This startup doesn't negotiate salaries with job seekers; founder claims he counter offers them higher packages; know why

Entrepreneurs run businesses to earn profit other than proving their mettle in the field of their expertise. When they run a business, they hire employees based on the company's requirements, candidates' skill sets, and the firm's budget. Human resource officials want to hire quality people, but they spend up to a certain limit to have them on their company's roster. But there is a start up that claims that it transcends this limit every now and then. Not just transcends, but its founder claims that he suggests a higher remuneration when employees ask for lower salary packages, undervaluing them. This is startup Bengaluru-based Zoko and the founder is Arjun V Paul.

In a LinkedIn post, Arjun writes that after hiring a team of 18 candidates, he has got the recipe for retaining 'world-class' talent. 

"We don't negotiate salaries. We literally pay what they ask for," he writes.

It's like offering a moon to employees when they ask for it.

But is he on the right side of hiring the right people? 

Does his gut feeling or confidence in hiring the right set of people never backfire? 

"Then, we do revisions once a year," he writes further.

Does his strategy of giving desired salaries make employees drive the best out of them, or does it make them authoritative after having last say in the salary negotiation stage?

Paul, who is an MS from the University of Florida, counts the advantages of his strategy.

"It eliminates back-and-forth negotiations and builds immediate trust. It shows respect for their perceived value and expertise. They have no reason not to perform their absolute best since they're getting paid what they want. Avoids distracting salary discussions that were unplanned. It's pretty straightforward and works for us," says Paul.

He claims that he has negotiated salary only once, and it was to increase the asking package by the person being hired.  

"I've only negotiated salary once, and it was to increase the amount a candidate asked for. They undervalued themselves compared to others in the same role, so I had to tell them that and offer them more." 

Many people have reacted to Arjun's LinkedIn post. The co-founder and CEO of ellow.io says: "Arjun, what if he asks for a hike more than he needs? I have also negotiated with candidates who were asking for a 100 percent hike." 

To this, Arjun replied that we do not ask people about their previous salary. And we have seen that no one demands an exorbitant salary.

Come what may, companies drive hard bargains when negotiating with people being interviewed for the job. Having a start up that deals with this part smoothly, and despite offering desired

salaries, hiring candidates that can take the company's cause where it wants, is a difficult task. 

What does Zoko do?

Zoko is an all-in-one system that leverages the WhatsApp API to help people do sales, marketing and customer support on WhatsApp, it claims on its official website.