Negotiating Remote Work In A New Job Search

July 19, 2021 in Career and Job Search Tips

 

 

If you are in a job search and prefer to work from home, how can you incorporate that into your search?

Kinsa Group offers these four tips for negotiating remote work:

  1. Understand your real motives for wanting to work from home.
    • Is it about child care? Ask whether the company offers any assistance.
    • Do you have an appropriate workspace at home? Let your employer know varying your location could improve your ability to focus and accomplish a task.
    • Will you be traveling to visit customers closer to your home than the corporate office? This saves you time, and your employer money on travel expenses.
  2. Focus on the impact remote work can have on the employer and why it may be in their best interest.
    • Consider the commute. Will remote work allow you to put in more productive hours for your employer? This is where negotiation can come in. If you are saving 90 minutes of commuting time daily, for example, suggest a commitment to spend some of that time working.
  3. Flexibility may itself be of value to an employer. Even if companies need to have some of their employees working on-site, the cost can be reduced.
    • For example, Forbes found that one remote work-study showed that companies save an average of $22,000 per remote employee, partially due to needing less real estate.
    • Employing professionals that live in areas with a lower cost of living may equate to lower salary overhead.
  4. If your job lends itself to quantifiable metrics, mention those.
    • If you rocked your work KPIs [key performance indicators] while working from home, share that data, especially if you exceeded your goals.

Be especially aware of these two things:

  • First, be wary of scammers taking advantage of this trend. Any advertised opportunity that leads with “work from home” should be viewed with suspicion. Legitimate employers don’t hire people who want to work from home (who happen to be engineers), they hire engineers (who may happen to want to work from home).
  • Second, be realistic. Some jobs can’t be worked remotely, at least not entirely. A lab-based food scientist role or a mechanical engineer responsible for installing packaging equipment are two examples of roles that would require you to be onsite, mostly or entirely.

Ready to tackle a new job search? Need a partner to help you in negotiating remote work as an employee benefit? Add Kinsa Group to your job hunt toolbox! With over 36 years of experience, we’re North America’s most experienced food and beverage recruiting team. View our current openings now, many offer full-time or hybrid work-from-home options.