Strategic Talent Acquisition: Leveraging Salary Data for Recruitment Success

In today's competitive HR tech landscape, strategic talent acquisition has taken on a new level of importance. With organizations scrambling to attract and retain top talent, it's crucial to adopt comprehensive strategies that go beyond basic recruitment practices.

Horsefly Analytics addresses this challenge by delivering precise labor market insights, providing real-time data on talent availability, salary benchmarks, and demand trends. This simply means that workforce teams can craft compelling strategies with specific job titles that will attract the right interested talent, set competitive salaries, and identify optimal recruitment locations.

Let’s explore some key questions and statistics that highlight the importance of salary data.

Obviously, knowing what the best talent is being compensated ‘right now’ means teams set out with the right internal budget and with a package that will attract the skills required.

Talent teams must stay abreast of industry developments to negotiate fair offers and remain competitive, furthermore leveraging salary data and insights enables talent leaders to assess their current compensation landscape and make informed decisions to retain their people.

Companies that are transparent about their salaries are recognized as progressive, with a higher success rate in attracting, engaging, and retaining talent. A recent study found that 67% of job seekers consider pay transparency as a key decider when evaluating potential employers.

The Wider Value of Salary Data

• Ensures accurate compensation based on talent availability and other factors

• Attracts the right talent and increases applications

• Retains existing team members

• Maintains competitive pricing by monitoring wage growth

• Builds brand through transparent and fair practices

• Prevents issues like diversity pay gaps

• Addresses competitive both internal and external compensation levels.

Access to salary data is undeniably crucial for making well-informed decisions regarding compensation strategies. Here are some insightful findings:

• New Legislation: many countries are mandating that employers include salary ranges on job listings. The US is already doing this in many states and given the talent wants to see it, it is likely to be a global requirement within the next few years.

• Communication Priority: To the above point 70% of professionals want to see the salary in the job posting. Only 50% are currently including it. A total of 74% use salary data in employee retention & benchmarking and 61% leverage data on average salaries in their workflows

• Employers' Salary Increase Intentions for 2024/5:

  • 41% plan a flat-rate percentage increase

  • 27% aim to align with inflation

  • 16% plan performance-based increases

• Title Importance: Only 6% prioritize job titles when considering a role.

• Cost of Living: The UK anticipates a 4.1% pay rise in 2024. Those failing to meet this minimum will see higher attrition levels.

• It’s not just salary: Hybrid working, sabbaticals, and private health care are the current top preferences.

• Forecast for Salary Increases 2024/5

  • USA: 3.8%

  • Canada: 3.6%

  • UK: 4.1%

  • EU: 4.2%

• Talent Top Reasons for Accepting a Role:

  • 49% are motivated by better compensation

  • 21% seek a better workplace culture

  • 14% value increased influence within the company.

Incorporating salary, benefits, and compensation details effectively into job postings and acquisition strategies is the best way to attract the very best talent. The first thing of course any business will need is access to that data.

With Horsefly's Compensation Data businesses can inform compensation planning with up-to-the-minute salary data. HR and workforce management teams are using our data today to manage some of these specific challenges:

Specific Salary Data Insights

• Analyze talent pools

• Develop GTM strategies based on specific characteristics such as supply and demand

• Find the desired skills

• Address diversity and ethnicity

• Identify the right location to maximize budgets

• Uncover salary ranges tailored to specific roles and skill sets, across exact locations

Here are our favorite practices to leverage salary and compensation data as part of talent strategies:

• Transparency: Clearly state the salary range, benefits package, and compensation structure in job postings.

• Highlight Competitive Offerings: Showcase competitive salaries and comprehensive benefits to position the organization as an attractive employer and differentiate it from competitors.

• Customize Messaging: Tailor the messaging around salary, benefits, and compensation to appeal to the target audience and address their specific needs.

• Emphasize All Rewards: Beyond base salary, highlight additional perks, such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, professional development opportunities and other incentives.

• Address Flexibility and Work-Life Balance: Emphasize any flexible work arrangements, remote work options, or work-life balance initiatives to appeal to target talent seeking flexibility and autonomy.

• Showcase Career Growth Opportunities: Highlight opportunities for career advancement, skill development, and growth within the organization to attract ambitious talent.

• Use Compelling Visuals and Testimonials: It’s not just about numbers. Incorporate visuals, testimonials, and employee stories to bring the benefits and compensation package to life and create an emotional connection.

Get your hands on the salary and benefits data you need. Horsefly can provide an invaluable source of intelligence when considering workforce planning, recruitment processes, and internal mobility strategies.

Our teams can provide full and comprehensive solutions to developing talent strategies in collaboration with your organization.

Get your FREE no-obligation customer report.

Sources: Horsefly Analytics Salary Data, McKinsey & Company, Trupathsearch.com, Majorplayers.co.uk, PayScale Research Report 2024.