Salary and recruitment

[fretted]

I've been interviewing lots of candidates for a couple of BI roles in my team but finding that candidates' (and not just the really good ones) salary expectations range between just too much to way too much.

While I understand that this is a competitive market but it seems such a risk to paying way above what other similar skilled staff are getting and I would need to revisit current staff wages to reflect. I don't think what they are earning is bad ~50-55k.

So my question is how does one recruit in a market where clearly the market rates have moved up so quickly and maintain a stable team?

 

[Slam62]

You've got to pay the going rate that's the beauty of a free market, just hope your current employees don't find out.

To be fair they probably know already but can't be bothered to change job.

 

[dowie]

Well if it is the case with multiple candidates then you're sort of fighting against reality and might have potential retention issues in future. I guess making it an attractive place to work in terms of non-salary related stuff like a relaxed/casual environment, flexi time, working from home etc.. are all things that could be done with minimal/no cost or suggested to people with the power to implement them.

Aside from hiring people at the lower end of current market rates and hoping the rest of the team doesn't find out you could look at new grads and just training them up yourself. They'd likely be happy with 30k say and you'd get a few years out of them potentially before they hit your current team average.

Or indeed grads from relevant masters programs, you might find some of them have some additional skills beyond that of your current team.

Lastly you could do what one former employer of mine did - draw up a threatening non-compete contract, spring it on everyone around bonus time, bring them into a meeting room individually to tell them their bonus, watch them smile, then tell them that payment of the nice bonus is conditional on signing their life away via a non compete agreement that prohibits them from working for a competitor or client for X months and essentially blocks them from most other jobs. (don't do this!)

 

[Beerbaron]

Information/cyber security is similar but the demand currently outstrips supply so companies seem to pay top dollar. I doubled my salary in less than 3 years. Talking to recruiters and employers they either increase the salary offered or they tough it out until they can find someone which can take months.

 

[paradigm]

If all your potential candidates are expecting a particular salary bracket, I’d suggest that your existing staff are underpaid.

 

[Semple]

As Dowie points out, if the market has moved upwards in terms of pay, then you could be looking at retention issues with your current staff. How much of a gap are we talking about between existing staff and the expectations of new hires?

 

[Basher]

Pay the going rate (or more) or get mediocre people.

 

[peterwalkley]

You don't mention location but I'm going to assume London / South East. Do you have any scope for these roles to be done elsewhere ? 50-55K should surely attract decent candidates in other big cities with large IT populations, Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh etc.

 

[fretted]

So the job is based in the London area, I think 50-55k is pretty reasonable, or I had thought so, for a senior bi developer role with no expected management responsibilities. Looking at the market I don't see many job adverts out there which offers beyond 55k.

The salary difference between our rates and expectations is about 10 to 20k. At that salary we expect management level responsibility and not just delivery.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

So my question is how does one recruit in a market where clearly the market rates have moved up so quickly and maintain a stable team?

You don't.

If no one is accepting the role, then you need to either pay more, offer better alternative t&C's or lower the expected responsibility (or all three).

 

[dowie]

So the job is based in the London area, I think 50-55k is pretty reasonable, or I had thought so, for a senior bi developer role with no expected management responsibilities. Looking at the market I don't see many job adverts out there which offers beyond 55k.

The salary difference between our rates and expectations is about 10 to 20k. At that salary we expect management level responsibility and not just delivery.

This is a bit crude but it seems more like around 60 is the median based on job adverts:

https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/jobs/london/senior business intelligence developer.do


Are you working with a recruitment firm? I'd have thought someone recruiting in this area could advise on the going rate.

 

[BongoHunter]

This is a common issue - the demand for these skills is growing faster than the internal pay progression.

This is not a new problem - for BI we find it's a bit worse than some other roles as many candidates can probably tweak their CV enough to get into data science roles as so some firms are now using BI & data science interchangably to attract candidates. It's very much like "DevOps" & "FullStack Developer" getting a higher salary that the traditional titles for these roles.

 

[Housey]

Staring you in the face. You either accept it and pay the going rate, get lucky, or recruit mediocrity. You thought wrong and the market is paying more.

 

[tom_e]

Most of our BI guys are on our £45k to £52k pay band which raises each year until you hit the top it's a simple time served increment. That's in the West midlands so £50-55k does sound low for London.

 

[HangTime]

So the job is based in the London area, I think 50-55k is pretty reasonable, or I had thought so, for a senior bi developer role with no expected management responsibilities. Looking at the market I don't see many job adverts out there which offers beyond 55k.

The salary difference between our rates and expectations is about 10 to 20k. At that salary we expect management level responsibility and not just delivery.

£50-55k is what I'd expect for a mid-range dev, senior would be £60-75k, depending on benefits etc.
Of course, it depends a bit on what the definition of "senior" and "BI" is.

In terms of recruitment and impact on current team there is no easy solution especially if your hands are tied in terms of pay rises you can give to the existing team. Potentially the only option you have is to create new roles for the existing team members so you can make the case for a re-baseline of their salary.

 

[sHo0sH]

I recruit into the BI market, and outside of financial services in London - 50-55k should be achievable with candidates, but t really does depend on the tech you want them to have experience with under the BI umbrella.
I know that some of the major retailers are paying about 10k less than that for 3-5 years experience, and (albeit slowly) are filling those positions.