One of the biggest complaints that I see on LinkedIn is where prospective job hunters find the lack of salaries accompanying job adverts. It is also typically one of the first questions that a candidate will ask me when I am talking to them about a new role. It's usually the number one reason why anyone is seeking a new role - that's why it is so important. Yes, location, hybrid working, other benefits etc - they're also important but in our industry (and I am sure in most sectors this is true), money talks.
As a recruiter, I have responsibilities to my clients and my candidates. Having also been an employer and an employee I can empathise with all parties involved.
From a client perspective. Very few employees are created equally. Whilst the bigger agencies do tend to have salary bandings for different job titles and levels within the agency, this is not always the case in smaller and more independent agencies. Additionally, depending on the role, the skillset of the candidate, the availability of other options etc, there may or may not be 'wiggle room' when it comes to a salary offered. Each year I do a salary survey where I review job titles and the average salaries for those titles for individuals in different disciplines. Over the past 3 years, there has been the onset of what I call 'salary chaos' in several agencies. There has been a shortage of good and qualified candidates with specific skills and agencies have (had to) go over and above their bandings in order to secure talent. The result of this is that in many agencies, there are employees who are technically considered to be at a similar level who are on quite different salaries.
In the old days, employees simply didn't discuss their salary or package with anyone. Times have changed. Whilst it's true that more senior staff still don't discuss their remuneration, the same is not true for Gen Z and Millenials. I can think of several agencies where I have heard of pub get-togethers where particularly amongst client services teams, salaries are the main topic of discussion.
If members of a client services team are openly discussing salaries, it generally means they are all a bit discontented. Agencies need to do their best in providing employees with personal progression plans where they can visibly see the objectives they need to meet in order to secure a pay rise/promotion. In 2024, the most common job hunters were those who hadn't had a rise in 2 years. The situation is exacerbated when incumbents find that new employees are on a significant amount more than them. This has the capacity to create a toxic culture and inevitably CVs will be updated and individuals will start looking for a new role elsewhere. Employers cannot assume that individuals will not discuss their salaries.
Which brings me onto advertising for jobs. I have always advertised roles with an indication of salary. Indeed, many of the online job boards insist on population of the 'salary field'. When conversing with candidates I'll update them on the proposed salary banding that the client is offering and we'll go from there. Very often, I describe salary as 'dependent upon experience'. This is because most clients, particularly where we are in a world of skills shortages, do have flexible boundaries as to what they will hire. So an agency looking for an Account Manager, may well consider a superstar Senior Account Executive who has lots of potential to be fast tracked to the Account Manger job title. That individual would be at the lower end of the salary banding whereas an established Account Manager who is not far from promotion to Senior Account Manager would be a the top of the banding. If I didn't include any indication of salary, the response level to the advert would fall by circa 50%.
Anecdotal reviewing of LinkedIn comments demonstrates that employees are very cynical where a job advert does not include a salary at all. Obviously when the cost of living is so high, we have rising bills and financial commitments, it is no surprise that salary is such a big factor for all of us. In many sectors, particularly most areas of public sector roles, there are fixed salary bandings and it is very transparent to all job applicants what their absolute salary will be and they are aware of the next banding and what they need to do to achieve it. In agency land, we do not work in such a fixed and finite world of salaries and I mostly think that's a good thing. It means employees can progress as speedily as they earn the right to secure the promotion through performance and ability to do the job.
But equality and parity of salaries is important to employees. So many of us define ourselves by our role, it provides purpose and is a key source of self esteem. Employees want to be rewarded fairly and equally alongside their co-workers.
This is a very topical observation from me as this week an employee of an agency became aware of a role being advertised at a salary of 'Up to £X' (at their current agency). The employee in question is not currently being paid that salary and started asking questions in the team which created a very awkward situation for the agency. For the agency, I would recommend full transparency in the requirements for salary rises and promotion criteria but for the employee I would counsel perhaps taking care in how they go about having internal conversations and how to articulate to the right people any dissatisfaction regarding salary.
As always, I maintain that it is easier to hang onto existing staff and to ensure that internal teams are motivated, purposeful and buy into the individual culture of an agency than it is to find new staff. Discrepancies in salaries for individuals at the same level in an agency can cause mayhem when they become public knowledge and divulging individual salaries amongst employees is no longer taboo. Employers do need to be mindful of this and to ensure there are processes and structures in place to ensure every employee knows what they have to achieve to progress.
Fiona Christian, 7 January 2025.