Women better at salary negotiation

Women are better at negotiating their salaries according to a snapshot poll undertaken by Perriam & Everett, a talent management consultancy.

The poll asked owner/managers and directors of recruitment consultancies a number of questions regarding gender differences within their organisation. Most organisations (98 per cent) said that the top performers in their organisations were pretty evenly split between men and women.

There was also a healthy percentage of women in top jobs with over three-quarters of respondents (78 per cent) saying that half or
more of their senior roles were held by females. One national finance recruiter said that four out of five of its regional directors
were women.

Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of respondents said that women were better at negotiating their salaries than men. “I find that often, women tend to drill down much more quickly to what they have actually achieved and, importantly what else they have contributed – while sometimes men concentrate solely on hard targets and numbers,” said one respondent

“It’s the ‘softer’ skills that can really make a difference to an organisations bottom line,” said Aisling Tighe, managing director of Perriam & Everett. “Evidence of a link between profitability and women at the top is growing. Recent research from McKinsey found that European companies with the highest proportion of women in influential leadership roles do better than their sector average in terms of return on equity, operating results and share price growth. Given all the column inches devoted to the gender pay gap and the ubiquitous ‘glass ceiling’, it’s good to see that the recruitment sector is championing the business case for gender diversity and that women are beginning to lead, rather than follow, in the salary negotiation stakes.”