. I’ve coached hundreds of people to ask for what they want, and the thing is, people almost always wait too long before asking. By the time they ask, emotions and stakes are high. Why? Most of us were taught that if we keep our heads down and do good work, someone will reward us. This works in school, and in a lot of areas. But not in the workplace for the most part. You, as an employer, are also not a mind reader and you can’t know exactly what motivates your employee, and what they need right now to feel valued. Asking regularly is a starting point. If the answers aren’t forthcoming, take a look at the level of psychological safety in your relationship with the employee and in the workplace. 

2. Encourage frequent conversations, NOT just an annual review

Try to create opportunities for employees to speak with you regularly with small asks, and where you can provide feedback. These smaller meetings put currency in the trust and psychological safety bank account, and allow you to encourage asking for things as they occur. If you’ve never done this before, it might feel awkward. Try grabbing a coffee and bringing a notepad, or as ka few open ended questions about how things are going at work. I’d recommend quarterly as a starting point.

3. Check your bias and your emotions

Even as someone who encourages my team to ask me for what they want, I still sometimes get hit in the eyes with my own emotions. We all have different “upbringings” both professionally and personally, and ideas of what’s ok or not ok. I’ll often give people a list of behaviours and get them to sort them into appropriate for negotiation, and inappropriate. The list is NEVER EVER the same for two people. If an ask comes to you and seems impertinent, ungrateful, or any other negative word, take some time. What’s at the heart of this feeling for you? Can you explore why the employee may feel this is the right thing to ask for with some open ended questions? Remember that the employee in 99% of cases has screwed up their courage to come ask for something from you, even if their delivery wasn’t perfect.

4. Provide data, rationale, a plan

Once you’ve explored where the employee is coming from, what their motivations are, and what means the most to them in the ask, determine what you CAN do. Providing concrete data and timelines together with a no is a lot better than a vague reason that may leave the employee wondering if they are seen and valued. See if you can make a plan to move to their goal together. Building forward together helps both parties work on a solution and maintain the relationship.

5. Connect authentically

It can be very humanizing to hear an employer admit, “I am feeling a bit caught off guard; can I take a second?” or “I really value you, and I want to learn more about what you’re asking me so I can help as much as I can.” Name your emotion to the employee, your intention, and ask for what you need. Maybe that’s a few days to look into whether you can grant their request. Maybe it’s a moment to grab a cup of coffee because you’re feeling flustered, but you value them and it’s your intention to hear them out. It’s ok to feel things, and it’s ok to share that with your employee so they aren’t left guessing (and likely misinterpreting). Remember that no one knows your intentions or how you’re feeling, they just see and interpret what you say, do, and your non-verbal cues. Those can so easily be mis-interpreted; don’t let that happen on such an important topic.

Conclusion

Do you need help with developing a plan to encourage your staff to ask for what they want, need, and what it will take to keep them, while managing your budget? We can help.

Have you ever turned someone down for a job and then got an email saying, “thank you for such an amazing hiring process.  Even though I didn’t get the job, I’m going to encourage other people to apply to your organization, and I’ll apply again next time.” I DID get this email, and 2 other similar ones in the past year.  I changed our hiring practices at a workplace just before joining VSGD, and it had some pretty astounding results. Our organization generally had reasonable numbers of applicants as it was a fully remote workplace. We had 4-10 applicants in most jobs listed.  After implementing the changes below, we averaged over 30 applicants in every listing during the toughest employees market I’ve seen.  We also had a 100% increase in BIPOC applicants, and reached gender parity in applicants.  Are you curious yet what we tried? I just finished reading Ruchika Tulshyan’s amazing book, “Inclusion on Purpose.”  That book changed how I think about all aspects of the workplace and is so practical I dog eared and highlighted almost every page. The controls/context:

• We listed our jobs in the exact same places and promoted them in the exact same way.
• The job market got decidedly worse for employers during this time, so our results were all the proof I needed never to go back on these techniques.

Here’s what we did:

1. Listed salary on every job ad

This was one of the second things I tried, and it increased our applicants in a big way, and I loved it as an employer because it took a lot of hassle out of negotiating, and I didn’t have to guess if a candidate was overqualified and would turn me down, or whether they would be insulted by my first offer.  It made it easier for us to come to a clear offer because I could speak to the range and justify placing the candidate at a certain point on the range.  I never lost a candidate of choice.

2. Modified the job titles and job ads

We had undergone a human resources review of our salaries, position titles and job descriptions, and adjusted the titles of our positions to reflect the actual work being done.  In some cases, we awarded a more senior title to match the level of responsibility the employee was taking on. (In a smaller organization, ensuring you have the right seniority of title is REALLY critical and an incredible flexibility that larger institutions don’t have). In the job ad, I used more action verbs and carefully reviewed the description to ensure I was accurately describing the exciting work and purpose the employee would be fulfilling.

3. Provided a fully transparent hiring process

Applying for a job is emotionally draining, confusing, and seems to have all kinds of hidden rules.  We took Inclusion on Purpose’s advice and evened the playing field.  We got explicit about expectations (e.g., please submit a resume and cover letter).  We let candidates know what to expect and our timelines.  Because of our structure, we ran a hiring process with grading and at least 3 interviewers.  We let candidates know this in advance. Surprise surprise, candidates came better prepared, and we got to really see them for who they were without excess nervousness. I believe in letting candidates know what to expect so strongly that we have added this to job ads in our platform

4. Blinded resume and cover letters

This was the very first thing I did when I joined the organization, mostly because I’d always wanted to try the technique.  I assigned a staff member to download the applications from the platform we used, and she redacted them to remove the candidate name/identifier. Then we used a grading rubric to screen the candidates.   It cut down on my admin time drastically.

Candidates were informed that we’d be blinded during the process as part of our transparent process.

When I compared our data to competitions prior to blinding, we interviewed more diverse candidates by a factor of 2-3 times.  This is easy to accomplish with our platform- you can add team members and assign an admin staff member to download and redact resumes/CVs.

Conclusion

After the results I saw first hand with this organization of more than doubling (and sometimes tripling applicants), and obtaining a far more diverse candidate pool, I’ll never go back!  And I’ll never forget getting that thank you card for NOT hiring someone.

I’m curious to see if you have tried any of these techniques, or others that have been successful or unsuccessful?  What’s worked for you?   If you need help with your recruiting and retention strategy, get in touch.  We’d love to help.

In a crowded employees market, it’s hard to stand out in a sea of job ads.  With over 20% vacancy rate (AVMA, 2021), every organization searching for a new hire wants an edge!

We’ve given this so much thought at VSGD.  It is the top request from community members every time we’ve asked in every country when we ask “what do you want to know about a job before applying?”

Here’s what we know about listing salaries:

 

1. Ramp up your applicant numbers by a factor of 2-3

In an independent market research study conducted by us in 2021-2022 in North America, we case controlled similar veterinary professional and support staff job ads in similar locations and tracked their stats.  

“Jobs with salary range posted received anywhere from 2-3 times more applications. Job ads with salary range listed had 4-5 times more views than those without salary.”  

I could probably stop there- those are compelling enough stats to stop anyone in their tracks.

Particularly if you are in an area where candidates may make assumptions about salary range (rural, large animal positions, charity or not-for-profit, academia, government), listing salary dispels myths. Salary range reduces the internal struggle of whether to apply or not.  We are all about reducing barriers!  

2. Decrease hiring hassle for employers

When you provide a salary range, you waste less time guessing at what an applicant wants.  In a similar market research study we conducted, employers who listed salary reported less time spent on the hiring process as a whole, and experienced less stress during negotiation.  Employers were also more likely to nab their top choice candidate. 

3. Increase diversity of applicants

If your workplace is serious about attracting diverse candidates, listing salary is one easy way to start. In a veterinary market research survey we did in 2021 with over 100 respondents, 90% of respondents had experienced discrimination in the hiring  process, and many responses involved unfair negotiation practices.

“One of our favourite books Inclusion on Purpose  states that salary transparency is a concrete step employers can take to close the gender and racial pay gap.”

Listing salary is a clear signal to candidates from under-represented groups that you care about equity. You’re open enough to share the salary so everyone can start with the same information.  

 

At Vets Stay Go Diversify, we require every listing to have a salary range, and we’re proud to have been doing this for over 2 years.  We want you as an employer to attract the right candidates, and we want candidates to find their best match with as little effort on either side as possible. 

Whether you list with us or not, we hope you’ll join us in embracing salary transparency in job listings!  

Get in touch to see if we can help you with your vacancies.