What are current salary expectation trends?

Businesses should be as informed as possible about the evolving state of salary expectations. With so much action in the jobs market in the last 12 months, how has thinking around a desired salary changed?

How can HR navigate conversations around salary expectations?

With a topic that’s so tricky to tackle, no one expects HR and hiring managers to be naturally super smooth when it comes to these conversations. However, you can prepare yourself for the most productive discussions with these helpful tips.
 

• Approach conversations with the right mindset

If you walk into the conversation with the mindset that you’re going to have to go head-to-head with your candidate, you’re unlikely to have a helpful exchange. Deflate the pressure and approach the conversation with a transparent, generous mindset. Nine times out of ten, both you and the candidate will have the common goal of coming to a reasonable resolution when it comes to salary.

Another thing to remember is that you’re also setting the tone for how the business approaches compensation conversations in the future. If you go in with an aggressive or awkward manner, it may not give the candidate confidence that later salary conversations will be any more reasonable.
 

• Always have a budget in mind

Chances are, when you decided that you needed to fill or create this role, you crunched the numbers on how it would fit into your overall headcount budget. Once you have this range, have it in the back of your mind when having salary conversations, but not before you’ve made sure that it’s in line with industry standards. Which brings me to the next point…
 

• Be aware of the current market salary range

Job seekers are more savvy than they’ve ever been before. If they land an interview with you, they’re likely logging onto Glassdoor to check out your employer reviews, sussing out your employer brand on LinkedIn, speaking to people in their network who work at your business and triple checking the market’s salary range for someone in their position.

If your budget-aligned offering is way off the average salary range, you may have to rethink this number before you sit down for this discussion with your candidate. Many will be using market value to set their expectations for what is a fair salary, so it’s very important to be at least aware of – if not aligned with – this number.
 

• Ask about expectations in the first job interview

Recruiting can be a long and tiresome experience for all involved. By the end of the process, your candidate has taken the time to apply, go through rounds of nerve-wracking interviews, and they may have even completed a task to demonstrate their skills. The hiring manager and HR would have gone through mountains of paperwork, organised members of the team for interviews and spent time compiling feedback.

The general length of the hiring process is why it’s so important to ascertain the candidate’s salary expectations early on. Our talent acquisition team at Employment Hero suggests asking about their salary expectation range on the first interview or screening call. This way you’re on the same page from the start of the process, and you’re not wasting each other’s time if you don’t see eye to eye.
 

• Be prepared to negotiate

It’s on the other end of the hiring process that you will negotiate. You should be prepared for a bit of back and forth to make sure that everyone feels confident in moving forward. You should especially be prepared for this if your starting point for an offer is at the lower end of the candidate’s expectation range.

Your candidate will be taking into consideration the industry standard, their specified expectations range, their in-demand skills, their desired job title and other compensation on offer. Be prepared to enter your salary negotiation process with all of these elements in mind.
 

• Remember that compensation is more than just salary

Salary isn’t everything to a candidate (if it was, we’d likely all be investment bankers). Throughout the interview process, you might be asked questions about your workplace benefits, company culture and employee experience (a package which is known in the HR biz as the employee value proposition or EVP).

Be prepared to show off your amazing workplace in response to this question, to show there’s even more to your business than a competitive compensation package. This is where it’s time to talk the talk about:

• Any health benefits like discounted insurance, virtual yoga or an employee assistance program (EAP)
• Learning and development initiatives like tuition reimbursement, paid time off for study or Learning Management Systems
• Your company flexible working policy or hybrid working style that promotes work-life balance

Promote the things that make your employee experience great during the recruitment process, and you might find your salary expectation conversations easier.