Let’s imagine that you, the reader, are searching for a new job. You find a position at what looks to be a great company that ticks all the boxes you’re looking for. You have all the experience required for the role and to top it all off it looks like the sort of place where you could really thrive and expand on your skillset.
You brush up your CV, proofread your cover letter and you excitedly hit apply. A few days later, a recruiter or hiring manager comes back to you and a conversation starts, and all seems to be going well. Then the recruiter mentions the salary, which was not listed in the job description — and it’s £5,000 per year less than what you already make. It doesn’t bode well and for the serious job seeker, it’s a red flag. Conversation over.
That’s why providing a salary guide is essential to a successful recruitment drive. The salary alone is a big part of why any candidate applies for any position. When discussing a new hire, many clients will focus on the profile of their ideal candidate, with a list of skills and talent that they would like to see from said candidate. In some cases, the conceptualisation of what that ideal candidate might want in return can be lacking — even in a troubled economic market like the one we’re currently experiencing, high-quality talented employees will always have leverage when it comes to negotiations.
Encourage your clients to include a salary guide, even if it is not set in stone for them just yet; a salary guide will go a long way to satisfying the curiosity of said high-quality candidates. Adverts with a salary guide will encourage more applications – and better ones too. A high-quality candidate who is out of reach, pay-wise, won’t have wasted their time on a conversation that ends when the salary question is brought up (which in turns leaves them with a bad impression for the future!).
There are, of course, legitimate reasons why an employer might want to leave a salary guide out of a job description. Some employers believe that it cuts out salary-chasers by focusing the search on those who are explicitly interested in the job. Others believe it lessens the risk of tensions arising between existing employees and the incoming hire. These are valid concerns.
But a job description is ultimately about getting the right type of candidate to apply. A salary guide encourages those who fit the pay grade and are more likely to perform at the level expected, whereas the words ‘DOE’ (Dependent on Experience) and ‘salary negotiable’ won’t work on such candidates. Not only that, but you should consider what other types of benefits the client can offer. Benefits, location, contract type (permanent, part-time, temp, interim), development and career progression opportunities — these are all essential ingredients to finding the right candidate. The more boxes of theirs you tick, the more of yours they are likely to tick.
Our FXRecruiter platform can be hugely helpful in building a job description that job seekers will click on, by making it easy to configure a description to include all the relevant details. Find out more here.