An offer that can be attractive when presented well. (Photo: Alexander Gray for Unsplash)
FUCKING JOB! is a section where Olivier Schmouker answers your toughest questions [et les plus pertinentes] about the modern business world… and of course its quirks. An appointment to read Tuesdays and the thursdays. Would you like to participate? Send us your question to [email protected]
Q. – “Pay transparency is trending and I think that’s a good thing. I would like our company to display their salaries during the hiring process, but the problem is that they are not really competitive with our competitors. What to do?” – Beatrice
A. – Dear Béatrice, we could say to ourselves that it is better not to openly display a “lack” in the first place, in this case a salary scale that does not match that of the competition. But we should not jump to such a conclusion.
A recent article in the Swiss daily newspaper Le Temps provides an overview of the various ways of practicing wage transparency. I would be happy to tell you the highlights.
First of all, there is the so-called “absolute” salary transparency, which consists of disclosing the salaries of all employees, also indicating the function of each individual employee and the number of hours worked per week. Only a few Swiss companies do something like this, but among them are the Swiss Alternative Bank and the digital agency Liip.
It is because there are a number of potential dangers to such a practice. For example, there is a risk of internal strife if some find out they are being paid less than others who they believe earn less than them. As another example, when the gap between high and low pay is large, those at the bottom of the pay scale may take offense. This would force management to adjust their salaries for the sake of fairness. This would lead to a significant increase in payroll and could even damage the organization’s finances.
In short, the “absolute” version carries significant dangers. Hence the interest in the so-called “light” version.
This time, the goal is to publish, for each position, the starting salary of a new employee with no particular work experience, as well as the salary range, the maximum of which corresponds to the salary that one receives. When you reach the maximum experience level. In Switzerland, this is practiced by La Poste, the insurer Helsana and the telecommunications company Swisscom, among others.
The benefits of this formula are numerous. Internally, nothing specific about colleagues is revealed, which means that the risk of a dispute is largely ruled out. Externally there is the right timing, without a lack of salary competition compared to the competition: knowing what the maximum salary we can receive one day can even be attractive, especially for newcomers to the profession.
In addition, playing with wage transparency gives the company in question an avant-garde image; and therefore an attractive image, not to say seductive. Because I emphasize that this transparency still only affects a minority of companies: According to the Swiss personnel service provider JobCloud, the salary offered for the position is currently only mentioned in 2.2% of the job advertisements. attach.
There you are, Beatrice. If you really want to go for wage transparency, think about it and especially think about the “light” version. Also, keep in mind that it could be of great benefit to your company’s image, giving it the chance to hold an asset in your hands that your competitors don’t have!