Wren Zhang· Job Architecture Lead, Silverline Media
Asked in Pay Equity & Transparency ·
We are a contract research organisation with about 4,500 employees in 19 countries. In the US states where it is prohibited, and now across our EU countries, recruiters no longer ask candidates what they earn. In the UK, India, Singapore and a few others they still do, and offers there are often built as current pay plus a percentage.
I want one global rule: no salary history, offers set from the range and the candidate's assessed level. Talent acquisition says that without current pay they will overpay in some markets and lose candidates in others.
Has anyone gone global on this, and did the predicted problems actually appear?
4 helpful · 4 insightful · 2 agree · 3 replies · 80 views · 2 following
Yusuf DuboisCBS
People Analytics Lead, Ravenna Chemicals
We went global three years ago, 30 countries. Recruiters ask for salary expectations instead, and the offer is placed in the range based on a short written assessment of skills against the level. Average offer position moved from 94% of midpoint to 97%, so yes, a small cost. Offer acceptance went up four points. Nobody now argues for going back.
Director of Benefits, Lumen Biosciences
The overpaying worry is really a worry that your ranges are wrong for those markets. If a recruiter needs to know someone earns 30% below your minimum in order to offer below your minimum, that is the practice the bans exist to end. Fix the ranges and the objection goes.
Director of Benefits, Lumen Biosciences
A practical caveat from India: candidates there routinely volunteer payslips and expect the percentage-uplift conversation, and some read a refusal to discuss current pay as evasive. We kept the global rule but trained recruiters on how to respond when the information is offered unprompted: thank them, do not record it, and explain how the offer will be set. Do not skip that training.
