Talent Acquisition Red Flag!
And it wastes a company’s time & money
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This red flag stopped me talking!
This is my 20th year in the recruitment/TA industry so to be left speechless by a dumb practice is now pretty rare but this one had me agape.
Like wide-mouthed, wide-eyed, stunned into silence, agape. 😮
Of course it didn’t last. 😆 You know me, I am Aussie first, Brit second. So what came next was a stream of disbelieving expletives because, seriously, WTAF!
It went like this. I am chatting to a Head of TA who answers into a Global Head of TA, and there are lots of cultural issues going on. Global Head is in Europe where the company is known; Head Of is outside of Europe where the company is unknown. The Global Head doesn’t get it. And we talk about all the ways that this (quite fabulous & you know I have high standards) Head Of is ruffling feathers as they improve things and all that has been achieved, especially in DEI, during 2022.
Then the Head Of says, ‘The Global Head won’t let us discuss salaries with the hiring managers’
Whaaaaaaat? 🚩
‘The recruiters are not allowed to discuss salaries with hiring managers.’ they repeated.
As red flag warnings go, this was a justifiable stream of expletives, right? 🤷♀️
Red flag 🚩 Recruitment 101
Your job as a recruiter is to guide your manager — who is an expert in whatever they do and not hiring — to fewer delusions of grandeur. This absolutely includes any belief they may have, for example, that someone with 10 years of experience in a particular skill will work for the company for an entry level salary.
It is simply one of the most basic parts of the job. With your market knowledge, which you have gained from research and speaking to candidates, you are fully within your rights to share with the hiring manager what the salary should be or what they can expect to see for the salary they are offering.
If you are actively told you cannot have this conversation, run! 💨
