Salary requests in 2021 include risk surcharge

After months of hesitation, the willingness of specialists and executives to switch is rising sharply again. This is also accompanied by higher salary requests. Due to the lockdowns and the unpredictable future last year, many applicants waited until the beginning of 2020 before making a potential change of employer. However, as the market continues to be stable, many companies are optimistic about the future, and incidence rates continue to trend downward.

“There are more professionals and executives in IT, finance, real estate, or hospitality looking to switch to the market than there were just a few months ago,” confirms Garry Levin, managing director of executive search firm LHC International. “Currently, however, the successful transfer and conclusion of a contract often fails due to the salary requests of the candidates, which are too high from the employer’s point of view. In some cases the demands are exaggerated, frequently these are explained due to two factors. Firstly, the competition for the best talents is again fully flared up, and good specialists are rare in many ranges. In addition, despite the optimistic mood, changing jobs is currently a major risk for many applicants. These factors mean that candidates’ salary expectations are frequently significantly higher than what companies are willing to pay.

The problem: Excessively high salary expectations block applicants’ paths to many exciting companies or even industries. It is therefore important to find out exactly what salary ranges can be expected and are justified in the current market situation. To be able to go into the job interview or the next salary negotiation with a supervisor with well-founded salary expectations, candidates, and employees should prepare themselves well and follow the tips below.

Do the salary check on Google

On the Internet, you can find salary lists for almost every conceivable profession, which show a range of the usual salaries in the respective job. Such lists are well suited for an initial orientation. The issue is that the salary range can be quite wide, and the overviews do not always reflect the current situation. An online salary check alone is therefore usually not enough to be well-prepared for salary negotiations.

Place yourself correctly in the salary range

Once you have a first indication of the current market salaries, turn your attention to your professional situation. Newcomers to the profession should place themselves at the lower end of the scale. If you already have a few years of experience and are perhaps above averagely qualified for the job, you should consider yourself at the upper end of the salary range.

Finding the personal feel-good salary

In addition to personal professional experience and qualifications, another factor plays an important role: the shortage of skilled workers. The more your skills are in demand on the market and the fewer suitable candidates there are, the more likely it is that you can play up your salary demand. Weighing up all these factors and translating them into figures is not easy for applicants. Recruiters, on the other hand, talk to applicants and clients every day. They also find out what salary the two parties have agreed on in the end. This means that they have an excellent overview of the market situation and know what salary you can expect for a particular job with the employer of your choice with your profile. The mediation is also free of charge for you as an applicant.

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