Anyone who had been looking forward to a substantial wage increase this year will come home from a rude awakening in some sectors. It is often possible to talk about secondary employment conditions, if more money is not an option. What can you think about?
Soon a performance review? Then this year it is a good idea to talk about secondary employment conditions. “It is indeed a time of crisis, but many companies have also saved costs in 2020,” says Sophie van Gool, co-owner of Salaristijger, a company that helps employees with salary negotiations, among other things. “Like at events that were organized in other years but did not take place this year.”
According to Van Gool, many employees do not realize that they can also negotiate about other things than money. While most companies are happy when you come up with creative solutions, when more salary is not possible.
What can you think about? There are several options, says Ralph Koks, manager of the employment law and tax law department at SD Worx, an HR service provider. “Employment conditions can also be things like a nice working atmosphere in a beautiful location.” If you want to negotiate, first ask yourself what makes you happy. Do you want more free time or do you like it when your pension or insurance is properly arranged? Then look for terms of employment that you can talk about.
Holidays
For a full-time working week (40 hours), twenty vacation days is the minimum. But many employers deviate from that. Dutch employees have an average of 25.6 vacation days, according to figures from Intermediair. There are major differences per sector in the Netherlands. These are the sectors with the most free hours.
Asking for more vacation days during a negotiation is not uncommon. It costs little for an employer. Koks: “Someone who has an extra vacation day is more energetic and motivated and may work more efficiently on other days, which can also have advantages for employers.”
If you are taking maternity or parental leave, you can also discuss this. Van Gool: “Negotiate longer leave or longer unpaid leave”.
Commuting
Travel allowance is one of the best-known fringe benefits negotiated by employees. Negotiate about the proposal your employer makes. Van Gool: “It is often a certain amount per kilometer, but this is not always cost-effective. You can also ask, for example, whether you can count travel time as working time. ”
A company car can be of interest to both employer and employee. “The tax addition that you pay as an employee for a car is relatively low, for that money you cannot drive the same car in private,” says Koks. Those who prefer a bicycle can often arrange this through their employer. “In practice, we see this happening very little.”
Telephone with subscription
Still saves a few tens a month. “It can be fiscally attractive for the employer. Especially when the employee needs the phone for work, “says Koks.
Sports subscription
A sports subscription at the expense of the company has been on the rise in recent years. Employees thus save costs for the gym and employers hope to get fit and healthy employees in return.
Study or training
Employees often do not know that there is a potential for this in the company they work for. Ask about this, certainly at the end of the year, if there is still a budget left that “must”, Van Gool suggests.
Even when it is clearly communicated that a training budget is available, it is often still possible to talk about it, she says. “If the budget is 1000 euros, but you have found a course of 1200 euros, there is a good chance that it is allowed.”
The ability to work from home
Do you long for the noisy office garden where it is too cold or too warm by default? Think a little longer about the future. Negotiating the ability to work from home regularly – perhaps a set day each week – can be tempting again after the pandemic.
After all, you save travel time and it can be nice for the work-life balance. Not to mention the benefits for the environment and the congestion. In addition, it costs employers nothing. According to Van Gool, something like “flexibility” is easy to give away by an employer. Win-win-win.
Asking for a home working allowance is currently relevant. The employer can meet you with costs for a desk, good chair or monitor. Or making such things available to you, of course, that is most common in practice, Koks knows.
Retirement
Employees consider retirement provision to be one of the most important terms of employment, according to the National Employment Conditions Survey of Intermediair and APG, conducted among nearly seven thousand people. 92 percent expect their employer to have a pension plan – 79 percent of those surveyed do – and the lack of one may be a reason not to sign a contract.
How much do you put in every month as an employee? And how much pension contribution does the employer pay? This is something to negotiate. If no pension has been arranged, more salary, so that you as an employee can arrange your own retirement provision, may still be an option.
