Businesses warn publishing salaries will attract applicants who are only interested in being paid

Businesses have warned that government plans to require salaries in job adverts could attract applicants motivated by money rather than a lifelong passion for what the business does.

With the government proposing mandatory salary information in recruitment adverts, business owners fear candidates could begin assessing whether a job meets their needs before spending several hours demonstrating whether they meet the company’s.

“We want someone who shares our values,” explained managing director Simon Williams, whose company distributes bathroom fittings.

“Someone who wakes up excited about regional logistics, rather than wondering whether doing regional logistics will enable them to continue living indoors.

“If their first question is about money, that’s a red flag. Their first question should be about our journey.”

Williams explained that withholding salary information was essential to identifying genuinely committed applicants.

“If we tell people beforehand, they might decide not to apply. We believe that such a decision should come after they’ve used a day’s annual leave to meet us.

“Preferably after they’ve prepared a presentation containing several ideas that we can still use.”

He rejected suggestions that describing the salary as “competitive” was misleading.

“It’s competing with the lease on my Range Rover. There’s only so much money.”

Recruitment consultant Derek Matthews agreed that transparency could undermine company culture.

“A candidate recently asked whether our client’s flexible working policy meant flexibility for employees. You can see the sort of entitled attitude we’re dealing with.

“They also wanted to know the salary range. I explained that we’re like a family. They asked whether that meant we’d become weird and evasive whenever money came up.”

Williams reiterated that he would never employ anyone primarily motivated by financial reward, before ending the interview to chase an invoice that was three minutes overdue.

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