Should I List a Salary Range in My Job Ad?

Salary disclosure are one of the toughest parts of the recruitment process.

It’s not easy to decide whether you should include the salary offer in the job advert, or waiting to meet a candidate before discussing the salary during the job interview phase.

If you’re not sure what is the right approach for your company, check out these 5 tips that may help guide your decision making.

1. Want to attract more applicants? Disclose the Salary.

If you are offering an attractive salary, you'll likely get many more applicants than usual. Everyone wants a position that pays well, and your announcement will be shared with others. Best of all, the more applications you receive, the better the chances that you will find qualified candidates.

Then again you will also receive resumes from people who are not qualified for the position. Candidates often think, “Qualified or not, just go for it! What do you have to lose?” Nevertheless, having more candidate choices than expected is a good problem for employers!

2. Salary range disclosure may set unrealistic expectations

This may seem obvious, but consider these scenarios:

• The applicants don’t impress you
  Your salary offer may be for candidates who meet the desired qualifications, such as an advanced degree or specific certifications. But as resumes come in, you may discover that some barely meet the minimum requirements.
   
• Candidates overrate their qualifications
  Since you’ve listed the salary as a range, even marginally qualified people may think that they deserve the maximum salary. If they find out that you are offering a salary near the minimum of the offer, they may react negatively.  

To avoid the above from happening, it's important to clearly state the requirements in your job description and not to set a salary range that is too wide.

Disclosing the salary offer in a job ad could affect the number of job applicants and their expectations

3. Salary offer disclosure may affect your employees

Be careful when you decide to disclose the salary offer if your company does not have an open-salary policy. Your current workers may take offence if they find out you are paying a new hire a salary that is more than what they currently earn.

You may have the right reasons for doing this, but that does not mean your employees will understand your decision. This will also hurt your employee retention efforts.

4. Your competition may find out about your salary offer disclosure

If you choose to reveal a salary range, you may be providing valuable information to your competition. They’ll offer a little bit more just so they can attract your potential candidates away from you. That's why it's important to have good employer branding, and that starts with a complete company profile. You could also highlight more on the benefits and perks that come with the job, if you aren't able to offer a competitive salary.

5. Non-disclosure may waste everyone’s time

A long hiring process can be troublesome. If you fail to disclose the salary range early on, you may find later on that your top candidate is not interested anymore.

Your company will have wasted time with all the information assessment, job interview arrangement and other hiring-related tasks, only to find out these top candidates will not agree to your terms.

Disclosing the salary offer in a job ad will certainly make a difference in your hiring success.

But that’s not all, it could affect staff morale, recruitment team’s workload, and the level of competitiveness between you and your competitions. So weigh your options and see which is the best decision for the candidate and your organisations. And once you've made your decision, you are welcome to list your jobs with AJobThing.com. Find your next top employees with A Job Thing.

This article is based on "5 things to consider about listing a salary range in a job ad" by Robert Half.