Why Salary Transparency is Key in Recruitment

The number of UK job ads that include salary information has fallen to a seven-year low as employers ignore the popular calls for pay transparency.  Salary transparency is crucial to achieving all kinds of recruitment and business goals, from the intricate issues associated with the gender pay gap to the simple yet vital practice of saving time for over-burdened recruitment teams.

Keep reading to understand why salary transparency is no longer a non-negotiable in recruitment.

Long-Term Reputation

Salary transparency can play a vital role in your organisation’s employer brand. When a brand makes a point of being transparent about this kind of information it proves them to be trustworthy and genuine. It can create a positive first impression on both passive and active candidates when they see that your organisation is upfront about compensation, and they don’t have to actively query or get to a certain stage of the recruitment process before they are told the important information.

Recruiters, HR and leadership should also be wary that adopting pay transparency later than competitors can damage employer brand. Additionally, if talented candidates are dragged through part of a hiring process only to find out the salary range isn’t in line with their expectations, your organisation could risk negative word of mouth.

When salary transparency is executed properly, it can help build workforce loyalty by encouraging trust in management. Studies have also found that candidates are more likely to click on job adverts that include a salary range. Therefore, if you want to create a positive reputation with both current employees and talented applicants, salary transparency can be incredibly useful.

Gender Pay-Gap

Incorporating pay transparency practices into your recruitment process and overall company practices can help create and organisational culture where conversations around compensation are normalised. Pay transparency allows employees to compare their salaries with those of their colleagues in similar roles or when their organisation is hiring for a role similar to theirs. This not only (once again) helps to build trust between and employee and their employer, but also helps to highlight any gender-based pay disparities so that they that can be addressed.

Additionally, being open and honest can assist in attracting highly skilled and talented women. Talented candidates are most likely to be attracted to roles where they will be properly recognised, fairly compensated, and rewarded. Therefore, by being transparent about salary ranges in your job ad, your recruitment team will likely see a more diverse array of candidates, as well as lend to a positive cultural change.

Saves Candidate & Recruiter Time

2 in 5 HR leaders in the UK say that they often lose candidates because salary wasn’t discussed soon enough in the hiring process. Additionally, it’s estimated that 70% of workers know how much they should be paid for a job, so would inevitably prefer to judge a job from it’s advert as to whether it is a right fit for them or not.

By being upfront and transparent about the budgeted salary for a role, your recruitment team will help candidates off the bat identify if you’re offering the compensation they’re looking for, and even if the job seniority is right for them. Setting expectations from the get-go is a major player is improving candidate experience as there’s no frustration and wasted stress or interview preparation for a role that wasn’t what a candidate was looking for in the first place. It’s also extremely useful to hiring teams in not wasting their time either. It is resource intensive to hire – so whether it’s money or time you’re looking to save, salary transparency will cut out and applicants that would otherwise drop out of the process.

You might be interested to read our article; Is Salary Transparency Key to a Gen Z Friendly Employer Brand?