“Candidate shortage”. “War on Talent”. “Highest number of vacancies since….”.
All phrases that I’m sure we’ve read or heard multiple times over the last year or so.
The most recent Open University Business Barometer found that 86 per cent of Scottish companies have struggled to find skilled workers over the last year. So, you would expect that most employers would do everything possible to help themselves, right?
But consider this…
The ‘2022 Compensation Best Practices Report’ by salary research consultancy, Payscale, tells us that only 22% of companies list the salary on their job adverts.
At the same time, a number of reports reveal the extent to which candidates are turned off by this. According to reed.co.uk, almost 4 out of 5 (78%) of jobseekers won’t apply for a position if the salary isn’t listed. The number is, admittedly a bit lower in recent studies by LinkedIn (61%) and Glassdoor (67%). But actively sabotaging your recruitment process by discouraging more than 60% of applicants to apply still makes no sense.
Effectively, adding a salary to your job adverts allows your applications to go from this:
To this:
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Reasons for not listing the salary can vary.
“Employers don’t want to publicise how much they pay, in part, because it’s going to create resentment among organisational members,” explains Eddy Ng, the Smith Professor of Equity and Inclusion in Business at Queen’s University, Canada. However, that may be seen as a tacit admission by an employer that they are underpaying their existing staff.
Some companies won’t list the salary as it is dependent on experience. However, you can easily list a salary band which can still give potential applicants an idea as to what they can earn. That solution also means that your current team won’t know exactly what your new hire is earning.
As well as potentially attracting more candidates, it also saves you (and the applicants) time. You don’t need to read and reply to candidates with salary expectations higher than you can afford. I even know of one company who advertised a vacancy, arranged 1st & 2nd interviews and then made an offer without disclosing the salary. They offered the candidate 30% less than the salary they were already on. That is a waste of a few hours at least!
I’m not sure what a Recruitment Agency’s motivation for anonymising the salary on an advert would be, assuming their client has authorised them to publish it. Maybe to generate candidates for other vacancies? The only reason one of our vacancies has no indication of salary is if our client has asked us not to, despite our advice against it.
If we can be of any assistance to you with your recruitment requirements, please call 01383 641 222 or email hello@canmorerecruitment.com
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