Most of my employer clients spend less than an hour with me initially to share the scope of work they need to have completed.

I send them a proposal and after a few edits it is signed, and we schedule a kickoff call. The compensation project moves forward, and the work gets done in the estimated timeframe and within budget.

Occasionally I talk to a potential employer client about the compensation work they need to have done and six months or more later, we are still talking.

I get anxious and concerned when it takes that long to arrive at a decision.

Because that typically means they don’t make decisions quickly and/or the compensation project isn’t a priority. And often this comes with a mindset that I should provide an extremely high number of deliverables for a very low price.

It may also mean they have an HR/Compensation team with a lot of priorities.

A lot of priorities are usually a signal that there are no true priorities and lots of reactionary fire drills in that work environment.

And then I communicate that the project we’ve been discussing is going to be a higher price because I have experienced the number of hours it takes to get stakeholder buy-in, approval, and the slow decision-making process.

If you are an employee, tell me the warning signs you’ve experienced during an interview process that made you go “Nope. I’m out.”

Or if you are a consultant providing B2B professional services, what are the warning signs you use to opt out of a project?

#decisionmaking #humanresources #compensation #negotiation #leadership #warningsigns #priorities