The importance of including salary in your job advertisement

Money, money, money. A taboo subject for many working professionals. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

You want your job advertisement to convey so much to a candidate in such a short space. What the requirements are, why they should work for you and what makes your company unique. Then we expect candidates to flood in with their CV’s without touching on the biggest motivating factor – the salary.

Attracting the best candidates – The pros and cons

You may be concerned that by listing a salary range on a job advertisement it will put you at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating your offer. Perhaps you are concerned that a stream of under qualified candidates will apply for your job just because the salary is attractive. However, there is a far bigger concern at hand here. You want to attract the very best candidates to apply for your job vacancy. The problem is that they may completely skip past your job advertisement. And here’s why…

Candidates value compensation above everything else

A study conducted by LinkedIn highlighted compensation (salary and perks - 61%) as the most important part of a job specification, with qualifications, job details and performance goals all being viewed as less important.

If you feel that the salary range on your job advertisement is nothing to shout about you can still attract top talent by informing them of the other perks that come with the job which may include fuel allowances, healthcare or a company car.

Salary is a leading reason for employees leaving a company

Research conducted by Payscale.com found a leading reason that employees leave companies is to ‘seek higher pay elsewhere.’

When recruiting for mid to senior level positions that requires an experienced professional or candidates with a specific skillset, the likelihood of your target candidate being employed is extremely high. This is compounded by the fact that the unemployment rate in Ireland is below 5%. With the study by Payscale.com in mind, having your salary made public will entice those specialised candidates who are already employed to apply for your job.

Massive risk of eliminating qualified candidates

SMART Recruit Online completed a study which found that job advertisements that listed the salary range received over 30% more applicants. In addition to this research, UK careers site Jobsite discovered that the drop off rates for job advertisements with salary information is between 25% to 35%. I know you may be thinking that quality far outweighs quantity, but just consider this – how many qualified candidates are within these percentages?

Target passive job seekers effectively

Out of the entire workforce of job seekers, passive job seekers make up 70%, with active job seekers making up the remainder. Passive job seekers are those not necessarily looking for a new job, but when an attractive opportunity comes their way they take interest and apply.

A big part of what we do at JobAlert.ie is filling employer vacancies quickly by targeting passive job seekers on our social media pages – where we have a following of nearly 300,000 people. Through our own experience we have found great success for our clients by tweaking job advertisements to highlight the salary and perks.

Beat the competition and attract top candidates

Listing the salary on your job advertisement is an opportunity for your company to stand out from the competition when hiring. There is a growing trend for companies to only discuss the salary range during the interview stage. This means that organisations are shying away from publicly making salary information available. Use this to your advantage and stand out from the crowd.

Save time and streamline the entire hiring process

Being up front about salary expectations saves you and the candidate valuable time. Screening applications and setting up interviews can be a complete waste of time when you find out at the last minute that the salary scale is too low for the candidate. By sharing the salary range on your job advertisement it will streamline the entire hiring process by filtering out candidates who wouldn’t apply for your job vacancy in the first place.

Attracting talented millennials

Jennifer Deal, the author of ‘What Millennials Want from Work’ went in to great detail about the openness millennials have in discussing compensation with their friends and family. Jennifer’s research found that 71% of millennials will talk to their parents about compensation, with 47% having open conversations with their friends on the topic. In contrast, baby boomers and Generation X staff are far less likely to discuss compensation with their co-workers (19%), friends (24%) or parents (31%).” If you are looking to attract top talent emerging from the workforce it makes perfect sense to be completely up front about salary.

By adding the salary to your job advertisements it will ensure that more informed candidates apply for your available positions. This opens the door for a more transparent work environment at the earliest possible stage for your future employees, which will translate in to a more honest and trusting company culture over time.