What is a hiring bonus?
It is a cash welcome bonus used by employers to achieve their ends in the famous talent war. Clearly, this widespread practice among the Anglo-Saxons aims to
- accelerate sometimes very tense hiring when the candidate hesitates to sign
- and to secure the risk-taking of the eagerly awaited candidate.
When it comes to compensation packages, employers need to be more creative to attract the best. Of course, they offer a flexible organization, 4-day weeks, an association with the capital… And the welcome bonus is one of the advantages.
Justine Baronnet-Fruges, manager of the Sales & Marketing division of Robert Walters
In this firm, it is now estimated that 2 out of 10 candidates get a hiring bonus compared to 0.1 out of ten 3 years ago.
Who can negotiate a hiring bonus?
It is not a right but a benefit to be negotiated. It concerns expert executives, senior executives and senior executives who, during the selection process, present specific profiles. Notably :
1- Those who have expertise that is worth gold on the market
Because having this candidate in your team is sure to ensure additional market share. The positions most concerned by these welcome bonuses correspond to the 17 functions which should be significantly increased in 2022 For those who will be expelled, they will be able to negotiate super “golden hellos” (see below “A hiring bonus is How many ? “)
2- Those who will leave their box without going through the bonus box.
“If a candidate leaves his company in September without receiving his annual bonus, then he can negotiate a welcome bonus to compensate for this shortfall”, says Justine Baronnet-Fruges.
3- Those who work for example on long sales cycles
For them, the first contract signatures will probably only arrive 12 or 18 months later. For example in the sale of large industrial equipment. Granting them a welcome bonus is a way of minimizing their risk and smoothing their remuneration.
4- Those who must take a vacant key position urgently
If the company is in a hurry to finalize the recruitment for a key position because it has already suffered several refusals from candidates, then a golden hello is more than possible.
5- Those whose claims are higher than the company’s salary grid
When changing companies, the wage gap is always substantial, but for reasons of fairness, employers prefer to grant a generous hiring bonus than to blow up the candidate’s fixed salary, at the risk of creating a gap with the employees already in office. The fixed portion is generally reassessed the following year.
How much is a hiring bonus?
Of course, everything depends on the profile of the candidate. For a commercial middle, the welcome bonus can be 3000 euros, the equivalent of one month of variable. In the private equitythis can climb to 100,000 euros.
On average, the amount of a hiring bonus rather varies between 10 and 30,000 euros.
How to negotiate your hiring bonus?
You must arrive with a specific number in mind. No way to ask for 15,000 euros one day and 20,000 euros in welcome bonus the next day on the pretext that you forgot something. Here’s how:
- Take time to calculate your current total remuneration. In addition to your fixed and your variable (premium and bonus but also profit-sharing and participation), do not forget to integrate your various benefits in classic kind (telephone, car, retirement, mutual, …) but also the assumption of responsibility childcare costs, the preferential rate of the loan granted by your company, etc.
- From this amount, apply a multiplier to arrive at your new salary expectations. If you expect 100,000 euros but the company caps its proposal at 80,000 euros, this is the time to try the hiring bonus argument. And this, once you are certain that the company has decided that you are the finalist.
“Candidates are in a strong position so recruiters listen carefully to their response to the question ‘what do you want?’ “. We must not hesitate to attempt a somewhat aggressive negotiation on this subject of welcome bonus. The company may also offer stock options. Candidates are also sensitive to it because it gives meaning to their work to be able to follow the results closely. This flatters their “entrepreneur” side, less risk taking, ”concludes Justine Baronnet-Fruges.
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First published: January 5, 2022. Last updated: September 1, 2022