Are women bad at negotiating salaries??

I read an article recently in a popular women’s magazine on how women should negotiate salaries when applying for jobs and that women are bad at negotiating a salary. Most of the data cited there was based on studies and surveys done in North America. However it was interesting to see the stats that were cited in the article on how much women lose if they don’t negotiate!


Perhaps what women look for in a good organization goes beyond just the salary it offers or may be they just don’t like to negotiate. I also think that many women candidates don’t negotiate as its difficult to talk about money, secondly they may worry that they are perceived as aggressive or needy when it comes to money. To negotiate one needs to overcome these personal barriers as well as possess the skills required to negotiate, but coming to think of it, I saw my mother bargaining all the time and some how that tells me that while you cannot equate bargaining to negotiating a salary, at a level they are the same. Its largely boils down to knowing the what you are worth, the pay range for the job and ability to convince the hiring origination that you deserve that pay (relate this to how your mother always told that vegetable vendor “that’s what others in the market are selling this xyz veg for”, “I always bought veggies from you from “xyz” years”, “the quality of these veggies is not so good to deserve that price”) J

I have personally not seen too many women candidates in India I have hired negotiate hard and but mostly the one’s who had did not go beyond basic level of negotiation. My recruiting friends also think the same and agree that they have been exceptions but really they are few and far between. This gets me thinking on two things:

1)What would come out of analyzing data of last one year on salary offered to women and male candidates for the same type of jobs?
2)Do we as HR professionals act differently considering the that most women candidates don’t negotiate their offers (in the context that male candidates negotiate and may drive up the salary offer made) ?

I think we should look hard at each offer we make especially if the analysis above shows that indeed the salary offered is lower for the same type of job in the case of women candidates given the same level of experience as male candidates and competency as assessed in the interview. A robust system of evaluating experience, competence and a data driven approach to salary positioning will reduce the probability that women candidates get lower salary then male candidates, but I wonder what has your experience been as a hiring manager or recruiter in this regard!

Uncertainty and testing times……….and the learning process

No matter which country you are in or which industry you are part of its uncertainty and testing times all around. Whether it’s the US economy in the debt trap or our own India facing slower than expected growth in terms of GDP, these are times where confidence is low and financial results are not so great…

For someone like me who started their career after the economic boom in India, downturn was not something one thought of…India was booming and jobs and pay were great. I suspect its still the same but its just that there is so much uncertainty that everyone is going slow on hiring and candidates ability to negotiate has come down to a certain extent due to the lower number of jobs up there for them to apply.

I remember a time when I was working with consulting and services firm when a European manager on a assignment to India asked the India HR team how they would face a economic downturn. There was pin drop silence in the team and I guess that’s because many of us in that room did not ever hear of what a downturn was or how it would be to operate in a situation like that. I am glad now that 4 years later, I am going through these testing and uncertain times as this is going to help me and my team learn that there are business cycles and what we as HR can do and how we do what we do has to change to support the situation the business is in.

Bad times teach us a lot and what you learn through this experience is what matters when you look back a few years down the line and reminisce.

A great manager is a talent scout!

What makes a manager a great manager is the ability to scout for talent and then groom them. Talk to people and ask them what they look for in their manager and most often you would hear them say “someone who brings the best in me”.

But is it really possible to bring the best out of each and every individual in the team?? Many would tell you that its your duty as a manager to bring the best out of your people and you should give equal importance to bringing up those who are lagging behind or need that extra push / coaching to be their best.

I am not so sure though! I don’t believe that everyone can be a star and therefore as a manager one needs to conscious that the best of each person wont make him or her the star of the team. More often than not, I have wondered who needs the maximum effort from my end as a manger, is it the top talent or the solid soldiers or those who are failing to meet the minimal expectations. I really have not worked this out yet, but I slowly realized that effort spent on top talent pays more than trying to be socialist in my approach to developing everyone. Of course, you need to understand the strengths of each individual and help them build on that, give them a fair chance to perform and give them the coaching and feedback they need but, trying to distribute projects, rewards and much coveted assignments in a socialist way will only harm the motivation of the top talent and bring down the overall performance of the team.

It pays to be like a talent scout who knows that every talent that walks up to give their audition is not a star and only a select few have what it takes……..