Venor doesn’t always disclose salaries in our job postings. Read on to learn what Venor Co-Founder Craig Coady has to say about disclosing ranges and transparency within the hiring landscape.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of LinkedIn content lately that’s calling for employers to include salaries in their job postings. And I get the sentiment – don’t waste someone’s time in applying and potentially going through several interviews, only to learn you are not on the same page regarding compensation. Absolutely, makes sense. So why not just list the salary so everyone knows it before they decide to engage?
As a talent acquisition firm, we do post salary ranges when they are firmly depicted by the client. For example, our public sector clients have specific pay bands for specific roles, and no amount of credentials or negotiating is going to change that. So we gladly post those so that candidates know when applying.
The range isn’t firm
The majority of our clients are private sector / entrepreneurial clients where the salary isn’t a firm range that’s carved in stone. The company usually has a target range in mind with a certain number of years of experience. However, they may make exceptions. For example, a company may have a range in mind for an intermediate to senior software developer around $90-110k. They see themselves getting someone strong and experienced in that range. Part of our role as Recruitment Consultants is to go through their expectations and advise them if their range is realistic. In today’s uber-competitive market, companies have to trust that we are having these conversations with prospective candidates on a daily basis and have a very current understanding of talent expectations. Sometimes $90-110k works, depending on the employer brand, tech stack, and other perks. And sometimes that range is well short of market realities.
Salaries are changing in real-time, especially in tech, and some elite companies have almost unlimited budgets to attract the absolute best talent in the world. So, some talent who consider themselves in that top 5% plan to hold out for exceptional pay. Others just want fair market value based on what their peers are getting (but these are peers they regard highly, who should already be paid well). So we have to get companies to depict where they plan to land on a pay band and where they would make exceptions.
The interview process has a big influence on the offer
Perhaps that same employer with $90-110k in mind would consider going to $120 or even 130k for someone they feel very bullish about. Maybe a candidate is assessed technically as being very productive and efficient in the company’s codebase, suggesting they can produce more high-quality code in a shorter amount of time than other candidates interviewed. But if we had listed the salary as $90-110k, that candidate would not have engaged. We regularly see candidates negotiate higher than the client’s initial range because of the value they demonstrated in the hiring process. It would have been a disservice to everyone to start with very rigid ranges.
While I prefer to dig into other areas of fit, interest, and aspiration first during an initial candidate call before getting into money, I do get some pointed email responses that cut right to the chase. Prospects say ‘Craig, the opportunity sounds interesting but I’m only looking at opportunities that are $130k+. Will your client pay that?’, to which I may reply, ‘thanks for the candor. If the interview goes well, then I expect with your experience that we can meet your expectations’. We arrange a call or meeting from there.
As recruiters, we aren’t being evasive or coy on the dreaded salary discussion. It’s just not always black or white. If I reach out to you for a chat, rest assured I admire what you appear to bring to the table and will be respectful of your time. We won’t be successful for long as a recruitment firm if the talent doesn’t believe that we have their interests in mind and are promoting competitive compensation.”
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Our recruiters are always open to discussing hiring trends and changes in the local market – reach out to learn more.
