A planning department posts planner openings as "salary DOE," and strong regional candidates drop before applying. What recruitment strategy should the CHRO adopt?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
"Depends on experience" is a fog machine. Good people will not take a day off for an interview if they cannot see whether the paycheck is real—put the range on the posting.
Full Explanation
Publishing transparent pay ranges lets public-sector planner candidates test fit before they invest days in a long municipal process. 'Salary DOE' is a fog machine that drops strong regional candidates before they apply, especially when private and peer public employers already post ranges. Pay transparency is recruiting strategy under SPHR talent competition—clarity reduces self-selection out and protects candidate goodwill the process will need later.
Keeping DOE and adding a longer supplemental questionnaire raises burden without answering the pay question candidates actually have. Hiding the range until the final interview to preserve bargaining power often loses people earlier and looks like gamesmanship in a tight planner market. Replacing the posted salary with 'competitive' and raising application fees worsens opacity and equity at once.
Exam caveat: published ranges must match classification and compensation reality and budget authority; transparency is not permission to post a bluff range the city will not honor. The concept is early pay clarity as yield strategy.
Operational check: post approved ranges on planner requisitions; train recruiters not to improvisationally undercut the posting; track apply-start and completion rates before versus after; and align offers inside the published range unless a documented exception process applies.