If there was an HR minimum curriculum, would it be odd if all HR professionals learned about “negotiations”?
People costs are huge, and HR is dealing with high budgets all the time (from benefits to training, hiring etc). Therefore, even a 10% discount can have high impact. But are we drifting away from the core of HR by doing that?
In a negotiation class that I had in business school, I learned a nice tagline to use every time someone present you a budget: “where does this number came from?”. Also received the following assignments:
1. We had to ask for 10 different stuff for 10 different people (simple as that: from asking for someone to pay for your food to asking to drive a bulldozer)
2. You had to negotiate three things that are non-negotiable (something that you know people would say ‘no’)
The projects appeared to be a little bizarre for a business school program. But I found the goals of the assignment interesting:
1. “Where does this number came from?”: many suppliers try to “anchor” you setting high prices that few people question. The idea is for you to valuate the service (or good) yourself and try to understand how the other side is setting prices. Most of the times, is market driven (so there are huge margins). By asking the logic behind, you can reach a “win-win” point.
2. Asking for stuff: incredible how many people is willing to give you what you want if you just…ask! The idea is to shy away of asking for discounts, which leads to the next lesson…
3. Non-negotiable: sometimes you can get huge discounts just by asking. People started getting discounts in shopping malls, plane tickets, restaurants with fixed-rate menus… and suppliers! ( most of them are quite happy in giving a discount to make a deal – win-win again!) 
What do you think about these strategies applied to HR?
That are other three tips I got from a turnaround book:
- Don’t let the relationship person negotiate: the relationship person will always be too soft when negotiating. Take him out of the game! Find someone that will go deep to costs, without emotions . In companies, don’t let the HR person do the negotiation, but call up the purchase department.
- Be ready to walk away: don’t get desperate, generally you have plenty of good options. But if it doesn’t work…
- Don’t let pride get in the way: it’s not a problem to go back and make the deal with someone you negotiated
One problem that may raise is how to balance technical choices to price (like when we put the purchase department in). A good solution is could be to establish a frame to make decision (how better each supplier is). But even when you have no choices, you still may have opportunities to drive costs down just by asking.
What do you think? Is that too harsh, should HR be driven mainly by technical decisions? Or should we give “costs” a higher attention?
Let me know what you think or if you have other negotiation techniques that could be applied for HR!
Best
Alex
