Negotiation techniques project

Negotiation techniques project

Negotiating a job offer

For this essay we have chosen a job negotiation as one of the best representatives of real life negotiations. The essay is structured in two parts:

The first one provides a history of the negotiation that took place, describing each stage of the negotiation meaning the Preparation, following the Opening statement, the Bargaining and of course the Settlement.

The second part provides an analysis on the process of this negotiation and its outcome.

The negotiation

The negotiation is done between two parties. The first one is Ooops Advertising which is one successful advertising company in Romania and the other one is Cristina Trofim, a young college graduate seeking for a job in this field.

Preparation

Ooops Advertising was seeking for a new employee to replace the vacant seat of the Design Assistant Manager. First they analysed the tasks that a new employee should have performed then they established a Job description sheet which associated with the company's vision would have helped them create the image of what they were seeking to get from a new employee and outline the main characteristics of the ideal candidate. These characteristics were vital in the recruitment process because they represented priorities. They came up with one essential characteristic which was Creativity, two important characteristics like Efficiency and Sociability, and a one desirable feature like team work capability. Being a multinational company with more than twenty years of experience in advertising, made most of the career seeking candidates eager to get a job in this company so the managers were entitled to set the ground rules for the job negotiation and establish the conditions of the job offer. The company had set its BATNA based on the salary and extra hours worked so it was willing to pay the new employee no more than 2000 euro plus medical insurance and other bonuses for a candidate that would have fulfilled all of the company's main requirements and accepted to work a minimum of 40 extra hours per month paid two times their normal value.

Having the image of the perfect candidate in mind, the company started spreading the news of a new job offer using all media sources, internet, and recruitment agencies. They posted job offers in advertising magazines, posted banners in key locations in the city, posted on eJobs.ro their offer and expected to get contacted by potential candidates. The procedure was very simple: a candidate would call a recruitment office were he will get the information on necessary documents, then email his CV and wait for the company to call back to be scheduled to an interview.

Cristina Trofim, a young graduate from The Faculty of Marketing in the Academy of Economic Studies was searching for a job. She had been signed in for newsletter from eJobs, which would send her an email each time a new job in the advertising sector would appear. This is how she found out that Ooops Advertising was scouting. She had dreamed to work for an advertising company, a very successful one were she would be able to advance and have a big career, since she started college and had searched for the perfect job for four years now. She participated in numerous interviews, even had internships in some companies but none had succeeded to offer her the opportunity to develop a strong career in this field.

Cristina had several other job proposals but aside from being well paid, these jobs didn't offer her a broad perspective for career, which she found essential when taking a new job. Other important elements were salary and incentives and it would also be desirable that the company would offer her preferential medical insurance. These were the key issues Cristina considered when she applied for the job at Ooops Advertising. Her BATNA was also related to salary because she was offered a job in another advertising company were they were willing to pay her 1600 Euros but the downside was that it was a relatively small company. The working schedule is also very important for Cristina. She isn't willing to sacrifice her long weekends with deadline pressure and overtime. A maximum of 50 hours a month paid three times their normal value is her demand.

Before applying to Ooops Advertising, Cristina gathered as much information about the company as possible in order to both seek if her essential demands were met and also to be well prepared when discussing with the recruitment team, if she were selected. She was excited about this job offer but tried to think rationally when taking such an important decision because as she learned from the past, thinking twice was a virtue. She knew that in order to have a successful career she had to be in the right company and choosing one had been a challenge so far.

After weighing the company's offer, she decided to apply for this position and sent an email with her CV and expected to be contacted. The recruitment officer replied to Cristina's request, setting an interview with the Design Manager at the company's headquarters.

She felt she really had a chance to get this job. Cristina had finished top of her class, is very creative and has proven not only once in school projects that she works very well in teams. To prove all of her qualities she attached to her remarkable CV a recommendation letter from her Marketing professor.

Opening Session

Ooops Advertising set the ground rules for the negotiation, which took place in their headquarters, held by the Design Manager (the one seeking for an assistant) and HR manager, which granted each candidate 20 minutes of interview, were they were presented the company's offer and expected the candidate to state its demands. A written contract between the employer and the new employee would mark the final agreement.

The company presented its opening offer when publishing the job offer. Cristina responded to this offer when she applied and sent her CV which met all of the company's requirements regarding the abilities of a potential candidate. These actions marked the beginning of the negotiation and were performed before the parties have met.

Both parties bared in mind the fact that their opportunity was unique. The company found Cristina to be the closest to the perfect candidate, and Cristina was offered this dream job. Anyhow, neither knew the impact that it had on the other one so the grounds for a negotiation were established.

The meeting took place Thursday on the 28^th of August 2008. Cristina met the recruitment committee which was composed by the design manager of Ooops Advertising and the human resources manager in the company. They were both impressed with Cristina's CV and asked her why it is important for her to work in the company. Cristina replied with confidence that it looked like a very good opportunity for her to work there because that company offered her the framework for building a good career in advertising which has been her passion since she can remember. She continued by trying to convince the committee that she was their best choice not only because she is hard working and skilled but because she is passionate about everything she does. The interviewers were impressed by her answer and decided that she would get the job if they settled on the salary offer.

Bargaining

Cristina was offered 1700 Euros as a salary plus bonuses by the company. She wasn't satisfied with this proposal and demanded 2100 Euros and a preferential medical insurance. The HR manager pointed out that in spite of being a very good candidate for this position, the company couldn't afford to pay her more than 1800 Euros plus bonuses. Cristina couldn't settle for this and replied that she was already offered another job which paid her 2000 Euros plus bonuses and preferential health plan. She was then reminded that she must acknowledge the fact that this job offers her the unique opportunity to build a strong career and their new proposal was to settle for this salary which would be renegotiated after one year. After a short moment of reflection, Cristina made another proposal: 1800 Euros plus bonuses, medical preferential plan and renegotiation of the contract in six months when she would have been able to prove herself. This offer sounded great for the employer who accepted.

The salary being settled, Cristina asked her schedule. She was supposed to work from Monday to Friday from 10 AM to 6 PM plus extra hours if deadlines would require it. She felt that this deadline extra hours were very important to discuss because she wouldn't accept to work for each project extra hours when deadline would approached so she asked for a limit of extra hours. The design manager and her new boss, motivated that he asks for full responsibility of all his employees regarding meeting a deadline so he believes that no extra hours would be required if the scheduling of each project is followed. Cristina was not satisfied by this answer because she knew that when dealing with three other departments in working on a project, a delay in one's account would delay her schedule and mess up the whole timing of the process so she asked the manager to settle for a maximum of 40 extra hours per month and her weekend hours to be paid four times the regular price per hour. Knowing from past experiences that the amount of extra hours for an employee in his department were about 50 hours and most of these hours were done in weekends he proposed Cristina the following: 50 extra hours, and weekend hours paid three times the normal value. Cristina kept silence as a negotiating tactic and waited for him to reconsider. Confused by her attitude he reformulated his proposal: 45 extra hours and weekend hours paid three times their normal value. Cristina decided to take this offer even though she felt 45 hours were a little to much for her but she couldn't take the risk of pushing the negotiation to the limits.

The closing

Both parties reached an agreement and Cristina was welcomed in the company by her new boss, the Design Manager, and a symbolic handshake concluded the agreement.

Cristina was satisfied with the negotiation and a written document was prepared by Ooops Advertising to formally conclude the agreement.    

The contract contained the promise of the company to offer the job to Cristina and reward her with 1800 Euros per month plus other bonuses, preferential medical plan and the promise that after six months a renegotiation of the contract would take place. This contract also mentioned Cristina's schedule and the maximum number of overtime negotiated, 45 hours per month, paid double the normal amount, and weekend hours paid three times the normal amount.

The parties signature represented the closing of the contract and of the job negotiation, Cristina becoming the new Design Assistant Manager of Ooops Advertising.

The analysis

In this case we had a multiple issue negotiation where both parties were interested on the content and on the relationship. The company had other candidates in mind but thought Cristina to be the one most appropriate for this job. Their relationship interest was not so important because they had alternatives. Cristina on the other hand found the best opportunity and the relationship in this negotiation had a higher stake than the content. However she failed to see this and pushing to far might have led her to lose this unique opportunity. When negotiating the contract she got caught in a game where she saw only the outcome of her winning and forgot that she was the one who should make compromises.

This negotiation has finished successfully, both parts getting something over their BATNA. Though the bargaining style was inappropriate for Cristina who was competing, she was lucky that the employers were impressed by her attitude an CV and adopted an accommodating technique, showing more interest in the relationship than the content of the negotiation.

We might say that we have an outcome of a win-win situation. However, there is room for improvement, because the strategy both parties followed was not their best choice. They should have used a collaborating bargaining style which would most certainly have brought the best outcome.

Cristina's bargaining style was competing, which is inappropriate for a person searching to get a job because this style takes little concern about the relationship and most concern on winning and getting her demanded salary. She used some interesting techniques when discussing her salary. She bluffed and told the employer that she was already offered a job that paid 2000 Euros, when her highest offer was 1600 Euros. Given the fact that she wanted this job so much she shouldn't have insisted on bargaining on her salary and incentives and focus more on the schedule. She could have been walking on thin ice if the recruitment committee would have been using the same bargaining style because the most likely outcome was an impasse. Her aggressive techniques could have offended the employer who is not interested in the relationship but more on finding the suitable employee which is willing to accept a decent offer. But this wasn't the only mistake Cristina did. She tried to psychological lead the negotiation when she adopted a very interesting strategy in discussing overtime. She kept quiet when she had a second proposal and waited for the employer to get caught in her game and lower the demand. This was very risky and was a more appropriate strategy for the employer to adopt when discussing the salary.

The settlement document contained the negotiated agreements: Cristina will receive a 1800 Euros in salary plus bonuses and other incentives, a preferential medical plan and the renegotiation of the contract in six months. She was supposed to work from Monday to Friday 10 AM to 6 PM and if necessary a maximum of 45 extra hours paid two times their normal value, weekend hours being paid three times their normal value.

The recruitment committee's weak point was exploited by Cristina who got 200 Euros over her BATNA and 5 overtime hours less. The committee adopted an accommodating position due to the fact that they liked Cristina very much and this was still not such a loss for the company. They got 200 Euros less than their BATNA, but they had to renegotiate again in six months and not one year as they proposed. They got 5 overtime hours over their BATNA but they also promised to pay weekend hours three time their normal value which was a little to much for what they were targeting. This strategy adopted by the employers was not a bad one because their experience thought them that good people are hard to find and they saw a lot of potential in Cristina and overlooked her young spirit which guided her towards competition and have proven their flexibility.

They had a common goal of getting to work together but the employer's flexibility and decision making ability was crucial in this case. Cristina's lack of negotiating experience was countered by the accommodating techniques the employers used to reach to an agreement. Her negotiation was a little too aggressive and in other circumstances her outcome would certainly be less favorable because she neglected the relationship or the future to be relationship in the negotiation process.