The Most Inane Question in Recruiting

Recruiters: you live this scenario every day. Your company needs to fill a position, so it's your task to find talent and start that conversation.

Compensation is a key part of the equation. You and the recruit will skirt the topic for a while, most likely, but sooner or later you have to see if the pay fits the candidate. If yes, you can continue; if not, you'll each keep looking.*

To get a handle on appropriate pay, there are two gauges that make sense to me:

1. How much do other companies pay for this type of worker? If you're smart you'll offer better.*

2. How much is this individual worth to our company? This one makes me think of somewhat-unique skills, like a particular inventor or a specific "rainmaker" sales pro or a thought-leader in some new field, perhaps Social Media.

Now, here's one that is a pretty standard question in recruiting, and it floors me every time I hear it:

3. How much did the candidate make last year?

What? I honestly, literally don't get that question. I wish I were exaggerating! You want someone to change roles, maybe within your company, maybe from outside. Either way, you can be pretty sure they are concentrating on two key issues among many: "1. How much can I get elsewhere?" and "2. How much am I worth the hiring company?"

Of course there will be mitigating considerations - of course! There always are. Perhaps they hate their current position, so anything else is looking good right now, even for the same pay, maybe even for less. That's entirely possible. After all, as I said at the beginning of this post, pay is a threshold issue only - there are other factors to consider. Perhaps your company or this new business unit has a really desirable culture, one the candidate is willing to make compromises to join. Perhaps the hours or the work-location or the benefits will be better, or some other issue will trump pay. I would never tell you that pay is the beginning and the end of what matters at work.

But I will tell you it's the beginning. Because if you fail this one, recruiter, the conversation stops.

For about eight months now, I've been researching the pay and job specifications of the various Social Media roles within the enterprise. I've read and/or consulted with all the experts I could identify, I've done my own exhaustive research, and I feel I have this one down pat. It's a hot field that is only going to get hotter, which means true leaders will be able to charge a premium for their services - think code-writers during the dot-com boom, only much more so within the next three years. But this isn't just about Social. It's about making sense.

So recruiters, here is my advice to you: for the rest of your career, never ask question #3 again. I've been immersed in business for a long time now, and I've never heard a less germane question in my life.

Join me here tomorrow, when I share the results of my research on "The Three Roles of Social Media Within the Enterprise."

*I've written extensively about how pay = respect, as in "How much does this company respect me as an employee?" Pay is a threshold issue, meaning if the match isn't right, the conversation will stop at the doorway to your company, and you won't get the candidate inside. Jack Welsh chose GE over IBM because GE offered him more money out of school. Yes, it's important.