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Extra benefits as recruiting tool?

HRCalicoHRCalico 582 Posts
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I have had two new hires in the past few months request additional vacation as part of their job offer negotiations. I was able to keep that out of it for a few different reasons, but wondered if anyone else experiences this. I would think granting such requests would open the door for discrimination issues and I certainly don't want to go down that road!

Does *anyone* offer different levels of benefits for recruiting? I guess part of it is that people have established a certain amount of senority at their current job and don't want to start over with vacation. Since people are changing jobs more often, I'd guess that to be more and more of a problem.
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  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Gillian3Gillian3 913 Posts
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    How bad do you want the person? If it is the make or break issue for the person and you won't bend, the cost might be a lot more than the vacation. It is fairly common at the higher range of jobs. Discrimination is only an issue if the reason for giving the extra time to this person, not others or current employees, is based on race, sex etc. It isn't - it is a negotiated item, without which, you couldn't hire the person.
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  • HR in CAHR in CA 251 Posts
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    It it a common practice we use for non-entry level positions, especially IT. We have never had any issues in the 20 years the company has been doing it.
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  • SueSue 64 Posts
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    It seems extra vacation is easily asked for while hiring. We often make this exception for managers. We also allow employees to take 5 days of unpaid vacation per year. Its called the vacation option benefit and is very popular.Its easy to manage.

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  • Don DDon D 9,834 Posts
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    Just like deciding/negotiating on the salary you will offer, it is common to offer vacation early, or more vacation, or early entry into the bonus program, or country club membership, or an auto or a review with possible increase at six months, etc.

    I've never heard of an EEOC type charge related to the practice.
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  • sandra_dsandra_d 136 Posts
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    I too think it is fairly common, and have both given it when I've hired someone else, as well as asked for it when I've been offered a job.

    If you are too concerned, for legal purposes, or for appearances if other staff pay attention to how much paid vacation their co-workers take, you could determine the financial cost of an extra week of vacation, add that into the annual salary, and tell them to take the week off without pay. They would, of course, re-coop the full week of pay over the course of their year of employment. (I think most people would take the higher salary, without taking the week of unpaid time off.)
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  • Dutch2Dutch2 1,590 Posts
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    Same here. It is not uncommon for us to grant "extra" vacation, within our currrent limits to new employees, especially for the higher ranking positions. It is not uncommon for us to grant new employees 1/2 credit for time worked at other companies doing the same or simial job when they come on board.
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