You want to make clear that a certain feature or skill is great to have at one’s disposal, but not essential for a particular project or role.
Is it correct to call this a nice-to-have?
We’ll discuss this question below. Moreover, we’ll show you how to say something is a nice-to-have using 7 alternative phrases.
7 Alternative Ways to Say “Nice-to-Have”
Below, you’ll find 7 alternative ways of saying nice-to-have at work:
- A plus
- An added bonus
- Additional benefit
- Preferred
- Nonessential
- Desirable
- Additional feature
1. A Plus
When you are stating that something would be beneficial but isn’t a dealbreaker for a particular job, you can call it a plus.
This is a good phrase to use if you are a recruiter reaching out to a young professional via email or on LinkedIn.
It’s a fairly casual phrase and therefore suitable for a friendly message that will break the ice with the receiver.
To see what we mean, have a look at the email example below:
Dear Lemogang,
I am reaching out regarding an opening at [Company Name].
It is an entry-level role, but your experience as a freelance ghostwriter is a plus.
Kind regards,
Hywel Morris
2. An Added Bonus
Calling something an added bonus is another way to say that it’s a nice-to-have.
This phrase works well when you are seeking certain products or services from an individual or an organization.
Therefore, you can use this phrase as a customer when you are specifying your needs and the kinds of skills or experience you would prefer in order to meet them.
Consider the following email sample:
Dear Karl,
I am looking for a cleaner and was wondering if you would be interested.
You would mainly be working in an empty house but cooking skills would be an added bonus for rare occasions.
All the best,
Leanne Milton
3. Additional Benefit
The phrase additional benefit is a good professional synonym for nice-to-have when you are trying to bring clients on board or recruit staff.
You can use this phrase to mention all of the additional good qualities that your firm or business has.
This will help to make you more attractive to consumers and to people in the job market.
Therefore, you can include it in a promotional email or a standard recruitment or client acquisition email.
For instance:
Dear Ms. Mbatha,
Most firms will promise innovative thinking, but we have the additional benefit of an office on every continent, keeping our ears to the ground for the global needs of our clients.
Sincerely,
Jacob Drill
4. Preferred
You can use the phrase preferred to guide a colleague about a particular task and how it can best be done.
For example, you can use this phrase to let your coworker know what a client or customer has specified and what they have stated they would prefer.
However, you can still leave it to your team member to respond creatively.
The word preferred is very tonally neutral and suitably professional to boot.
Therefore, you can use this synonym in an email to a colleague you don’t know particularly well, perhaps because you work in different departments.
Check out this sample email to see this phrase in action:
Dear Kiernan,
The client has stated that a muted color scheme is preferred.
However, we trust that your designs will enhance their existing themes regardless.
Kind regards,
Drew
5. Nonessential
Another professional way to say nice-to-have is nonessential.
You can use this phrase to specify which features or skills would be beneficial but not entirely necessary for the completion of a job.
Therefore, you can use this phrase when instructing an employee on how best to carry out a particular task or assignment.
See how we’ve used this alternative in an email example:
Dear Lucia,
Having engaged with the client, I believe a brief mention of their business’s history would be ideal but nonessential in their marketing.
Regards,
Zadeiah
6. Desirable
When a certain skill is desirable, this means that it is an attractive quality that would be to the benefit of a job applicant.
In short, it is something that your organization would look for in a prospective employee, but it is not essential.
You can use this phrase when someone has reached out to you on LinkedIn or via email asking about the essential requirements for a particular job at your company.
It uses suitably professional phrasing and will work well in a response to any job-related inquiry.
See the example below:
Dear Gwendoline,
Thank you for your interest in this role.
To answer your question regarding our job requirements, a formal qualification is desirable but not essential to succeed in your application.
Kind regards,
Ukweli
7. Additional Feature
A different way to say nice-to-have is additional feature.
This alternative is not a direct synonym for the original, but it makes it equally clear that the feature in question is a useful addition and not a core component.
You can use this phrase when you are discussing your products or services with clients.
Have a look at how we’ve used it in our final email sample:
Dear Miss Mncube,
Our product includes all the essential bookkeeping tools needed for the running of a small business.
What’s more, we have the additional feature of professional guides by our top accountants which can be accessed directly on our software.
Kind regards,
Lerato Dhlamini
Is It Correct to Say “Nice-to-Have”?
The phrase nice-to-have is perfectly correct, and you can use it to mention a feature or skill that you would consider a benefit but not an essential.
You can use this phrase to talk about the skills of prospective employees or products with features that are nice to have but not necessary for the carrying on of your business.
This phrase is fairly casual, so it wouldn’t be appropriate in every business situation.
Nevertheless, we’ve drafted two emails below to show you how you can use this phrase at work:
First, let’s see an email that might form part of an exchange between colleagues at a workplace:
Hi Sacha,
The co-sign from corporate is definitely a nice-to-have, but we’ve been permitted by the supervisor to proceed either way.
Kind regards,
Kezia
Next, let’s look at an email from a recruiter specifying the requirements for a certain job:
Dear Adeline,
Thank you for your interest in the company.
In-house experience is a nice-to-have, but this role is open to recent graduates as well.
Kind regards,
Moselle
To avoid any embarrassment in the future, let’s look at a common grammar mistake people make when they use this phrase:
- Correct: This feature is a nice-to-have.
- Incorrect: This feature is a nice to have.
The hyphens in nice-to-have turn this expression into a compound phrase and a noun.
Removing the hyphens alters the overall meaning of the phrase in context.
Therefore, to use the alternative variation of this phrase correctly, you must drop the “a” and say:
- Correct: This feature is nice to have.
So, we know that the phrase nice-to-have is correct. However, this phrase is rather standardized and too casual for every work setting.
Fret not! You can use our list of synonyms to mix up your language in professional circumstances.
