Many employers are loathe to put so much as a pound sign on their job ads. They don’t want anybody knowing what they pay. And yet, in our top tips from the job boards we find that specifying a salary is one of the most important things that job boarders think you can do to ensure online recruitment success. And yet and still, many companies refuse to put a salary on a job board.

There are many reasons for this aversion to publishing salaries. It is believed to weaken the negotiating position of the company;  it can reveal to staff  just what their colleagues are paid. Both these things can offer challenges to employers. However, for the success of your online recruitment campaign there are few things that can give you more benefit than adding a salary.

Firstly, people want to know what a job is paying. Money is why people go to work. Not having a salary on a job makes it impossible to know what a job is paying. Indeed, there is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that candidates do not apply for jobs without salaries because they suspect the employer either hasn’t thought sufficiently about the job or wants to underpay.

If job board advertising is about getting your ad in front of as many job seeking eyeballs as possible then you simply have to add a salary. Job seekers search for jobs by salary. If you don’t have a salary they won’t easily find your job. Secondly,  it helps candidates know the level of the job. A Sales Manager on a basic £22k and one on a basic of £55k are entirely different propositions. Job seekers need to know this. And this leads to the third benefit: specifying a salary allows candidates to screen themselves. Having £55k on the salary will stop those Sales Managers on £22k applying for the jobs.

Some people do go to work for love: the majority of the rest of us have to pay the bills. Put a salary on your job ad.