Candidate management covers any strategies companies use to organize, categorize, prioritize and track applicants for their available positions. With the right tools, managing candidates can be an efficient and effective process, helping organizations hire the best applicants without investing too much time or resources.
Candidate Management: An Overview
Candidate management, sometimes called candidate relationship management, might involve sourcing and attracting applicants, screening resumes and cover letters, conducting interviews, assessing skills, communicating with candidates and hiring the most qualified individuals. All of these efforts can help those involved in the hiring process identify and prioritize top jobseekers while maintaining relationships and creating a pool for future opportunities.
What’s a Candidate Management System?
A candidate management system, sometimes shortened to CMS, is typically a software solution that enables hiring managers, human resources teams and recruiters to take control of the hiring process in a way that works for them. Candidate management software stores candidate data and assists in making hiring decisions. With effective candidate management software, you can track candidates, implement knockout questions and keep your recruitment team on the same page.
The Benefits of Candidate Management
A candidate management system offers many benefits, including:
Task automation
Enhanced collaboration
Improved internal and external communication
Reduced time-to-hire
Insights into the hiring process
Remote hiring facilitation
7 Core Components of Candidate Management
An effective candidate management system should facilitate myriad tasks, including:
Candidate Sourcing and Tracking
A candidate management system can help you source the most qualified job seekers for your available position(s). By carefully crafting your job description, posting it on the right job websites and establishing candidate criteria, you can create a system that makes it easier to attract and identify high-quality applicants.
Keeping track of all the candidates who apply can be its own chore, however. That’s why candidate management solutions often have applicant tracking features. These systems enable hiring managers and recruiters to track candidates’ progress and help with scheduling interviews. Applicant tracking systems help human resources and recruitment teams get on the same page and make smart decisions about which candidates to hire.
Communication
The importance of communication during the recruitment and hiring process cannot be overstated. Companies must clearly communicate their expectations and criteria. They need to communicate with candidates promptly in whom they are interested. It’s also prudent to have good communication with the candidates companies don’t select to keep the door open for potential future opportunities. This creates a positive candidate experience, and a helpful way to do this is through automation.
A good candidate management system includes automation features that improve communication efficiency. This effort might involve using automated email templates, scheduling tools and status notifications.
Data Gathering
Even for small organizations, the talent acquisition process involves a great deal of data. This includes the number of applicants and their individual skills, working experience, diplomas and certifications, references and personal information. For organizations that grade their candidates internally based on predetermined criteria, this data is even more important to collect and track.
A candidate management system with effective data gathering and display options is key. A solution that can capture and store candidate information in a centralized candidate database that’s easy for HR staff or recruiters to access boosts efficiency and reduces the risk of data loss.
Feedback Management
The recruitment process isn’t a one-way street; an effective strategy incorporates candidate feedback. This helps employers learn more about how job seekers view their company—their employer brand—and can help them refine their hiring process to increase candidate engagement.
A candidate management or applicant tracking system might include a feedback management module that documents candidate feedback, as well as notes from recruiters, interviewers and hiring managers. Storing this data in accessible places helps organizations continually improve how they hire.
Interviewing
A candidate management solution should include an interview scheduling feature so all parties involved can easily find a time that works for everyone. With data sharing, hiring teams can share documents internally and with interviewees so everybody has the information they need.
Resume and CV Management
Candidate management systems may also feature tools that make reviewing and understanding resumes and CVs easier. For example, resume parsing technology can automatically extract relevant information, such as skills and credentials, and store them in candidate profiles for quick review.
Segmentation
The candidate segmentation feature of a candidate management or applicant tracking system can affix different tags to profiles. These tags might indicate different titles, specializations or other candidate attributes. This allows a recruiter or hiring manager to search for candidates by these tags and then create personalized messages accordingly.
Candidate Management Best Practices To Boost Recruitment Outcomes
Some best practices of managing candidates effectively include:
Customizing Your System
Candidate management works best when organizations tailor their strategies based on unique needs and circumstances. The best applicant tracking systems have customization capabilities, such as branded careers pages to create consistency and strengthen the employer brand. Such features also enable recruiters and hiring teams to personalize their communications.
Employing a Candidate-Centric Approach
A major focus of candidate relationship management is cultivating a better candidate experience. It’s often beneficial for organizations to approach talent acquisition similarly to how they approach marketing their products or services. Effective candidate outreach centers on candidate needs and preferences, helping organizations to better understand the motivations and career goals of the talent they attract. This understanding can help organizations refine, fine-tune and personalize their hiring campaigns to find the perfect available talent for their needs.
Measuring and Tracking Metrics
Another similarity between candidate management strategies and marketing plans is that both require a clear definition of success. It’s important to establish metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) before beginning or revamping a candidate engagement or talent acquisition strategy.
It’s also critical to measure and track those KPIs and metrics. An effective applicant tracking solution can help you track and store all this data, to which you can add notes for contextualization. Some hiring metrics and KPIs you may want to track include:
Number of applications: How many candidates applied
Candidate engagement: How many candidates interacted, such as by responding to emails or coming in for interviews
Candidate satisfaction scores: Scores derive from email feedback surveys
Time to hire: How long it took to fill a position
Nurturing Candidate Relationships
It can be valuable to nurture candidate relationships over time. Many employers find they have numerous qualified candidates applying for one job. This is great for a company, but it can be frustrating for job seekers.
The job market is forever changing, however, and there’s no guarantee that an organization will always have a surplus of talented candidates applying to every position. Businesses can also find themselves having to fill one or more positions suddenly. Keeping in touch with previous candidates who impressed, but ultimately didn’t receive an offer, can pay off in the form of a faster hiring process and a lower cost to fill an open role.
This communication includes notifying previous applicants when new positions become available, but you can do more than this. You can send periodic messages about your company and its plans for future growth while checking in and inquiring about past applicants’ professional lives. You can also ask to include them on email newsletters so they automatically receive company updates.
Prioritizing Data Privacy
When looking at candidate management software, it’s crucial to pick a solution that has security and data privacy guardrails. A trustworthy solution has security protocols that can encrypt data when it’s in transit and at rest. Look for a candidate management software provider that will house your data—and the data of your applicants—in a state-of-the-art data center.
Understanding the Importance of Integration
Integration is another key feature to look for in software tools. If an applicant tracking tool is excellent on its own, but it makes transferring information to the other platforms and software you use difficult and unwieldy, it’s not a good option. You can’t upset your whole tech ecosystem to accommodate one tool for managing candidates. Look for a solution that can integrate with your payroll modules, virtual interview platform, and background check tools.
Turn to ApplicantStack for Your Candidate Management Needs
ApplicantStack features all the candidate management functionalities and benefits mentioned in this article and more. Start a free trial today to discover how ApplicantStack can improve your hiring process.
Recruiting top talent can be a challenge, especially when you’re competing with major players in the market. But with the right approach, identifying and appealing to qualified jobseekers can become second nature. Check out a few of the top characteristics of successful recruiters to figure out what skills you could be working on in the new year.
What Is a Recruiter’s Role?
The role of a recruiter is sourcing potential candidates and connecting talented individuals with members of the appropriate hiring time. They may also be referred to as headhunters, although these can be two distinct roles. Headhunters often seek candidates who aren’t actively looking, while recruiters tend to seek out individuals who are open to new roles.
Recruiters can also serve as brand ambassadors, emphasizing what the culture looks like and what a potential new employee could expect when working for the company. They may also be involved with administrative tasks, including managing applicant databases and scheduling interviews.
After filling roles, a recruiter may analyze recruitment metrics to determine things like how long it takes to bring on a new hire, the cost to fill a position, and other factors, to improve future outcomes.
Characteristics of Successful Recruiters to Develop
If you don’t feel good about your skills in any of the following areas, consider how you could improve. These are the top characteristics of successful recruiters.
Communication
Since recruiters are often the first point of contact with potential new hires, their communication skills are vital to success. A friendly and transparent communicator can put a candidate at ease and effectively describe the job and company overall. Consider how well you communicate and whether this is an area you could work on in the coming year.
Networking
Good recruiters are driven by targets, and they achieve their goals by maintaining a large network. The ability to continue to network, even when not actively filling a role, is a skill that can greatly benefit a recruiter in their efforts to match qualified candidates with jobs as they open up. Tips to build your network include:
Attending networking events in your industry
Actively using social media to expand your reach
Collaborating with colleges, universities, and other educational institutions for fresh, new talent
Using personalized communication for direct outreach
Relationship building
Building relationships goes hand-in-hand with networking. As you expand your network, you can form relationships with talented individuals and potentially tap into future potential. Maintaining regular contact throughout the hiring process is one tool for establishing bonds with those you work with, along with learning more about each candidate’s interests and professional aspirations.
Problem solving
A successful recruiter must continuously adapt to new situations and challenges. Overcoming difficulties in the hiring process or resolving conflicts that come up between employers and potential new hires are all part of the job, and the ability to face those struggles head-on and solve the issues can make a big difference in your success.
Managing an effective hiring process
Maintaining a consistent hiring process is also a key skill of any good recruiter. When they source a candidate, that individual should move into a process that keeps an open line of communication and allows the organization to achieve its talent acquisition needs.
Make sure every candidate goes through the same stages, and those who are selected for interviews are asked a standard set of questions that is relevant to the position.
A more effective hiring process is easier to achieve when you have a robust applicant-tracking system in place. Explore how ApplicantStack can simplify the way you find and hire top talent, with tools like text-based communications, job templates, and reporting. You can even get started for free!
Finding and bringing on skilled individuals is a challenge across various industries. Between economic uncertainty and low unemployment rates, many employers are struggling to fill open roles, particularly those that require higher-level skills. We’ve put together four insider tips for more effective recruiting.
Tip 1: Improve the Hiring Process
One of the biggest complaints among jobseekers is how hard it is to apply for jobs. Making applicants jump through hoops in the form of lengthy applications or extensive processes isn’t a great way to improve your hiring metrics. Try to simplify what an applicant has to do to be considered for a position.
The descriptions used for open roles also impact whether people want to apply. Take a look at the current listings and how you can improve them to make them appealing and encouraging to top talent. Candidates are looking for the following in a job posting:
You can also let an applicant tracking system like ApplicantStack help you through the hiring process. With job description templates, resources that make it easy to sift through applications, and knock-out questions that ensure top candidates make it through, recruiting is easier than ever.
Tip 2: Work on These 2 Valuable Skills for Recruiters
If you’re involved in the hiring process, you may benefit from working on a few key skills to ensure effective recruiting. Recruiters have to be able to move quickly and respond to changes. Candidates can go from interested to lukewarm in an instant, requiring you to pivot and continue your search. The ability to move someone through the process rapidly is also essential, as you may lose out on a skilled individual if it takes too long.
The ability to build relationships is another must-have skill in someone who actively recruits talent. The labor market is tight, and you simply must find ways to stand out. A candidate who may not be a great fit for one role could be ideal in another that opens later on, and building that relationship can maintain a line of communication. Candidates who feel valued and seen also have better connections to the company overall.
Tip 3: Focus on Employee Expectations
Employees have different expectations than they did in the past. Many understand that companies are having trouble filling roles, so they may ask for more. Additionally, the Great Resignation of 2021 led many members of the workforce to re-evaluate what they wanted in their professional lives.
Since employees have more leverage, they can leave one company and jump to another if they don’t get what they want. The pressure lies on each organization and its leaders to create a positive, supportive culture where team members can thrive.
Take a closer look at what jobseekers might expect when coming in for interviews. For example, you could compare the salary offering with compensation resources like Indeed. Make sure your company remains competitive to attract talented individuals.
Tip 4: Incorporate Insightful Questions
Conducting interviews is a key element of hiring, but not asking the right questions can make the experience far less useful for everyone involved. Rather than using the same list of questions your team has relied on for years, consider what you want to learn about a candidate.
The STAR interview format allows an applicant to provide a situation, task, action, and resolution, outlining a specific instance in which they handled a need in a previous role. You can implement behavioral interview questions to get more detailed answers, which will help you get to know more about a candidate and how they might react in a similar situation with your organization.
With these insider tips, you can ensure effective recruiting with higher returns on the investments made into the hiring effort. And if you’re relying on manual methods to find and bring on top talent, the reality is that you’re already behind.
Implement ApplicantStack, a proven hiring and onboarding system that’s designed for small-to-midsize companies. It has all the tools used by top organizations, including one-click sharing to top job boards and candidate management functionality. Try it for free today!
Candidate screening is a fairly common strategy among organizations that are actively searching for candidates to fill open roles. It’s a bit like a pre-interview, before the actual interview and serves as a way for a hiring manager, recruiter or other HR personnel to briefly evaluate job applicants ahead of time to determine their suitability for the position they’ve applied for.
The process typically involves checking the applicant’s resume or CV against their job application. While this can happen without involving the candidate, a screening call held over the phone or a video call helps a recruiter gain a good sense of what a person is like, learn why they applied for the job and more.
Here, we’re talking about why screening is essential and strategies to help you improve your process from start to finish.
Why Candidate Screening Is a Hiring Must
While screening can technically mean internally reviewing resumes, cover letters and other application materials, lots of employers take the opportunity to conduct a screening assessment. The process gives each qualified candidate a fair shot at showcasing their best characteristics ahead of the actual interview.
While it’s important that a job candidate is qualified for the role they’ve applied to, it’s too easy to dismiss someone with huge potential if you don’t chat with them first.
Here are just a few reasons why screening is a hiring must:
Hiring efficiency
Screening helps you narrow down the pool of applicants. These days, it’s not uncommon for certain jobs to receive upwards of 1,000 applicants.
Of course, you can’t hire all of them and there are surely some who aren’t qualified. By conducting screening calls, you can weed out candidates who aren’t an ideal fit, thereby saving time and resources by focusing more time-intensive hiring efforts on more qualified individuals.
Quality of hire
The quality of hire can determine how well an employee will perform in their role. If it’s not an ideal match, you risk turnover. Make a hiring mistake like this more than once, and it can start to cost your company big time.
By thoroughly evaluating candidates during the screening process, employers can identify individuals who possess the necessary skills, work experience and attributes required to excel in the role. This increases the likelihood of making successful hires who can contribute positively to the organization and may stick around for longer.
Compliance
Screening helps ensure that hiring decisions comply with legal and regulatory requirements, such as equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws and anti-discrimination policies. It helps prevent bias and ensures fair treatment of all candidates throughout the hiring process.
Cultural fit
Hiring the right candidate is more than just ensuring they’re technically qualified for the role. Culture goes a long way in employee satisfaction and retention, too! In fact, research shows that employees who feel connected to the workplace culture are 3.7 times more likely to be engaged.
Screening candidates allows employers to assess their values, attitudes and work styles to determine their compatibility with the organization’s culture. Hiring individuals who align with the company’s values and goals can foster a positive work environment and improve employee engagement and retention.
The Role of Tech in Candidate Screening
These days, employers have access to various types of tech tools to make screening and interviewing candidates a breeze. Not only that, but particular tools can streamline the entire hiring process from start to finish—from job posting to screening, interviewing and onboarding, and everything in between.
One exciting example of how employers are using technology to enhance the efficiency of candidate screening processes is an applicant-tracking system (ATS). An ATS is invaluable for streamlining hiring processes—just ask Fortune 500 companies, 97.4% of which say they use an ATS regularly.
Using an effective applicant tracking system helps hiring managers automate various aspects of the screening process, such as resume parsing, applicant management and candidate communication. Important hiring duties that recruiters completed manually in the past are now quicker, allowing them to filter and sort through large volumes of applications based on predefined criteria, saving time and effort.
What Criteria Should Recruiters Look for in Candidates?
This begs the question: What should recruiters be looking for, exactly? While specific criteria will depend on the job at hand, here’s what you should be on the lookout for, in general:
Relevant work experience
Skills and competencies
Education and credentials
Growth potential
AI-Powered Screening Tools
As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and useful for optimizing particular tasks, recruiting stands to benefit from advanced algorithms. AI and machine learning models can analyze resumes, cover letters and other application materials to automatically identify top candidates based on predefined qualifications and criteria.
With time already stretched thin and expectations of efficient and communicative recruiting processes, it’s only a matter of time before AI is a necessary tool—and we’re nearly already there.
Online Assessments
Online assessments are becoming more commonplace in the recruiting world. Ahead of a screening call, candidates can complete a self-direct evaluation highlighting their skills, knowledge and abilities. Assessments can be tailored to specific job roles to provide objective insights into candidates’ capabilities, helping recruiters make more informed screening decisions when the time comes to jump on a call.
Social Media and Online Profiles
Technology enables recruiters to leverage social media platforms and professional networking sites to gather additional information about candidates, such as their professional background, skills and interests.
Integrating social media and online profiles into the screening process can provide valuable insights into candidates’ qualifications and cultural fit.
Data Analytics
Advanced analytics tools can analyze recruitment data to identify trends, patterns and areas for improvement in the screening process. By analyzing metrics, such as time-to-hire and candidate conversion rates, recruiters can optimize their screening strategies and enhance overall efficiency.
Streamlining the Screening Process for a Better Candidate Experience
Effective hiring requires various steps—candidates want easy, fair and productive processes. To achieve this requires intentional and focused effort that spans the entirety of the system. Here’s how to do it:
Provide clear job descriptions: Not only do clear job descriptions ensure that potential candidates understand each job requirement, but they also reduce the likelihood of mismatched hires.
Have a simple application process: A simple application process makes it easy and efficient for candidates to apply. This helps attract a wider pool of applicants and improves the overall candidate experience.
Automate tedious manual processes: Automating burdensome manual processes such as scheduling interviews, sending out confirmation emails and collecting feedback saves time and reduces human error. Additionally, it allows human resource professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.
Communicate with candidates promptly: Prompt communication with candidates demonstrates respect for their time and helps keep them engaged and informed throughout the hiring process. Incorporating texting also increases the odds of your messages being received and read.
Avoid leaving candidates hanging too long after the screening: Leaving candidates hanging after the screening process can damage your reputation as an employer and deter qualified candidates from applying in the future.
Gather feedback: Collecting feedback from candidates about their experience during the recruitment process provides valuable insights for identifying areas of improvement, helping you refine recruitment strategies and ultimately attract and retain top talent.
Commit to continuous improvement: Developing better, more efficient processes is key to recruitment, ensuring that your organization remains competitive in today’s increasingly aggressive job market.
Improve Your Candidate Screening Process With an All-In-One Platform
Screening is just one, albeit important, part of the recruiting puzzle. With ApplicantStack, hiring managers can streamline all aspects of recruitment, from candidate sourcing to onboarding.
Utilize pre-screen and knockout questions to qualify candidates even before the official screening—so only the best candidates for the job are presented to you. Post-screening, communicate any next steps easily with email notifications and text messages to keep candidates engaged and excited.
Sign up for a free trial to see how ApplicantStack can help you hire qualified candidates, faster.
Applicants in the modern job market expect timely and frequent communication. In a survey conducted by CareerBuilder, results showed that 84 percent of candidates expect an email confirmation that they received an application or resume, and 36 percent expect to receive communication throughout the process. Yet the survey revealed that only 26 percent of companies meet these expectations.
For small businesses especially, it’s understandable how these things may unwittingly fall through the cracks. If multiple employees are contributing to the hiring process, it can be difficult to keep track of who is meant to send responses. Read on for some tips to help improve your communication with eager applicants.
Why Is Responsive Communication Important?
In a competitive job market, timely communication can set your company apart. Imagine being known across job boards and forums as the company who always responds, who keeps candidates apprised of their place in the process, and shows prospective employees they are valued at every step along the way.
The communication worst-case scenario is ghosting, when a company or an applicant abruptly stops communication without explanation. This industry trend is on the rise, with 77 percent of job applicants reporting being ghosted by a prospective employer since March 2020. Even if you believe that your company stays far on the other side of the ghosting line, everyone can benefit from examining company practices to improve communication with applicants.
Along with showing respect and building trust, effective communication techniques can save you time and money. Here are some tangible benefits:
Shorter Time to Hire. This important metric is affected by every stage of the hiring process. Every day that passes between application and onboarding costs the company money. Speeding it along involves participation by both the company and the applicant.
Higher Acceptance Rates. Effective communication not only can foster a positive personal connection but it can give your company the edge with an applicant who is weighing multiple offers. Losing a perfect candidate because of tardy communication forces you to start the search again, wasting valuable company time.
Methods of Communication
The world has moved to almost an entirely electronic form of communication vs. telephone calls and paper mail. Video messaging took the world by storm after the pandemic cut off in-person communication. In the application stage, email and text messaging are most frequently used, and interviews may be conducted by phone, video, or in-person.
The sheer volume of wanted and unwanted messages in the modern world means what you send ought to stand out in the sea of data. It’s become more common for hiring managers to use both email and text messaging to communicate, but it’s still important to observe some etiquette.
Email Etiquette Tips
Email has long been considered the most formal and appropriate method of communication by most businesses and job applicants. It’s still important to consider some of the following ways to use it best:
Craft your email subject to be noticed in a quick scan by the recipient. Make sure it’s descriptive but not too long and avoids being perceived as spam.
Use salutations like first name or Mr./Ms. and full-name signatures with your job title.
Use correct grammar, appropriate capitalization, complete sentences, and extremely judicious insertion of emojis. Third-party services that offer grammar suggestions as you write can be extremely helpful.
Make sure the tone matches the level of your relationship. Don’t try to be overly familiar or jokey in initial contact.
Be concise and use formatting like bullets or short paragraphs, especially when sharing a large volume of information.
Inform the recipient the days or hours you will respond to emails. For example, let them know no one will respond on the weekend or after 5 p.m. if that’s applicable. You can also let them know what to expect in terms of response time if replies are received within working hours.
Text Message Etiquette Tips
Text messaging is the most used form of communication in the modern world, and it’s possible to use texts effectively for hiring purposes. Younger job applicants especially may prefer it to email. ApplicantStack has a built-in “Text-to-Hire” feature that keeps your messages organized, allows for batch sending, and allows tracking within the ATS.
Consider some of the following to effectively use text messages:
Obtain a candidate’s permission to communicate via text message before sending anything.
Start with a greeting and identify yourself. Don’t assume the person has saved you in their contacts.
Use professional language. Imagine you’re writing an email and meet that level of speech.
Use capital letters, pronunciation, and good grammar. Proofread before sending; you could even paste into a document to double-check with a third-party editing plug-in.
Avoid long strings of information in text messages; use them for acknowledgements, follow-ups, or reminders. Make sure the language sounds human even if you’re using a prepared script.
Only send and reply to text messages roughly within your company’s business hours. This can be an important signal to the recipient that you value work-life balance.
Points in the Hiring Process that Require Outreach
When scrutinizing how your company communicates at all phases of the hiring process, consider the following touchpoints and how effectively you’re keeping in touch:
Pre-Application Phase. This would cover anyone who has signed up for a company newsletter or information about open jobs. This is an opportunity to sell yourself to prospective applicants.
Application or Résumé Received. This first contact establishes the tone for future communication. Automated responses through ApplicantStack can save time and avoid mistakes. The contents should sound like it came from a human.
Personal Contact. Once a candidate makes it past the initial review, a personal and professional email is warranted to set up plans for the interview process.
Scheduling the Interview(s). The relative urgency of scheduling and confirming appointments makes it a prime candidate for text messaging if the applicant consents.
Post-Interview Follow-up. Even if the company isn’t ready to make a formal offer, a “thank you” message is usually well-received. Some companies take this opportunity to solicit feedback or questions on the interview process.
Status Updates. Some companies leave application periods open for a set length of time no matter how many qualified applications they receive. If there’s a gap between initial contact, interviews, and when you can make an offer, check-ins and status updates will likely be welcome and keep communication open between you and preferred candidates.
Job Offers. Even if a verbal offer is part of your company style, a follow-up with a written offer makes sure everyone knows the particulars of salary, job requirements, company policies, and other vital details.
Start Details and Onboarding. This communication is vital to a new employee. As soon as someone has accepted an offer, prompt attention to their next steps will help them immediately feel a part of the company.
Hiring managers don’t have control over every detail of the job process, but communication is an area where you can always improve. It’s important to identify weak points in how your company communicates and set up policies and procedures to save time and money. ApplicantStack is a perfect solution for centralized tracking and messaging so nobody slips through the cracks.
Salary is one of the first details job seekers look for in a posting. Along with education and experience requirements, compensation immediately determines if someone will apply for the job or move on to the next one. Common practice has been for companies to put off salary discussions until it was time for an offer. Some prefer to present a large salary range in the job listing. Shifts in the job market have seem greater movement towards salary transparency, with some states even requiring it by law.
What Is Salary Transparency?
Salary transparency is the act of openly discussing wages in job postings, in interviews, and as a part of company culture. As recently as 1953, discussing salaries openly within the company or with others outside such as the news media could be a punishable offense. The National Labor Relations Act was passed that year to protect a worker’s ability to “discuss wages in face-to-face conversations, over the phone, and in written messages. Policies that specifically prohibit the discussion of wages are unlawful.”
While companies do have some ability to limit wage discussion on social media under electronic use policies, it’s unlawful for a company to retaliate against a person for communicating about salary. They also cannot have any rules in place that prohibit those conversations.
Why Does Salary Transparency Matter?
As part of the ongoing effort supporting employment equity, several states have passed laws that require salary range as a part of job postings. Emerging data from these efforts shows, at minimum, that women benefit from salary transparency. As of March 2023, California, Washington, Nevada, Colorado, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Maryland had enacted salary transparency laws. Fifteen more states are considering adding them in upcoming legislative sessions. Each state has its own job posting requirements. Some demand a list of all benefits, while others want to see just a salary range.
Gathering data to these laws’ effects will take some time. But according to The Center for American Progress, a recent (though limited) study analyzed Colorado’s pay transparency law. After its passage, the state’s labor force participation rate increased compared with the labor force participation rate of nearby Utah. Since the Beehive State has similar demographics and economic characteristics, it served as a good comparison. In a competitive labor market where companies are looking to cut through the noise and find the best candidates, salary transparency may be a promising solution.
Including Salary Detail in Job Listings
To new generations of workers, perceiving salary as a taboo topic is an unpopular stance. Recent data from The Society of Human Resources Management shows that a whopping “80% of U.S. workers are more likely to consider applying for a position if the pay range is listed in the job posting.”
Whether companies see this as a burden or an opportunity is up to them. Secrecy around salaries not only affects new hires, but current employees too. A company culture that discourages open discussion may be banking on an underpaid employee not realizing that their position is worth more than they are making. This can dramatically affect employee retention along with hiring replacement workers who find that practice distasteful.
Employers who are feeling adrift with new regulations and practices can take some comfort in the nuances of the discussion. SHRM points out that pay equity is about fairness. Fairness accounts for differences between people that are nondiscriminatory. Examples include special skills, years of experience, education, and location. Employees don’t have access to all the data and information available to HR. There are legitimate reasons to offer different salaries to different workers. It’s important to spend time documenting these reasons and make sure they are fair and easy for other employees to understand.
Benefits of Including Salary Range in Job Postings
Preparedness: Including salary information in job postings allows hiring managers to make these decisions in advance of the first candidate walking into the interview. It encourages scrutiny of past salary practices and adopting legally compliant policies (where applicable).
Trust: Transparent salary information fosters trust between job candidates and existing employees. As companies post job information on popular websites and social media, good and bad information can make its way to both potential and current workers. Extending this courtesy to both groups is vital for filling positions and job retention.
Quality: SHRM found that 66 per cent of companies who include salary information in job postings said the quality of their candidates improved, along with 70 per cent who said the number of their applications increased. A high caliber applicant pool saves you time and money.
Stand Out: Part of an employee’s compensation package is perks and benefits. If your small business feels like it can’t compete with larger companies from a salary perspective, you can list available perks that make your company culture unique. Examples include a gym membership, flexible work hours, or a generous PTO or holiday policy. For some workers, those benefits will outweigh the potential of a higher salary.
Productivity: If your company offers compensation that’s tied to performance, transparency makes it clear how employees can achieve their highest level of salary. It can foster healthy competition between employees who do a similar job. Secrecy can have the opposite effect, as gossip can discourage employees from doing their best work.
If your company has adopted salary transparency as a best practice, ApplicantStack can help. You can fill in the salary or salary range in every job listing for quick internal reference and to easily populate top job boards. Enjoy the peace of mind that comes with complying with local regulations and recruiting the best possible candidates for your company.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
