How to negotiate senior/well paid positions?

[Whooo]

I’m in the fortunate position of being given multiple offers & am able to negotiate with a few employers simultaneously, to discuss permanent employment contracts.

I work at a senior level in a digital profession. The jobs are either associate director/director level if management, or staff/principal level if not management. All pay over £100k. range of say £100-140k base.

I have a public sector background so am not used to negotiating a package or bonus or setting myself at the top range effectively etc. I feel so much goes into it, annual leave entitlement, pension costs etc do you just go in with a long list of it all to the new employer? What’s the strategy?

and how do you compare between them all?
eg is a £100k role with £30k bonus, better than a £110k base with no bonus? And do you ask upfront, what the bonus is contingent on to gauge how likely it is to be paid? Have you ever discussed an employer funding relocation?

I think first you wait for them to put an offer on the table, which should cover base salary, bonus terms, pension contributions, other employee benefits such as relocation expenses, private medical and dental, maternity leave, etc. Make sure to ask for a comprehensive list of their benefits prior to any negotiations. And don’t forget to consider the personal allowance that you lose around the £100-120k salary range? Not entirely certain about the range but you can find out.

@Overtheatlantic thank you. You’re right. I think I’d likely salary sacrifice to get under 100k where possible. For being in my 20s, it’s likely I’m going to have to get a job in the £100-120k range as opposed to surpassing it. But I can use it as a stepping stone to earn more in future, where the extra tax etc becomes less stark.

The PP nailed it.

Personally I would also compare annual leave and time off benefits.
I work in the private sector and currently have 28 days annual leave, 3 additional days for Christmas, 2 additional days for anniversaries and get an additional day each year up to 5 years, with public holidays on top of.

So without public holidays my annual leave package is about 38 days a year. I value my time off so this was important to me. Some of this is part of the company package, some I negotiated as part of my contract.

@dazedandblue thank you, do you ever have to send evidence when negotiating?

for example I have 30 days AL entitlement due to being with my public sector employer for 5 years. Would I say, I currently have this benefit and would they say, have you got proof? Or is that not a thing that crops up? Or, am I overthinking this and you don’t need to reference your current package but just ask for what you’re after in isolation?

Just bear in mind if leaving the public sector you will likely be losing out on around 25% of employer's pension contributions, therefore your salary needs to reflect this unless they will match it.

You don't need to give proof of what you currently have, just ask for what you want from the new job.
For the bonus - definitely ask how it is calculated, ie how much is based on your own personal performance and how much is based on company performance, and what their bonus pay outs have been over the last few years so you have an idea of how likely you are to get the headline amount

Like a PP says, there will likely be a big difference between your current pension arrangements and what is available in private sector (most likely a DC scheme). You want to know what the employers contribution % is and if they match your own contribution on top of that (this will likely be capped at a %). An annual bonus may not be considered pensionable income so if that is a big chunk of your renumeration, bear in mind your employer probably won't be making a pension contribution on it.

If theres private health cover find out what level it is (may be the basic level of cover and you have to pay more for enhanced cover)

Maternity/parental leave policies if that is relevant to you

Thanks. The pay increase is more than enough to cover that, to be frank with you.

I don’t think the pension is that much of a consideration, the more money you earn. I would endeavour to pay into it as much as possible/salary sacrifice and obviously employer will contribute to pension too so it won’t be like it’s at zero. I think overall my pension contributions would likely rise, but I haven’t negotiated that as yet.