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Episode 168 - Should salary ranges be mandatory in job ads?
220 Plays20 days ago
RNA episode 168 has news for 7 July 2026: Ephram Stephenson springs back to life, the ICAC inquiry about recruitment and promotion at the University of Wollongong claims a huge scalp, Korn Ferry acquires AMS , Momentum Consulting moves from voluntary administration to a DOCA, and the latest research on discrimination and harassment in Australian workplaces. In Question of the Week , Adele and Ross debate the EC directive on mandatory communication about salary early in the recruitment process and unpack the implications for the recruitment sector.
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Transcript
Wingman Recruitment's Growth Support
00:00:06
Speaker
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Introduction to Recruitment News Australia
00:00:25
Speaker
Welcome to Recruitment News Australia. This is the news for the 7th of July, 2026. I'm Adele Last. And I'm Ross Clennett. Ross, the man who never quits, he just goes quiet for a while. Ephraim Stevenson has jumped off his deathbed to reactivate Ephraim's his consulting business.
Ephraim Stevenson's Consulting Reboot
00:00:42
Speaker
Yes, Adel, late last week, I noticed the Ephraim's LinkedIn page, after no activity since the demise of his latest recruitment business, Leo Jackson, in May, posted a short update. It says, no pitch, no pressure, just a real conversation. If you're building a recruitment agency and want to think something through with someone who's worked in the industry for a long time, my door's open. Where you are, where you want to go, whether we're a fit, and that's it.
00:01:08
Speaker
If it's a no, you'll still leave with a clearer view of your next step. Ephraim's one-to-one business advisory to the recruitment industry, plan, build, grow. Well, it's true to form for Ephraim Stevenson, no matter how many failures he chalks up, he never lacks the confidence to tell others how to build successful recruitment businesses.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yes, he seems to truly think he's built a string of successful recruitment businesses, never mind the inconvenient fact that his most recent one lasted seven months and the one before that went belly up, owing $28 million. dollars It must be a do-as-I-say-and-not-as-I-do consulting practice.
Corruption Scandal at University of Wollongong
00:01:43
Speaker
The inquiry into corruption at the University of Wollongong, involving preferred candidates gaining favours through interview questions provided in advance, gained a huge scalp at the end of last week when Chancellor Michael Still, who had stood aside at the beginning of the ICAC inquiry, resigned.
00:01:58
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The damning details outlined last week by the university's HR chief Alison Burke revealed that Chancellor Still strongly discouraged a competitive recruitment process for the newly created role of Vice President, Strategy and Executive Affairs.
00:02:13
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Instead, he wanted Chief Governance Officer Alyssa White to be given the job with a $388,000 package, which was a $50,000 raise. Burke testified she was shocked by how brazen it was and even felt targeted after opposing the non-competitive process. Even Vice-Chancellor John Dewar apparently called the idea of skipping a competitive recruitment process a very, very bad idea.
00:02:38
Speaker
Burke told the inquiry her concerns were reinforced when Chancellor Still told her that people and culture's role should be to just do whatever a manager tells them to do. Steele's resignation is effective immediately, ending his era at the University of Wollongong, just as the inquiry is set to continue through to the end of this week.
00:02:57
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With over $124,000 bill by a consulting firm that has no recruitment experience for services connected to the recent recruitment process for the incoming Vice-Chancellor, there are still many issues for the Commission to get to the bottom of.
Korn Ferry Acquires AMS
00:03:11
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Ross global search firm Corn Ferry has just announced a massive deal to acquire the UK-based firm AMS for about £850 million, pounds which is roughly one six billion. australian dollars This is huge news, Adele, and a big, big move by Korn Ferry. AMS started life in 1996 as Alexander Mann Solutions, one of the first specialist recruitment process outsourcing businesses.
00:03:39
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Over the past three decades, it's grown to now have a presence in around 120 countries. The combination of the world's biggest retained search and consulting brand with the world's largest recruitment outsourcer sounds like a step in a new direction for global hiring.
00:03:54
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Volume hiring, managed services, employer branding, contingent workforce at the low to mid-level together with executive search, interim executives and workforce consulting sounds like a massive organisational challenge to integrate and deliver to customers.
00:04:10
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The combined business will have more than 16,000 employees and by their own admission will be placing a professional in a job every 90 seconds around the world. Is this the future of global hiring, Ross? Bigger platforms, more data, more automation and more scale?
00:04:27
Speaker
Surely it's a huge efficiency play. The pitch to shareholders would be scale and margin. Corn Ferry Board would seem to think so. AI-driven candidate sourcing and automated screening and assessment at the front end to quickly get volume and quality candidates to the human-driven shortlisting stage.
00:04:45
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Trevor Romeo, a research analyst, said to staffing industry analysts that the deal makes sense as RPO is seen as a high single-digit growth market, especially as hiring picks up.
00:04:57
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The merged entity increases growth potential through greater exposure to RPO and adds cross-selling opportunities, he said. I'm sure the smaller search firms in Australia will be making their pitch using the opposite points. We know the market, we know the candidates, and the candidates know and trust us.
Momentum Consulting's New Ownership
00:05:15
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Momentum Consulting Group has exited voluntary administration after successfully executing a deed of company arrangement on the 25th of June. The Sydney-based blue-collar recruiter is now under the control of Martin Longstaff, who has interest in other recruitment businesses in New South Wales and the ACT, including face-to-face recruitment, Jobwire Australia and Point recruitment.
00:05:38
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When contacted by R&A, Longstaff declined to provide the financial details of the deal, simply commenting that Momentum has been recapitalised under new ownership, the transition ins ensures employee entitlements were paid, preserved one of the industry's long-standing recruitment businesses and provided continuity for clients, candidates and employees.
00:05:58
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Longstaff has more than 25 years of recruitment experience and was a senior leader at Kelly Services between 2010 2016 before moving into ownership.
Ageism in the Workplace
00:06:09
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Well, another year passes and another report shows that ageism remains a pervasive issue in Australian workplaces, Adele.
00:06:17
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Rather depressing, isn't it, Ross? The report from the Diversity Council Australia, DCA, and the Australian Human Rights Commission entitled Age, Assumptions and Access at Work surveyed 3,000 workers and it revealed especially alarming news for younger workers.
00:06:33
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Yes, 39% of workers aged 18 to 29 experienced discrimination or harassment in the workplace during the past 12 months, compared with 27% of those aged 30 to 54 and 19% of workers 55 and older. Younger employees also reported higher rates of sexual harassment and everyday exclusion, including being ignored, left out of social activities and having assumptions made about their abilities based on their age.
00:07:01
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Yet those older employees face their own set of unique barriers, with only 50% of older workers participating in career development, compared to 75% of the youngest cohort. Catherine Hunter, the CEO of the DCA, noted that assumptions about being past their prime often influence who gets access to support and recognition. It seems ageism is so normalised that many people just accept it as the status quo, according to Age Discrimination Commissioner Robert Fitzgerald.
00:07:31
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I agree. No matter how much employers whinge about a lack of quality workers, the generalisations too many of them make about a worker's age continue to be a big self-inflicted wound.
00:07:42
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I thought there was a glimmer of hope during the COVID boarded closures when employers were forced to ignore age and focus on workers' availability and capability, but rather depressingly, Adele, it seems normal service has resumed.
EU Salary Disclosure Directive
00:07:57
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A massive change in Europe for recruitment advertising, the recruitment process and pay transparency came into effect last month, Adele. The EU's new pay transparency directive took effect on the 7th of June, meaning employers can no longer advertise jobs with phrases like competitive salary or salary based on experience.
00:08:17
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Instead, they must be upfront about pay. The rules apply to any company hiring people in the EU, even if the company is based in another country. The directive covers four core obligations. Firstly, salary ranges must be advised up front. Employers must share compensation information with candidates either in the published job vacancy, prior to the job interview, or through another channel before the offer stage.
00:08:42
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In addition, salary history questions are gone. That what are you currently earning question has been used for decades to anchor offers below market. It's off the table prohibited. Also, pay secrecy clauses are unenforceable. You can no longer stop employees from talking about what they earn full stop.
00:09:00
Speaker
A massive change in Europe for recruitment advertising, the recruitment process and pay transparency came into effect last month, Adele. The EU's new pay transparency directive took effect on the 7th of June, meaning employers can no longer advertise jobs with phrases like competitive salary or salary based on experience. Instead, they must be upfront about pay.
00:09:22
Speaker
The rules apply to any company hiring people in the EU, even if the company is based in another country. The directive covers four core obligations. Firstly, salary ranges must be advised up front. Employers must share compensation information with candidates, either in the published job vacancy prior to the job interview or through another channel before the offer stage.
00:09:43
Speaker
In addition, salary history questions are gone. The what are you currently earning question that's been used for decades to anchor offers below markets off the table prohibited. Also, pay secrecy clauses are unenforceable. You can no longer stop employees from talking about what they earn full stop.
00:10:01
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And here's what I reckon is the most consequential directive. Employees can ask what their colleagues make and the employer has to answer. Any worker can request the average pay for comparable roles broken down by gender. Employers are obligated to respond.
00:10:16
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That is big, very big. This change in Europe will almost certainly spread to other territories.
Balancing Salary Transparency and Flexibility
00:10:23
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Australia has the WGEA annual reporting, a big step in the right direction for monitoring pay parity, although Australian employers should consider how they can be leaders, not followers in pay transparency.
00:10:42
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Question of the week. Should salary ranges be mandatory in job ads? This is a very controversial question, Ross, and it has come to light from the recent EU Pay Transparency Directive that just came into effect in June that we reported in the news that it has become illegal to...
00:11:03
Speaker
Basically, recruit without declaring the salary front. Yes. And frankly, I think this is a good thing overall. So whether it's salary ranges in a job ad, which is clearly the first step, ah or advising candidates once they apply and before they invest any further time what the salary is, i think As people who have conducted a lot of recruitment, we know that once a candidate knows the salary, then they tend to either be more interested or less interested. So it is a significant factor in a candidate's motivation to proceed.
00:11:41
Speaker
Look, my concern, and I think the the overarching industry concern around this will be that we all know that salaries are negotiable. We all know that it's often a guide. And we all know that if we put an exceptional candidate in front of a client, In many cases, they will increase the salary and pay more, pay what the candidate is looking for or if they're an exceptional candidate.
00:12:03
Speaker
So this creates a situation where you're advertising a job with a salary range, which may exclude people who are above average in quality or experience from applying and therefore you miss out perhaps on the best person for the job.
00:12:18
Speaker
And you know my response to that would be, Adele? don't advertise jobs or don't rely on advertising jobs. that As a recruiter, you should be focusing on working your network. so Whether it's your or existing database or
Fair Remuneration Without Salary History
00:12:33
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the people that you know, so you can have a conversation about the job and the remuneration at the same time. Whereas, of course, when you post an ad, you don't have an opportunity to have two-way communication.
00:12:45
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The candidate is simply going to draw a conclusion about their interest in the job simply based on the words they see on the page and the salary. Well, that could definitely solve the problem of having to advertise the job. I can understand that. Use your network or maybe wait until the the engagement conversation or screening conversation with a candidate before you're discussing salary. But this is even deeper than that. I mean, this is changing even the way we interview candidates. We're not allowed to ask, this is in Europe, of course, at the moment, but it might come to Australia. You can't ask somebody what they're currently earning. And that's always been a way to kind of sense check what they're looking for. Of course, people are going to ask for an increase, but some people get a bit crazy about that. You know, they'll ask for a very dramatic increase that's hard to justify. So that's a really interesting one to me for the recruitment sector. I mean, to me, this puts pressure and I think rightful pressure on the recruiter and the hiring manager to be able to justify that the remuneration that they're offering for the role is fair rather than simply allow the candidates that are applying and knowing what they earn to be effectively the benchmark for the role. And overall, this is this is a good thing.
00:14:03
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I mean, if a candidate is worth, let's say, $150,000 and they're on $110,000, well, to me, it's completely fine that they get a $40,000 increase. But I know for some employers, they won't look at the $150,000 that benchmark for the role. They'll simply look at the candidate at $110,000 and go, oh, well, a $40,000 increase is too much. you know I'll offer them a $20,000 increase and they should be happy with that. Yeah, I think that is a natural thought process. And what is currently happening? People are only increasing salaries based on what they're currently on. And this would be very apparent for, if we're talking about the gender split for women, because we know women often undervalue themselves. they're often underpaid and they don't push hard for that higher salary. We know women are being paid less than men in the same job. So in that instance, I guess that is a good thing because the salary level is set
00:14:55
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for the role regardless of your gender and that's it should be. And look, I mean, the evidence is clear. there's There's been research that proves that men generally are more assertive than women when asking for more money. And this is another step, I think, a good step in terms of ah pay equality. So pay transparency, i think, is a big part of pay equality.
00:15:20
Speaker
There's some other factors to this as well that are quite interesting.
Pay Transparency's Impact on Employee Discussions
00:15:23
Speaker
You can't stop employees from talking about their own salaries between themselves. So they're allowed to discuss that openly. And employees can actually even ask for comparative data about their salary, specifically related to gender, but you know to similar roles within the organisation or perhaps the industry. Those points are really interesting. Well, that phrase, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Transparency is a good thing because it means people are more likely to be accountable. They're more likely to be more thoughtful about remuneration and to be able to justify it because they'll need to be able to justify it when people ask, well, what are the other, ah don't know, call centre operators earning? compared to me, and then form a judgment. And yes, employees are always going to think that they're underpaid, but it certainly will put a lot of onus on employers to be carefully evaluating people's roles and ensuring that there is appropriate differences in pay, not just based on experience, but on job performance and the responsibilities that people are undertaking on a day-to-day basis.
00:16:37
Speaker
You used the example there of call centre operator and I can understand possibly most organisations that might have a role like a call centre operator. There's multiples of that. So that may be an easy answer when an employee who's a call centre operator says, can I see in comparative data against of my salary against others in the organisation, the company will have that. But what if there's singular roles? What if there's only one accountant in the whole organisation? There's no one else to compare that role to. i think that's going to provide ah challenge for many employers to provide that data, ah maybe an opportunity for recruitment to to provide that service? Well, I don't know whether those sorts of employees would be asking the question around paid transparency because there isn't anyone else to compare them to internally.
00:17:22
Speaker
Certainly, they would be looking at external benchmarks and they and if they believe they've been or are being underpaid, then I would assume that they would be putting that case pretty forcefully to their employer. But what I'm not clear about from the EU in that situation, is it the employer's responsibility to provide some external benchmarking data? I don't think so. or is it only if there are comparable roles in the organisation that the employer is obligated to provide that information?
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I don't think that is clear in the directive information that we've read about. But again, I think this could potentially be an opportunity for recruitment agencies to provide a chargeable service here. If if your clients are required to justify a salary where it's a one-off position, where it's just the single accountant in the organisation, then you might be able to provide comparative market data on salaries and and sell that back to your client essentially so that they have, you know,
00:18:27
Speaker
regular and current accurate information to provide employees. And what I think will be absolutely fascinating going forward will be the differences in productivity that people may be able to demonstrate even if they have the same responsibility. So what happens if you're a super user of a large language model? and you're demonstrably more productive than your colleagues who are not as good, even though on paper the responsibilities are exactly the
Productivity and Pay in the EU
00:18:56
Speaker
same. I think that is going to be a question that's going to be asked and employers are going to have to give some thought to.
00:19:03
Speaker
It's certainly going to be interesting to see how this rolls out across the EU. It is for businesses that are recruiting um in Europe, even if they're not based in Europe. which could affect recruitment ah in Australia right now because there are many global recruitment agencies working from here into Europe. But it will trickle down. It will flow down in some form. So it'll be very interesting to watch and see how this impacts job advertising, salary parity, gender equality and pay?
00:19:32
Speaker
Well, one thing we know for sure, Adele, is that the government is very keen on ah ensuring employees and job seekers have more information and more power because clearly the non-compete aspect of ah employment contracts, the government's been very vocal about reducing that.
00:19:58
Speaker
Clearly, the WGA and pay transparency and comparisons across industries is a ah very big thing. So I've got no doubt that certainly if the current federal government continues in office, then we are definitely heading towards mandatory salary ranges being communicated early, very early in the recruitment process.
00:20:23
Speaker
We look forward to watching this space.