Recruiters don’t ask this that bluntly but when interviewing for a position a candidate is always faced with the question, “what are you looking for in regard to compensation?”. It’s standard protocol. The recruiter must know if you are in line with the salary budgeted for the role and the candidate needs to communicate their financial needs to maintain their quality of life.
Now imagine you land the job and the Director of HR tells you to name your salary. This is a new trend in the UK with small tech start-ups. If the number is in line with the budget, that is your salary. As the years progress, your role expands and you think you deserve a raise, you name your price. In some models the Director of HR puts together a review panel to determine if the requested raise is approved. In other models the onus is on the employee to ask his/her peers to determine if the raise is justifiable.
Setting your own salary can lead to employee satisfaction, employee retention and engagement. There is also an increase in employee morale because the adversarial “he makes more than me” is removed.
There is no telling if this trend will jump across the pond, or to larger companies, anytime soon but it is an interesting twist on the elephant in the room – salary.
By Megan Cashion | People Science Talent Advisor II