Over the coming months, many talent acquisition teams will begin to feel the effects of changing policies surrounding the use of one of the largest job boards in the United States. A previously released policy surrounding pay transparency on Indeed has gained traction as the organization rolls out the implementation of Indeed-generated pay estimates for roles that do not disclose pay ranges.
In early July, Indeed released updated policies outlining these changes. The policies show that Indeed intends to supplement job postings that lack pay range details with Indeed-generated salary range estimates. According to the Indeed policy, they will use proprietary estimation models including user-provided data, employer posted ranges, role requirements, and industry specifics to determine salary estimates, which will be clearly identified as estimates on the site.
Employers are given the opportunity to provide their own pay ranges by including pay details in the job description body or listed in the pay range section as provided by Indeed. Indeed scrapers will also pull this data from Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that provide a dedicated section on pay ranges in each requisition, granted the cell is filled and published externally. Employers who meet these requirements will remain opted out of the automatically applied salary estimates.
This is not a new topic of discussion for employers and job seekers alike. Pay transparency, or lack thereof, has increasingly become a top discussion amongst even the most casual of job seekers. The concept has been gaining traction in part due to the hiring challenges and labor shortages following the COVID-19 pandemic. With many jurisdictions releasing legislation related to pay transparency in job ads over the last few years. (More on that here.) Employers who are sometimes slow to adapt are having to make quick adjustments to long-standing pay disclosure policies to meet these new market demands.
Shifting Industry Sentiment
With this latest move from Indeed, job board sentiment appears to be shifting from catering directly to those who buy ads, to those who consume the ads — a shift seen across much of talent acquisition in the 2020s. Lack of pay transparency in job ads has been a top source of frustration amongst job seekers over the last decade, with many being vocal on social media about their frustrations. Indeed’s pay transparency policy speaks to this frustration, citing requests for more insights into expected salary ranges as one of their top pieces of feedback from job seekers.
As the world continues to recover from the turbulence of 2020, many job boards have struggled to find a balance between catering to their candidates and to the companies who pay the bills. With both companies and job seekers playing the role of customer, it may be challenging to stabilize this precarious balance. Ultimately, job boards will need to make a decision on whom they will cater to most — and with current market trends, it would be a disservice to themselves to forget who’s really driving these conversations.
Ramifications For Employers and Job Seekers Alike
A recent Twitter thread from Jesse Tinsley, Founder, and CEO of Job Mobz, underscored the value of pay transparency, asking professionals to send their LinkedIn bios for a free salary estimate. The resulting discussion was full of astonishment as many discovered their own salary disparity.
“People don’t understand the market and its value. Job seekers just don’t know what they don’t know. Pay ranges are gatekept heavily and this puts the power back in the employees’ hands.”
Speaking with Jesse on this topic, he had a few thoughts on the benefits of these policy changes as they relate to job seekers,
specifically in the hourly and entry-level spaces. “People don’t understand the market and its value. Job seekers just don’t know what they don’t know. Pay ranges are gatekept heavily and this puts the power back in the employees’ hands.” It allows them to be powerful career advocates for themselves.”
Jesse went on to say “Inflation is running away, operating costs are going up, the ability to pay employees is decreasing and available applicants are low. There is an opportunity for pay transparency to help here with getting candidates to apply.” This highlights an important topic, how pay transparency can affect recruitment, particularly for employers in overly saturated markets or verticals.
Over time we may see these changes drive additional wage competition across industries that use Indeed heavily such as manufacturing, food service, retail, hospitality, business process outsourcing, and construction. However, whether these new policies will make a significant difference for job seekers remains to be seen.
(This article is my opinion on the policy changes and in no way reflects their views nor should it be used as clarification on Indeed policy. Please refer to Indeed’s policy for full details.)
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