Dive Brief:
- The war for talent may be pushing employers to lay their cards on the table, according to Aug. 29 survey results from iHire. Fifty-seven percent of responding employers said they “always” include salary ranges in their job postings — a jump from 46% in 2021. Fifty-seven percent said they included contact information for the hiring manager or recruiter (a 6% year-over-year increase), and nearly 30% included an EOE statement or D&I information (a 12% year-over-year increase).
- More than half of the 539 employer respondents said they had been affected by the Great Resignation, and about 90% said they were hiring when the survey was conducted in May and June. They noted their major recruiting challenges were too few applicants (68%), unqualified applicants (65%) and unresponsive candidates or “ghosting” (52%).
- The survey, which also gathered responses from job-seekers, found that 1 in 5 were searching for remote work and 23% were unhappy in their current role. Interestingly, job-seekers also expressed frustration with employer “ghosting” (45%), and noted that finding jobs in their desired location (45%) or that met their salary requirements (43%) were the other top challenges.
Dive Insight:
The coronavirus era and subsequent tight labor market have changed work in ways that look to be semi-permanent. While the explosion of remote and hybrid work options is one of the most notable changes, increased transparency around pay and other elements of work is becoming a greater norm as well.
Job-seekers — who have been hit hard by inflation and are increasingly recognizing the value of their labor — have not been shy about seeking higher pay in their next roles. Many employers have shifted their plans to address that demand, with industries like food service and retail making major compensation and benefits improvements to hourly roles. But higher-paid positions, like those in tech, have also seen the pay scale sliding higher.
While employers may be privately adjusting compensation budgets, approaches to pay transparency remain in flux. More states and localities are passing legislation to make salary range inclusion in job descriptions a requirement; at least 10 jurisdictions have laws in place. Most recently, California passed a bill to strengthen its mandates.
The patchwork approach to pay transparency across the country — combined with an increase in potential telework from a wide number of locations — has begun to yield unintended consequences. For example, a recent Recruitonomics study of Colorado’s pay transparency law, which went into effect in 2021, found that while the state saw a 1.5% boost in labor market participation, job postings in the state fell as some employers deliberately avoided advertising jobs in the state.
But an economist involved in the study said the effect would likely be temporary, and the “cat is out of the bag” on salary transparency. Employers who want to be competitive in a tight labor market will need to get on board — and may find they appreciate the efficiency, with fewer drop-out candidates applying and wasting both the recruiter’s and job-seeker’s time, he noted.
