In September of 2015, the City of Boston began offering free salary negotiation training to women in an effort to close the gender wage gap. This laudable effort has had some very useful results. The No Negotiator Left Behind (NNLB) program was built on this concept, but with a few significant differences.
First, the NNLB program focuses on underserved women in particular. Second, the program seeks to impart women with a broader set of negotiation skills that they can use in virtually all of their negotiations. This is the focus because negotiation is found in every aspect of our lives, from work to home and the world around us. Third, the NNLB training is a half day, which is longer than the Boston training, in order to cover a bit more material and customize it for the participants. And fourth and finally, there is a follow-on component to the training. Participants are able to join a closed online group where they can keep learning and growing after the training. They are also able to get coaching from current and former graduate students in the MS in Leadership and Negotiation (MSLN) program in the future.
The premise behind the NNLB program is to equip women who may not have had access to negotiation training with the skills, tools, and confidence to negotiate for changes to enhance their day-to-day lives, empowering them to achieve greater economic security and to recognize possibilities for long-term personal, professional, and life satisfaction.
A pilot of the program was conducted last year and yielded some very beneficial results. Here are a few examples of some tangible results from the pilot. One woman, seeking to become an entrepreneur, was able to negotiate the rent of a space she wanted to use for her business down to $100 less per month. This was significant for her given her budget. A second woman went through the negotiation process related to a property she wanted to rent. After asking many useful questions she learned in the training, she decided the property was not for her. She commented that had she not had the training, she probably would have been stuck with the property and been very unhappy. A third woman was able to negotiate a raise with her current organization as a result of the training.
The trainings themselves are conducted by current and former graduate students in the MSLN program. The students go through a train the trainer session with Dr. Joshua Weiss and other faculty and then are required to participate in a training as an observer and helper before they are able to conduct the trainings themselves. Students conduct the trainings in pairs with a faculty observer in the room to provide feedback. In this way, the participants gain greatly from the workshop and the students get valuable training experience.
The NNLB program has received wonderful support from Bay Path University, as well as a $10,000 Community Action Grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), and a $9,000 grant from the Eugene A. Dexter Charitable Fund administered by Bank of America, Trustee; and the Nan and Matilda Heydt Fund administered by Bank of America, Trustee, of the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts. Learn more. For more information, or to get involved as a donor or volunteer, please email Dr. Joshua Weiss at joweiss@baypath.edu.
