Tom Cruise as Jerry Maguire said it best, “Help me…help you. Help me, help you“. The context – Jerry is talking to Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) about his prima donna attitude at a time Jerry was trying to help him secure a better contract to play football. Hmmm. This sounds relevant to compensation conversations I’ve had with candidates, and ties nicely with Kris Dunn’s recent musings at HR Capitalist.
The basic question for a candidate is: Should you reveal compensation history upfront? There are many opinions on this topic but mine hasn’t changed since I’ve gone from corporate HR to working in retained executive search. Unlike Jerry Maguire, I’m not an agent for my candidates – clearly, I get paid by my clients; however, my relationships with my top candidates is built on mutual respect, trust, professionalism and knowing expectations upfront. This helps me…help them.
I’ve recently had a candidate that refused to give me his compensation history out of concern that the company would try and low-ball him when it came to offer time. I get it – and I understand that lousy experiences in former offer processess have jaded him. What I explained to him is there are reasons companies work with firms like ours – and one of those is the relationships that we have with our candidates. Not only do we find the technical, cultural and leadership fit – we also do the vetting around compensation so that once the offer is made, there are no surprises and everyone goes home happy.
It’s not a one-way street either. I’m not only asking about compensation history, I also want to know what a candidate’s expectations are around an offer. Think baseball for a moment. I want to know what a “homerun” offer looks like for my candidate – base, bonus, LTI, relo, PTO…pet insurance, whatever. This is the offer letter that they will want to sign before the ink is dry. Then I want to know what their triple and double looks like – and what they’d consider a strike-out. If it is anything les than a “homerun”, well, there might be some additional coaching, but at least expectations are clear. My client then knows what it will take to get this top candidate and what they need to do, if they can’t afford the homerun offer. You can bicker over when exactly to have this conversation, but in my book the sooner the better so no one wastes time or energy.
So, what happened with the candidate above? Well, he stood his ground which was his choice and that’s ok. Did it prevent me from presenting him? Yep…when you have a slate of top candidates and one chooses not to trust in my process, they’ve just elected to move to the middle of the pack. It isn’t about a “my way or the highway” viewpoint – no, it is the fact that I don’t have a complete picture of you as a candidate and my comfort level in evaluating overall fit for my client is not as strong as with other candidates – all other criteria being equal.
Maybe Jerry’s response to “Show me the money!” should have been, “You’ve got to TELL me about the money first!”
This happens more than some might realize and it funadmentally comes down to a trust issue. I refer to it as Jack Burns does in Meet The Parents…it’s the Burns Family Circle of Trust.
As a candidate if you don’t trust the recruiter you are working with enought to share compensation history and the minimum acceptable salary to make a change then you don’t trust the recruiter enough to present you on other opportunities. It really is that simple and you did the right thing with your candidate Kathy.
One of the things I love about being back in the third party and consulting world is that we have more of an opportunity to choose who we work with. It is some times necessary to fire candidates (and clients).
One other thing – I would argue that if a candidate is not willing to give you information important to your ability to represent them then you have to seriously ask yourself what you could have done differently to establish and build trust. Very often recruiters just expect a candidate to trust them because they called or have an opportunity of interest. Trust and relationships take more than a transactional mentality and don’t happen on the first call or just because you are interviewing a candidate.
Hi MH – Nice reference w/the “Burns Family Circle of Trust” although not sure I want to be compared to Jack as he was a bit uptight; however,if I could teach my cat to use the toilet…
Thanks for the comments and I agree with your follow-up about our role in making a candidate feel comfortable with us. With the candidate in question, we’d met twice and talked even before I approached him with this opportunity, but perhaps I needed to meet his parents??
Meeting the parents might be a good option…especially if this is a Gen Y candidate. The whole helicopter parent phenomenon is very real!
Sounds to me as though your candidate has issues. That said, as we both noted, most recruiters are absolutely aweful at establishing a trusting relationship before they begin to move forward which leads to bitter disappointment down the line.
Kathy,
I think you nailed it. I was on the agency side, and now am in a corporate setting. I ALWAYS ask about current salary and future expectations (and packages) for candidates, somewhere around the tail end of our 1st phone call.
I get some [colorful] responses, and mostly people who are open to discussing this. The one thing I do though, is I ask about their current salary and comp package, and if I sense hesitation, I will tell them, “wait, before you answer – let me explain WHY I’m asking this”. I let them know that it helps me understand where they want to be and can it work with our budget. If not, I’m just wasting their time. No one wants to do a 4 step interview dance and then find out at the end we’re 40k apart. Once I do that almost 100% of people are willing to cough up the info needed. and in almost all cases we’re able to meet what they were seeking, or delicately discuss other options down the road.
Great post – I think more people need to get that info. up front – it saves heartache on all sides.
Right on, Kathy!
I’ve was a Recruiting Mgr/HR Director at an insurance company for 20 years (now HR Director in healthcare). In hundreds of phone/face-to-face interviews I’ve had only one candidate hem and haw (face-to-face) and they eventually disclosed current comp. I agree – it’s a “knock-out factor” if they won’t disclose. This issue and getting a read on their thoughts on relocation are absolutley essential in the initial screening.
I’ve also had cordial conversations that were ended when someone was dramatically above what we’d pay.
I agree the issue here is trust. If your comapany can’t pay market-competitively, you (HR pro) may want to consider working elsewhere!
Thanks for the feedback Pete & Mark – glad to know there are others working to build strong relationships with people so that the comp issue is a non-issue!
Hey Kathy…I think this post is brilliant.
On the corporate recruiting side, it’s often harder to develop the trust needed to start discussing salary. The internal guy is seen as the company man. My interests are perceived to be with the company, and not the candidate.
I try to prevent this by talking money very early. If, before we’ve committed a bunch of time and energy, I know we can’t afford this person, I will end discussions early.
Also…I don’t hide from the fact that I do in fact report to the company. If the HM wants to offer you $20k less then what you are asking for, I will indeed present you that offer. However, it will not be before I have a very stern heart to heart with said Hiring Manager assuring him that there is no way the deal will be closed with that number and we just wasted everyone’s time. My job is to hire the best talent, not find the best bargain.
Often, this works. Candidates will open up and let me know what their numbers are. Sometimes, they still prefer to keep the number close to the chest out of fear of the lowball. This just makes the process take longer. Personally…I don’t know how any recruiter can continue to successfully find strong talent if they develop a reputation for lowballing.
I’m stealing your baseball analogy, btw. Hope you don’t mind.
Spanning the World – Links You Can Use or Peruse – April 17th Edition
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