After spending nearly 20 years working in human resources for small businesses, Krystal Yates started EBR HR Experts in 2015 to fill a need in the Lewisville community.

In her previous HR roles, people would frequently ask her for help with their resumes. She learned through this experience that there was a market for career consulting. Yates started her business to help job seekers improve their resumes, refine their job search, improve their interview skills and work on compensation negotiation.

“Most people don’t know how to negotiate and most companies expect you to negotiate, which means you’re leaving money on the table,” Yates said.

Client success

What sets EBR apart from other similar companies is their employees’ experience in HR, according to Yates. Many of the employees at EBR have a background in HR, so they bring real-world experience to meetings with clients.

Yates said that she often talks to clients who say ‘I’ve applied to 50 jobs and no one has gotten back to me.’ When this happens, Yates says the problem is not the job seeker, but the resume. Everyone can benefit from our services, she said.

Yates said hearing about clients’ success in the job market is very rewarding.

“When I get that phone call that says ‘I got a job offer and the salary is higher than I expected’ that’s hands-down the best part of a job,” Yates said.

Yates gave 5 tips for negotiating compensation during the job interview process:

1. Confidence is key

“You have to believe you can do it,” she said. “If I can help a client gain a little bit more confidence and get a higher compensation, that’s a huge win.”

Yates said that many of her clients, especially women, do not negotiate during the job search process. She said it’s fun to be able to give clients the confidence to advocate for themselves.

2. Avoid talking about what you made at your last job

“What you made at your last job is irrelevant,” Yates said.

Instead of disclosing how much you made at your last job, ask for what you want at the job you are applying for so you don’t sell yourself short, she said.

Yates recommended doing research on the company before the interview to get an idea of where to start negotiating. She said if job seekers come to the interview with those facts, they have a better chance of getting what they’re looking for.

3. Focus on the facts

“A lot of my clients don’t like to talk about themselves because they think they’re bragging,” Yates said. “If it happened, it’s not bragging. It’s a fact. We take the emotion out of it.”

4. Keep track of past successes

Yates suggested keeping track of past goals you’ve met, thank you letters from clients and positive performance reviews—anything that shows you were a valuable asset to the company.

5. It never hurts to ask

“Many clients are scared to negotiate, but the worst they can say is no,” Yates said. “But more often, they’re going to come in somewhere in the middle.”

In addition to helping job seekers with career strategy, EBR also offers HR consulting services and recruiting for small businesses.

To learn more about EBR HR Experts, visit their website ebrhrexperts.com/.

The above story was produced by Mary Katherine Shapiro, a member of Community Impact's Storytelling team, with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.