There are eight issues to be negotiated as the recruiter. In order of importance, my issues are: offering a salary of $42,000, job assignment in Division A, 5 days of vacation time, plan E insurance coverage, an August 1 starting date, a 2% bonus, to locate the employee in San Francisco, and 60% of moving expenses covered. Determining this order is part of the 3rd step of the planning process, where one party to the negotiation determines which issues are most important and which are less important. I asked myself, “What is most important?”, “What is second in importance?” and so on. There are a number of issues facing the other party. At the time of the interview, this particular employee could be new to the workforce, or have been unemployed for quite some time. From one perspective, he/she could be eager to find employment, and will adopt a moderate negotiating stance. On the other hand, he/she could be coming into the interview with firm expectations and will not be as willing to budge. This particular candidate may possess information about current employees in their desired position, and may believe that he/she is entitled to the same treatment. As the recruiter, I want to take a moderate stance, and be willing to make some concessions. I believe that if I take a cooperative and agreeable approach, the candidate will likely mirror this cooperation and agreeableness. I don’t want to approach this person with hostility or belligerence, because this candidate could very well be a valuable asset to our company. However, I do want to be firm with the issues of top priority. I don’t want to give any indication that he/she will be able to argue for each issue and win I would convey this nonverbally by sitting with arms uncrossed (so as not to appear cold or closed-off), making solid eye contact (to indicate confidence and firmness).
For this negotiation, my best alternative to a negotiated agreement (BATNA) would be to hire another candidate. While I would be moderate in my negotiating stance, there are only so many concessions I can make before it is no longer beneficial to hire this recruit. There will likely be another candidate more willing to make concessions. An additional BATNA would be to move someone from within the company to fill this position. More specifically, I would hire an existing employee whose job is similar to the open position. In doing this, it would minimize the training costs and the training time. These are both strong BATNAs and with them, I believe I will have more control in the negotiation and will be able to achieve most of my goals. I have set my collective target point at 13,200, and my collective resistance point at -8,400. I’ve chosen 13,200 because it is the absolute best contract I can get. I chose -8,400 for my resistance point because it is the lowest I can go while still accepting the contract. For each individual issue discussed, I will make my initial offer either marginally above or below the individual target points. In doing this, I am attempting to create a larger bargaining zone for the negotiation to take place in. This will create more distance between my target point and resistance point, and the desired result will be a settlement point that lies closer to my target. I envision problems and roadblocks arising when negotiating salary, job assignment and vacation time, because his/her desired outcome is likely to contradict my desired outcome. Additionally, this candidate could come into this negotiation with very firm goals, and may be unwilling to compromise. In order to counteract these roadblocks, I will