What salary should be offered to a potential employee? When planning to recruit, an important part of the process involves working out an appropriate salary. In this candidate-tight employment market where job seekers have so many options, employers need to be strategic about salary to attract and retain quality teams. Low unemployment rates and high job seeker confidence is resulting in high candidate demand and employers are finding it a tough environment to hire in.

Interest rate rises, and general cost-of-living increases are making salary a top priority for people. If you want to recruit a quality person to your team, they need to be rewarded appropriately for their role. Offering $50k for a receptionist, administrator or property management role, will simply get you no results anymore.

      — Mary-Jane Massicci, Senior Recruitment Consultant specialising in real estate

Our top tips for employers when considering what salary to offer:

Start conversations about salary early
Should employers advertise salary information in the job ad or wait until later in the recruitment process? We recommend talking about salary early in the recruitment process to ensure job applicants are genuine in their intentions to move forward. Waiting too long to discuss salary could see an employer’s top applicants suddenly getting cold feet and going elsewhere. Job ads that contain salary information have higher rates of traffic than ads that don’t. Be aware, however, when advertising salaries up front, they must be market competitive to start with to attract quality applications.

Research, research, research
Thoroughly research the market salaries and salary packages for similar roles in your industry and location. This will give you a benchmark to ensure your salary offer is competitive and attractive to candidates. Look to a reputable, local recruitment company in your sector, ask a relevant industry association or research similar roles on job boards such as SEEK.

Consider the market
What is the market demand for the role? How hard is it going to be to find someone with the skills and expertise you require? If the job market is highly competitive for a particular role, you may need to offer a more competitive salary to attract the right candidates.

What is your Employee Value Proposition (EVP)?
Salary is just one part of the overall employment offering. Consider the value of benefits such as flexible work arrangements, professional development opportunities, health and wellbeing programs and other perks. For many job seekers, improved work-life balance and greater choice of when and where work is conducted are important factors when considering a job move and can be a powerful tool to attract quality candidates.

Lowballing will get you nowhere
Employers need to confidently go forward with a strong salary offer to achieve the best results. In this employment market, going in with a low salary will simply not work and you will receive a low volume and low quality of job applicants, which wastes money and time.

Employers looking to successfully recruit in this challenging employment market need to offer competitive salaries that are well researched, timely, and consider market conditions as well as meeting candidate expectations.

For confidential and free salary advice on roles in the South Australian property industry, contact one of the friendly team at Edge Recruitment on 08 8232 2220.