Should salary details be included on legal job adverts and listings?

 

One of the most important trends in legal sector recruitment over the last year or so has been the ongoing effort by prospective employers to tailor their recruitment efforts to better meet the needs of candidates.

The reasoning behind this is clearly understandable: the legal recruitment market has become considerably more competitive in recent months, with multiple firms competing for a relatively limited pool of top-tier candidates. As such, it has become more important than ever for recruiters to communicate the merits of a given role as clearly as possible, and to provide prospective applicants with all the information they expect.

One of the most important factors in this regard is the question of whether or not to include full salary details on legal job adverts and vacancy listings. Historically, this has been something many firms have been reluctant to do - but in the current marketplace, it is important to carefully weigh up the pros and cons of doing so.

Here, we will explore the key advantages and disadvantages of being upfront about salaries when advertising for a legal role, in order to help legal recruiters decide whether this is the right approach for them.

The pros

Respecting the needs of your candidates

Historically, there has been a stigma around candidates asking for salary details when applying for roles, as this has often been seen as a sign that they are attracted to the position for purely mercenary reasons, throwing their commitment and passion into question.

At a time when the cost of living is on the rise and the pandemic continues to create economic uncertainty, this attitude is now shifting. Employers tend to be much more accepting of the fact that applicants need to have accurate salary information to know whether they can afford to take a role, and whether the level of pay will be enough to provide them with a secure lifestyle. As such, providing this information for candidates can be an indicator of a business that is keen to meet the needs of its staff.

Attracting the right applicants

A successful recruitment process is not measured by the quantity of applicants, but by their quality and suitability for the role. Providing salary information can be a key factor in ensuring that the candidates you attract have the right expectations about what they might be paid, and disagreements about salary do not delay or derail the recruitment process.

This is often especially important for newly qualified solicitors, who will be looking at the salary you are offering as a baseline for the rest of their career. If you are not willing to be open about how much you will pay, you are increasing the risk of receiving applications from unsuitable candidates, thus making it more difficult to find the right person.

Better transparency

Candidates tend to be appreciative of transparency throughout the recruitment process, and value the feeling that they are being treated fairly. By being transparent and open about your salary policies, you can give applicants a clear view of how your salary banding structure works, and allay any concerns about gender pay gaps or preferential treatment.

This transparency will also help to avoid candidates from feeling that they have to ask you awkward questions about pay during the interview, which can put them at ease and make this conversation run more smoothly for all involved.

More efficient recruitment processes

Being clear about your salary banding can help to improve the efficiency of your recruitment processes, saving money for the business in the long-term. Job listings that display salary details upfront often generate better response rates, meaning you will be able to fill the vacancy sooner and complete the recruitment process more quickly.

At a time when the market is so competitive, being able to gain this edge in your recruitment efforts can deliver meaningful advantages across the whole business.

The cons

Setting potentially unrealistic salary expectations

Providing an estimated salary range does not necessarily prevent the risk of candidates applying with unrealistic expectations of how much they will be able to earn. Specifically, many applicants will always accept that they will be entitled to receive a pay rate towards the top end of your stated range - even if this is not actually the case.

Salary estimates are designed to encompass a range of candidate profiles, with more experienced candidates earning higher rates of pay. As such, it can sometimes be more useful to specify that pay rates will depend on experience, rather than simply quoting the raw numbers on their own.

Being unable to provide a meaningful estimate

For some roles, it will simply not be possible to provide a useful salary estimate, especially if the role in question encompasses various levels of seniority, or if the firm is willing to be flexible about their ideal candidate profile.

If this results in an estimated salary scale that covers a significant range, it will therefore be difficult for candidates to draw any meaningful information from the stated number.

Overshadowing your overall employment package

Sometimes, the true value of an employer’s offering cannot be adequately captured by a basic salary estimate. For example, it may be the case that a lower base salary is counterbalanced by a generous pension or bonus scheme, or other professional perks that cannot be easily quantified numerically.

It may be possible to provide an OTE (overall total earnings) estimate to provide a more accurate reflection of the real value of your package, but even this cannot include pensions, meaning that your salary quote may still be underselling the value you can provide for staff.

Revealing too much about your pay structure

Many law firms have strong reasons for wanting to keep their pay structure confidential. For example, they may wish to prevent their competitors from being able to easily outspend them by looking at their listings, or they may not want to make it easy for existing employees to gain insights into broader pay policies by looking at current job listings.

This is a particular issue in the current jobs market, when many firms are having to break their own internal pay structures to get immediate access to in-demand legal talent to fulfil urgent needs. By making this information publicly available, it can potentially create dissatisfaction among existing staff, and generate further recruitment difficulties later down the line.

Find the right approach for you

Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this particular question - some law firms will benefit from including their salary information on job listings, while others will see greater success by handling this conversation during interviews, on a case-by-case basis.

Nevertheless, it is important for all companies that are currently hiring to make sure they are asking the right questions about this issue. If your firm is struggling with recruitment and is not receiving a sufficient number of CVs to fill your vacancies, it may be worth experimenting with how the salary information is communicated, and see whether this makes a difference.

This is also an area in which it can be beneficial to work with a professional recruitment partner to find the right approach. Not only can these agencies offer tailored advice on how best to present your salary details and job information, but they can also act as a useful middleman for salary enquiries, as applicants are likely to be much more comfortable requesting pay information from an independent recruiter than from the employer directly.

By taking all of these factors into account, you will be able to ensure that you are communicating vital pay information in the best possible way, ensuring that salary concerns will no longer prevent you from securing the legal talent your firm requires to grow