If you are a recruiting manager in HE or public sector ...

[sundaymusings]

... by which I mean anywhere with "pay scales", do you avoid recruiting people who are already at the top of the scale?

I know Civil Service job adverts often clearly state that they expect new recruits to start at the bottom of the scale, but in my sector (HE) that isn't usually stated. Nevertheless, I'm starting to suspect it is true.

My situation is that I am in a skilled professional IT role, up in the discretionary points at the top of my scale. There are sadly no.promotion opportunities internally. I've tried applying for higher scale roles elsewhere but they always go to an internal candidate or someone who has already been doing that role elsewhere for a year or two. I've therefore also tried applying for parallel roles at employers where I think there might be better promotion opportunities, but so far I've been unsuccessful. Those roles seem to go to people who have less experience than me, so that's why I'm wondering if I appear over-qualified (aka too expensive).

[p.s. Fwiw, I do always consider my interview performance too, so there's no need to remind me to do that 🙂]

We are rarely allowed to appoint at the top
of the scale (it gets blocked by HR). When I did a sideways move between HEI’s myself I had to drop down to mid-point (but I needed to relocate so I needed the job more than they needed me!).

I’m not put off candidates but I have to be realistic that often people won’t be prepared to drop. We don’t have to start people
at the bottom but usually can’t negotiate to top.

It won’t be anything to do with you being at the top of the scale (how do they even know?), if they offered it would be at the bottom and then you’d have to negotiate to start a few points higher.

They may (correctly!) be thinking you wouldn’t stay in that role long though. Although you should still be shortlisted if you meet the criteria.

They know because they ask for my current salary, either in the application form or via a recruitment agent.

Many years ago when I moved from a professional post into HE, the uni matched my salary, rounded up to the nearest pay spine point. It was the very top of the range for the job (which spanned two grades) and about £15k more than if I'd gone in at the bottom of the range. I'd expected to go in at the bottom of the upper grade if I was lucky, so I squealed down the phone when the Dean told me how much they would pay me!
Now, people get taken on at the bottom of the two grades, unless they're moving from a different uni and even then it's the bottom of the higher grade.
Expect the lowest pay spine point at the lowest grade for the post, and anything else is a nice surprise.

Then we wonder why there are recruitment and retention problems in these sectors.

I should’ve added in my first post that for jobs that they struggle to recruit to they will do top of scale plus market supplement, so it’s not impossible but they usually have to prove that the scale is out of step with the skills/quals required and have been unable
to recruit successfully first.

So for example we recently recruited to a senior finance specialist post and that had market supplement applied because there was absolutely no chance of recruiting otherwise because the private sector pays literally double for the skills. The market supplement still doesn’t match it but it bridges the gap combined with the other benefits of HE.

I’m in the NHS (support services) and have recruited at mid or top point, but only when the applicant is already earning the equivalent in their existing role and they can practically hit the ground running when they start. I wouldn’t be prepared to offer that if they were seeking a pay rise. This also has to go to a panel made up of senior staff for approval before a conditional offer is made.

HE and public sector more generally are barely recruiting at all at the moment which probably is making posts more competitive. Where I work they would expect to appoint at bottom of the pay band or close to unless it was a post that was particularly hard to recruit to, and they are holding all vacant posts for those at risk of redundancy first.