If your talent acquisition team is still kicking off compensation conversations by asking candidates what they currently earn, it’s time to recalibrate your compass.
Yes, depending on your jurisdiction, asking for salary history might still be technically legal. But let’s be honest: relying on legality as a benchmark for your hiring practices is a low bar to set. Treating historical salary data as a useful metric is a legacy practice that works directly against market realities, operational excellence, and equity.
When we anchor a candidate’s future value to a number their previous employer decided on years ago, we aren’t hiring for growth, we are just importing someone else’s compensation structure, which is a slippery slope.
If you want to attract high-performing talent who can confidently drive organizational performance, you need to shift the question. Stop looking backwards. Instead, ask the one question that actually aligns with future-focused talent strategy:
“What will it take for you to make a move?”
Why the Shift Matters
This shift changes the entire dynamic of the candidate relationship from tactical negotiation to strategic integration. This approach drives results for forward-thinking organizations in two key ways:
- It Protects Your Internal Compensation Strategy: True operational excellence relies on a structured, objective internal compensation framework. When you base an offer on what a candidate needs to make a move, you can evaluate that figure directly against your own established salary bands and equity targets, rather than distorting your payroll structure to match a competitor’s legacy numbers.
- It Builds a Foundation of Mutual Respect: High performers want to know their voice is heard and their forward-looking value is recognized from day one. By focusing on what is required to secure their commitment, you set a standard of professional dignity and transparent communication that sets the stage for long-term engagement. And as the employer, asking what it takes forces an active, real-time assessment of what the market demands right now for that specific skill set.
Driving Real Performance
At Compass, we know that building an exceptional workforce requires moving past the way things have always been done. Your hiring practices should actively reflect the growth, sophistication, and strategic goals of your business.
Leaving legacy practices behind is easy to say, but executing it requires infrastructure. That is exactly where we step in! Whether you need to audit and design data-driven compensation bands that protect your internal equity, or you want to upskill your talent acquisition team to execute a modern, high-performance recruitment strategy, we provide the operational clarity to make it happen.
Ready to modernize your talent and compensation strategy? Reach out to our team of experts at Compass today to get started.
