A crucial business skill, improving your ability to negotiate will help you better manage expatriates and their wants and needs.

• Negotiation tips

HR’s sometimes unfortunate image as a dull realm of administration — provide answers, information and support on demand to local employees, expats or management — isn’t always deserved.

The best way for HR to dispel this, according to experts, is for HR staff to get involved in making business-critical decisions. And an important part of that role includes knowing how to negotiate deals and policies in addition to doing more traditional compensation and expatriate package negotiations.

 Krauthammer International is a Netherlands-based negotiating skills development company. Marketing Manager Marika Dirkshoorn says, “As HR staff manage the workers, they have such a valuable insight into what the workers want, need and feel, and thus often have sensible but highly imaginative suggestions but they don't know how to communicate this."

According to Dirkshoorn, negotiating is not just a polite term for arguing or “getting what you want”, rather, it is finding a way to allow both parties to walk away satisfied.

"People should never look for a situation whereby one person wins and the other loses, because that is a failed negotiation. It should always be a win-win situation for both parties,” she says.

"To negotiate well, you have to be prepared, and that means knowing as much as possible about the person you are negotiating with — not to use fast, sneaky tricks but to be able to understand how they think, how they view things, what they want and moreover, why.”

Steven P Cohen, founder and president of Massachusetts-based The Negotiation Skills Company (TNSC), says when it comes to expatriate-related negotiations, HR should present open questions rather than yes/no ones. This prevents the perception that “yes” means success and “no” means failure.

Cohen believes that it’s okay to give an expat whatever he wants if the budget allows, especially since expats have different needs depending on their spouse/family situation.

"In terms of negotiating expat incentives during their international assignment, primarily there is a need for HR managers to look at their overall budget with which to work,” says Cohen. “After that, they should realise that as long as the total of the benefits and perks which the expat is demanding does not exceed the pre-decided limit, then it is really irrelevant how this money is spent.

"So if the expat wants flights, home, health care, servants, whatever, then that should be fine and not a cause for argument.”

NEGOTIATION TIPS

• Separate the people from the problem. If we view the problem as that which needs to be resolved rather than viewing someone holding a contrary viewpoint as a person to be defeated, the odds of a successful collaboration increase.
• Distinguish between interests and positions. Your position is what you want, the interest is why you want it. Negotiating is about meeting both interests.
• Negotiators who arrive with a complete package can create real problems. Modifications to their ideas might be taken personally, they may be stubborn, and reaching a satisfactory resolution is made more difficult.
• Consider your BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement). If you do not reach an agreement with the other, does that really make things worse for you? In determining your BATNA, a straightforward review of your interest will give you the clearest picture.
• If you accept your BATNA, you know when you can simply turn your back on the negotiations. But it is important not to ignore the other party's BATNA. The relative strength of each party's BATNA will determine the balance of power each can exercise.
• Silence is golden. This is true for two reasons: If one party is highly opinionated or emotional, or if their approach is threatening or extremely demanding, keeping quiet after they finish speaking can be quite unsettling to them. Also, silence is an important element in the crucial tool called Active Listening. The job of a good negotiator is to listen to and understand what others are saying. The active listener may actually be able to get a clearer picture of the other party's ideas. And when the listener's response shows just how good a job he or she has done listening, it can shock the other party (ie, “They actually paid attention to me!").
• Pursue fairness. If all the participants view the process as fair, they are more likely to take it seriously and 'buy into' its result.
• Only one person can get angry at a time. This is yet another means to help individuals keep a cool head and pay attention to the process and the strategy, as well as the substance of the negotiation.

Source: The Negotiation Skills Company