What should you do after getting job offers?

So far one of my most popular articles is the one about resignation, indeed I think it is rather important to end one of your career journeys correctly. Another important milestone is about starting the next challenge, it is important to make the right decision, so you don’t waste the time of yours and your employer’s. Today we are going to talk about the job offer.

Recently, one of my close friends is looking for a job and consulted me about choosing job offers. Based on my past job-seeking experience and research, in this post, I would like to share some suggestions about negotiating and choosing already proposed job offers. Regarding how to get the offer, I might write another article about it in the future.

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1. Before the offer, communicate your expectation

Before you receive an offer, some companies start by asking about your current salary, I find it quite annoying, and honestly, not sure if they are still allowed to do this under GDPR regulation. Nevertheless, to respond to it, you can say, “I would like not to disclose my current salary, but talk about the expectation”. As each company offers benefits in kind in different ways, so you can also consult HR about the details of the salary structure.

Most companies talk about bruto amount (before tax), and that is the amount you negotiate, but don’t hesitate to communicate the expectation in Netto amount (after-tax) also, they should find a way to calculate it and propose the corresponding bruto amount.

Normally when you change your job, due to unforeseeable risks and missed opportunities for salary raise (promotion, indexation..) in your current company, your communicated expectation should be around 10% higher than your current income given the same job role.

2. DO NOT answer immediately!

Typically you will be presented with an offer at the last round of the meeting, or via email.
There are many dynamics about the negotiations, you need to appear interested, but not desperate.
When an offer is proposed to you, the first thing to do is to clarify any details, such as holidays, pensions, personal contributions, bonuses, etc, whatever you feel is ambiguous on the offer.

You should not start negotiating immediately, as you might need some calculations offline in order to compare with your current job or a parallel offer, and again, not to appear desperate.

Most of the offers do not require you to accept or reject at the spot, make sure to ask the recruiter until when the offer is valid, that is the deadline for you to consider and make a decision.

3. The magic question “Is this your final offer?”

This is a great technique, it is not to start negotiating, but to get to know the bottom line from the offer.
Most of the employers do leave some negotiation space for the contract, but some of them might go with the maximum to meet your expectation, so they do not have any further margin for negotiation. So before the negotiation, get the answer from the correspondent, and see if this is the final offer. If the answer is no, then you have some space for negotiation, if the answer is yes, then your negotiation space is smaller.

You need to play smart to get the maximum, but not gamble to lose the offer.

You might think that during the negotiation, you have nothing to lose, the worst case, you just accept the proposed offer. True story, yes, it is possible to lose the offer completely during the negotiation phase. I used to get an offer from a big company some years back, but the salary offered was not up to my expectation, so on the spot, I said that I think the salary was a bit low. The HR arranged an additional meeting with a higher hierarchy, I thought it was a negotiation meeting, but somehow it turned out to be another interview, and I knew that the director took off his vacation to meet me, the interview was pretty normal, but in the end, I got an email from HR, that they decided to close the process with me.

I guess most companies prefer to choose people who have the matching expectation, the reason is, hiring someone unhappy to start with increases the possibility of turnover.

So the advice here is to first find out the bottom line, it can also be achieved by researching the salary range in the current company, or industry, to get some idea.

4. Try to get multiple offers at the same time

When you start job hunting, make sure you apply to multiple (similar) companies, this allows you to understand how different companies operate, additionally, you should attempt to get offers from different companies in the same period. This gives you more leverage during the negotiation phase and provides you with some backup plans too.

5. Don’t forget to consider the status quo

Don’t forget, the status quo is also an option! Once you get an offer, you should have at least 2 options, go with the new offer, or stay with the current company, if you are unemployed, keeping looking is also an option, as accepting a shitty offer deprives you of chasing better opportunities – in microeconomy, this is called opportunity cost.

So, if you get an offer, congrats, but you do not need to accept it if it is not up to your expectation.

6. What can you negotiate?

A. Bruto salary

You might already know that Belgium has very high taxation and social security contribution, so the bruto salary negotiation might not make much difference to your monthly net amount.

However, Bruto amount can influence a couple of other income eventually, such as bonus (typically 1-2 month of bruto), double vacation allowance (92% of your bruto), 13th-month salary (100% of your monthly bruto), group insurance saving (a certain percentage of your bruto salary depending on the offer), annual salary raise due to performance review or indexation, etc.

B. Netto allowance

Some companies provide net allowance (60-300 euro) as part of the remuneration offered, this is not subject to social security nor income tax. Usually, the company offers netto amount based on employee’s level in the company, but you can always ask for an exception if you cannot reach an agreement on the bruto salary. Note the netto allowance amount does not influence other calculations such as the ones mentioned above.

C. Holidays

You can also negotiate on the amount of paid holidays the company can offer to you, depending on the flexibility of the company. I always ask the recruiter if the company offers educational leave, even though I know it is my legal right, but it is better to clarify and make it clear and get it confirmed.

D. Education or training sponsorship

If you are following or going to follow some extra education after you join the company, it is also good to ask for sponsorship as part of the negotiation. As this is a one-time expense for the company, it is typically easier than asking for raise in the monthly salary.

E. Other benefits in kind such as group insurance

If you are not interested in any of the above benefits during the negotiation phase, or you cannot make any agreement, you can also check if there is any room for negotiation of benefits in kind. Most people do not look at the group insurance provided by the employer, but I think it is rather important, as the group insurance will be part of your pension portfolio, which can impact your life quality when you retire.

F. Work from home

Right now full-time working from home makes this point not so interesting, but before the pandemic, it is quite painful if you live far from your employer. Belgium has very rigid hours for almost everything such as doctor visits, bank visits, etc, plus the congestion, you can barely run any chores during the weekdays if you work too far from home, working from home can help you arranging time more flexibly.

Most of the companies do offer 1 day per week work from the home policy. If not, this can also be one of the points for agreement before you sign the offer.

7. Compare your options

When you compare your options (and don’t forget your current one!), try to list down the pros and cons of each option, salary comparison is only one of the aspects, try to list down all the important elements and score the options accordingly. Below are some suggestions for comparison.

A. Salary

As mentioned before, each company can offer a salary scheme differently. You might need to calculate all the benefits in kind, bonus, etc into cash for comparison.

Note, salary is not the most important factor in your comparison, many aspects need to be considered to make sure you make a good decision.

B. Career development

Career development is another factor for consideration, work is a two-way contract. In exchange for your effort and time in the work, employers not only provide monetary remuneration, but also a platform for mentoring and growth, and personal influence.

My personal suggestion is, at the beginning of your career, joining big international companies is more beneficial for your career development, as it helps you to build your network, learn from professional co-workers, and enjoy systematic trainings. If you are already quite experienced in your career and looking for opportunities for more impact on the organization (and fewer politics), small or medium enterprises might be more suitable. But each case can be quite different, the point is, choosing an offer is also choosing a future development platform for yourself.

C. Location

Belgium has one of the worst congestion during rush hours, be very conscious of the location of the new company. If your commuting route is too far, or the direction is too congested, you will suffer from time loss, sedentary problems, and the risk of traffic accidents.

D. Annual (paid) holidays

The minimum legal annual holiday is 20 days per year, but some companies offer more, it does not have any direct impact on the income, but the time you get from extra holidays is invaluable, you can use it for traveling, learning new things, or work on your own project.

Don’t hesitate to check out my previous post about 11 types of holidays you can apply for apart from your annual leave.

E. Work environment (culture, diversities, work policy..)

Working environments such as company policies, cultures, etc can be really important and sometimes even act as a deal-breaker! Lots of people leave their employer due to work culture such as organizational in-agility, toxic environment, lack of respect, disconnected co-workers, etc.

During your interview, you should at least meet or ask questions about your direct co-workers, find out how international and diversified the team is, just to get a feeling.

8. Consider counter-proposal – deferred salary raise

This is a great tip that worked for me and many others too.

Sometimes, due to budget reasons, there is no room for immediate salary raise during the hiring phase, to meet in the middle, you can always counter propose to have the salary raise after 6 months (or whatever time) of the onboarding. This can give the organization breathing time to plan for the budget for the next year. Make sure this is in a written agreement with the recruiter and your manager.

9. Always have agreements written

Before you sign the offer, remember, always make sure any discussion points or agreements are written in an email or in the offer letter to avoid future disputes.

These are some of the suggestions about choosing and negotiating job offers in Belgium, let me know if you have any other suggestions!

If you are interested in how to exit an employer in a professional manner, check my previous post: Manage your resignation in Belgium

Read more about Belgium:

How to read your payslips in Belgium?

Manage your resignation in Belgium

What should you do after getting a job offer in Belgium

How can you spend the 250 euro eco cheques?

Tax refund in Belgium – Optimise your income tax

Health insurance, are you using it to its full potential?

Check all the leaves you might have missed while working in Belgium

Back to school – working student in Belgium

Fun facts about divorces in Belgium

Holiday periods – Belgium vs China

Getting to know about Flemish people

Recommended movie: The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

I watched this movie when I was in college, not only did I love the motivational story about all the struggles before Chris Gardner got the job offer and finally made it back on his feet, it still struck me each time I watch it, but also I am impressed by the performance of Will Smith and his son, it won him best actor of Oscar of that year. If you haven’t watched it, please do, if you already did, watch it again.:)

Quote from the movie: “There is no ‘y’ in the happiness, there is only ‘I'”.

References:

https://www.statista.com/chart/21084/average-hours-lost-to-congestion-per-driver-in-major-european-cities/#:~:text=The%20analysis%20also%20examined%20traffic,hours%20on%20average%20in%202019.

Manage your resignation in Belgium

‘https://www.ellwoodatfield.com/event/the-perks-and-benefits-of-being-a-brussels-salaried-employee/

http://cpe.deloitte.be/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454921/

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