We all know that recruitment is challenging at the moment, and it shows no signs of getting easier anytime soon. Companies are competing hard to attract the best candidates.
Rather than just offering great salaries and benefits, companies are increasingly turning to strategies such as salary transparency to improve their employer branding and appeal to the brightest new talent.
So, what is salary transparency, and why should you consider it?
What is salary transparency?
At the most basic level, salary transparency is the idea that how much you pay each of your staff shouldn’t be secret. This might mean publishing salary ranges for specific roles, your gender pay gap, or even individual names and exact remuneration.
Salary transparency is key to your company’s overall movement towards more openness and honest communication. This is about more than just telling prospective employees how much they can expect to earn. It’s part of a deeper mindset around your DEI efforts.
Talking about salaries is uncommon in many parts of the world, including the UK. Most workers don’t know what their colleagues earn, let alone their bosses.
Staff may feel uncomfortable having their salaries become common knowledge, but salary transparency benefits individual employees, team cohesion, and corporate culture.
Salary transparency is a powerful tool for removing bias in your company. If managers know that they will have to account for differences in pay between staff members, the gender pay gap is expected to reduce. It rewards job performance rather than skilled salary negotiation.
Salary transparency can seem radical, and some staff members may take time to come around to the idea. Including salary ranges in your job adverts is an easy first step and has some impressive benefits.
Why is salary transparency important in your job listings?
Helps candidates decide to apply to your position
Candidates have a tremendous choice when it comes to potential roles, especially at the moment. Companies have to offer competitive salaries to attract high-quality talent.
Applicants want great, fulfilling roles where they can really make a difference, but they also need to pay their bills and create a sense of financial stability. They need to know whether the role they’re applying for will fulfil those needs.
Job hunting is surprisingly time-consuming. The best applicants may hesitate to put this effort into a role if they can’t be sure the salary will meet their expectations. Make their decision easy by including your salary range in your initial job listing.
Helps you find the right candidates
Including the salary range in your job advert also saves you time and effort. There’s little more disheartening for an employer than seeing an amazing CV from their ideal candidate but then realising that they can’t afford that candidate’s expected salary.
Reducing the number of applicants with wildly divergent salary expectations allows you to focus your efforts on those who have already decided that your range is acceptable.
It also avoids uncomfortable conversations which may ruin your chances of hiring great talent for a better-paid position, should one become available later.
Helps drive retention
Your first step towards salary transparency is often to advertise salary ranges in job adverts, but this isn’t just about skilled recruitment. Being open about how much you’re paying new hires can help keep your existing staff.
We no longer work in a world that expects us to stay with the same company for most of our working lives. In fact, many companies don’t prioritise rewarding loyalty in their staff. Instead, they focus their efforts on recruiting new talent.
Existing staff often know that new hires are likely to be paid more than they are, which breeds resentment. Sectors such as tech and IT are particularly well known for this.
Including salary ranges on job adverts can reassure existing staff that they aren’t missing out compared with your exciting new hires. If they notice a discrepancy, they will likely feel more confident raising the issue with you.
This may mean you have to offer pay increases to a few key staff you might have overlooked, but that’s a price worth paying to keep great staff.
Lets you stand out from your competitors
Offering a salary range in your job adverts shows that you’re willing to be open and upfront with your staff. This is a great starting point to build a relationship of trust between you and the great applicants considering applying for the role.
This can be even more powerful if your competitors advertise roles without a clear salary range. Prospective employees are likely to wonder what other companies are trying to hide, making your position all the more appealing.
Improves your DEI efforts… and highlights them
Improving DEI is one of the main reasons most companies are looking toward salary transparency. They want to offer fairer pay and ensure that workers from different backgrounds feel respected and valued. Everyone wants to have an equal opportunity to succeed.
Applicants from diverse backgrounds are looking for exactly the same things. They want to work for companies that treat them fairly and with dignity and respect. Being upfront with the salary you’re offering is a simple but tangible way to demonstrate that commitment.
Learn more about writing inclusive and effective job listings on the crooton blog
Including a salary range can make your job advert much more compelling, but we still have some more tricks up our sleeves to help you attract the perfect new talent. For more ideas and advice, check out our blog posts about the most important things to keep in mind for job adverts, where small companies list jobs, and how to write inclusive job listings.
The crooton team work hard to give great advice in our blogs, but we’re even better in person. Get in touch for help crafting the best job listings and more!