Salary on the job advert
Cash Rules Everything Around Me, C.R.E.A.M
I’m always seeing people banging the drum for salaries to be advertised but rarely for them not to be advertised.
I’m going to explore the reasons why it could be better that we don’t advertise salaries on job adverts.
Bear with me.
Common reasons companies don’t want to advertise salaries;
they don’t have a transparent salary policy
they don’t pay that well
they don’t want to have to review everyone’s salary
They just don’t want everyone knowing what they pay even though they may actually be a high paying employer
What candidates don’t like;
applying for a job only to find out it pays less than they want
finding the above out after countless interviews
Not applying because they fear the above
In an ideal world
In reality does it really matter. People should be applying for jobs because they want that job, it’s perfect for them and companies should be paying within reason what it takes to hire the perfect candidate.
This is where it becomes a problem for the recruiter, why;
Recruiters are unsure if the policy is, the best person for the job or the best person for the job within a set budget? These can be miles apart when it comes to expectation from a hiring team.
Recruiters can turn this to their advantage and here’s how;
Keep your own data on salaries in the market (not job adverts, actual salaries discussed with real candidates).
Try something like [Job Applied for > Current job title > Years of exp > Location > Current Salary > Desired Salary]
Pretty soon that data builds up and becomes a useful tool when the business says “are we competitive?”
This data will enable you to talk about salaries with confidence knowing that you are an upper percentile payer. Or give you very accurate data to help move the internal needle so you can get the right people on board for the right money.
Believe it or not as a recruiter you can challenge salary brackets and bandings but you have to have the data to support that.
Once you know you are an upper percentile payer you can increase the confidence of the candidates that apply by simply saying, “we pay well based on experience” without disclosing figures. Because let’s face it everyone has heard tall tales about company X and how great their salaries are, which is often not true.
The worst case scenario is you are a terrible payer but at least you know and you can hit that head on.
During my own career I have found it more useful not to have salaries advertised and as someone said to me many moons ago as a junior recruiter, salary shouldn’t be the only reason candidates apply. I believe this has resulted in consistently high offer acceptance rates spanning over 20 years.
Most recruiters will agree that when salary is the only driver this is the place where counteroffers and no shows live. I take the view that if you don’t apply because we have no salary advertised then we’ve likely dodged a bullet.
Candidates
You can use this as an opportunity, by applying you get to start the conversation. You are giving the recruiters the data they need to move the needle.
One bit of advice is don’t be coy around salaries, tell the recruiters early on to avoid disappointment when you may have invested a lot of time.
What do you think?