Negotiating non-salary benefits is about feeling empowered to ask for the things that you want and value, knowing you're not taking anything away from the company.Getty Images
Ask Women and Work
Question: With so many companies freezing salaries these days, what kinds of things can we negotiate for instead of a pay bump?
We asked Celina Deosaran, senior people and culture strategist at Artemis Canada in Kitchener, Ont., to tackle this one:
Even before you come to the table, look inward and reflect on what your motivators are. If flexibility is something that you really value in your life, there are things to negotiate around remote work, hybrid work and increased vacation time. We’re seeing a lot of folks negotiating that ‘workation’ style of being able to work internationally. Other folks are asking for memberships to co-working spaces or a stipend to help set up their home office. On the flip side, there can be incentives to come into the office, like a commuting benefit.
It could be about renegotiating your title or being able to use the points you earn through work travel for leisure trips. It could be about having stock options or equity in a company. When it comes to training and development, sometimes it’s about having a personal development budget, a LinkedIn Learning subscription or access to Coursera. It could be having access to conferences in your industry to continuously upskill and add value back into the business by becoming a thought leader in the space.
It’s also about being creative in how you ask and being open to other ideas. Going back to personal development, sometimes budgets aren’t as robust. So maybe it’s looking at your current job and thinking: Is there a tool that I could use that would benefit me and help me perform better?
It’s important to note that you can ask for these kinds of things when negotiating a new job offer or during a performance review. I think a lot of folks think that once you have signed your offer, you’re sort of stuck with what you got. But I work in the startup and scale-up space, and a lot of my clients are asking, ‘How can I engage and retain top talent when I’m cash-strapped as a company?’
Sometimes the answer will be no, but at least you’ve asked the question. Countless studies have shown equity-deserving groups do not negotiate compared with cis heterosexual white men. It’s about feeling empowered to ask for the things that you want and value, knowing you’re not taking anything away from the company. It really is a win-win.
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