Give a salary increase to a candidate before they’ve even started in the position. Not common practice in the industry.

Some may even call it unnecessary, but in this case, it was a really smart move on the employer’s side, and I’ll explain why…

If you’re in the world of recruitment, you’ll know that junior candidates are some of the most difficult to find. Whenever I take briefs from clients on entry-level roles, the term ‘unicorn’ is thrown around a lot. Clients have high expectations of candidates with usually little life/professional experience. But rightly so, as a company is taking the time to invest in the training and development of this person.

The nature of junior candidates is that they’ll move quickly for pay increases (Sydney is expensive, and we ALL pay the same price for groceries!) and further development opportunities. It’s a risk for any employer.

Anyway, back to the story, we found a 🦄 (YAY!) and this unicorn was offered a very fair salary, in line with the market.

We offered the role at the expected salary, they accepted – end of story? Well, not quite…

A day after this was all locked in, we received a call from the business.

“We’re going to raise their base salary by X amount.”

When probed about this decision (as there was no counteroffer on the table) the employer explained that they wanted the ‘buy-in’ from the candidate from day one, so that they know the business is committed to them and they’re not feeling short-changed. It’s also worth noting that their salary review structure is quite strict, so they didn’t want to be at even further risk of losing this candidate before 12 months.

It was only a menial increase (and they were not overpaying), but the impact was large. The candidate was over the moon and couldn’t believe they were joining such an amazing business that invested in their staff.

I’m not saying that this should become standard practice, and I’ve only seen this once in my career, but any candidate who feels seen and appreciated will be more driven to add value.

There are still no guarantees that this candidate will stay for the years to come but given their initial experience and frequent feedback to myself since they started, I feel confident to say that they are invested in the career that they can build out within a company that proactively champions them