Latest / Edan Haddock - Total Talent / Pay Transparency Isn't a Job Ad. It's an Operating Model.

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Pay Transparency Isn't a Job Ad. It's an Operating Model. · Edan Haddock - Total Talent

• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everybody out there, and welcome back to another episode of Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Eden Haddock, your host, head of talent, and people experience at Movember.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: No guests, no sponsors, just real conversations from someone who spends every day on the tools.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And today's episode is one I've wanted to record for a while, partially because I've seen this discussion pop up more and more on LinkedIn.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: The latest version came from a post where someone explained they were auditing career sites and calling out organizations that don't advertise REM on their job ads.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: The suggestion was fairly straightforward.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't advertise salary, you're doing talent acquisition wrong.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Before I go any further, I want to stress this.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I actually agree with the destination.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: At Movember, every single position we advertise, it includes REM, everyone.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in some jurisdictions, we legally have to, Ontario and California.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But we do that broadly.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: We do that in every region.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of who we are.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's part of how we built pay equity.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's really a huge part of how we've maintained a 0% gender pay gap.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we're incredibly proud of that.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also realistic enough to know that most organizations simply can't flick a switch and suddenly become fully pay transparent tomorrow morning.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I worry that conversations on LinkedIn sometimes confuse aspiration with implementation.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because really, those are two very different things.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Today I want to unpack why.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Not to defend organizations that avoid transparency, not to give anyone a free pass, but to explain why the journey is much more complicated than simply updating a job advertisement.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we need to stop judging the symptom.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: One thing I notice in our industry is that we often judge what we can see.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We see a careers page, we see a salary missing, we conclude they don't care.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe, but maybe not.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes what you're actually seeing is years of technical debt inside an organization.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine a company that's been operating for thirty years.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Managers may have negotiated salaries independently.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Different business units have hired differently.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Acquisitions have occurred.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: People have transferred between teams.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Legacy agreements still exist.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Things are grandfathered.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Individual negotiations have created pay differences.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Promotions haven't always followed a consistent framework.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, somebody says we should publish salary ranges.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: The first question isn't what number do we put on the ad?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's what actually is the salary?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes nobody knows.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not because they're hiding it, but it's because it genuinely isn't standardized.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, pay transparency starts years earlier.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: One misconception I hear is that pay transparency is a recruitment initiative.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It simply isn't.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Recruitment is where everybody notices it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: But pay transparency actually begins inside remuneration, inside HR, inside finance, inside organizational design.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: It begins with questions like: do we have consistent job families?
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have job architecture?
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have we evaluated roles objectively?
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do managers understand salary positioning?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have clear salary bans?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Have we benchmarked the market recently?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Can someone explain why one senior manager earns twenty thousand dollars more than another?
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: If the answer to those questions is no, then publishing salary ranges becomes significantly harder.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because transparency doesn't create consistency.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency has to exist first.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to share a little about our own experience.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: At Movember, we advertise salary on every role.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I genuinely believe candidates appreciate it.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It creates trust, it removes ambiguity, it saves everyone time.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: People know exactly what they're applying for.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: But that capability didn't magically appear.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: It came through investment, through governance, through leadership commitment, through education, through having conversations that weren't always easy, I'm sure.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because salary conversations never are.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: When people start seeing ranges, questions naturally follow.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why am I here and why are they there?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: How do I move?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: What determines progression?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's healthy.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Those conversations are absolutely healthy.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: But only if the organization is ready to answer those questions.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's the important part.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to say it, but job architecture isn't sexy.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it's essential.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Could be one of the least exciting topics in HR, job architecture.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: I know, right?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's not exactly rock and roll.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wakes up saying, I can't wait to review our career framework today.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, there's someone in my team that would.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: I won't say your name, but you know who you are.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: But truly, it might be one of those important foundations that any organization builds.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because job architecture answers fundamental questions.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: What makes someone a specialist versus a senior specialist?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between a manager and a senior manager?
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: What skills increase somebody's value?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: What responsibilities justify higher pay?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Without those definitions, salary becomes subjective.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Managers negotiate differently.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Employees compare themselves endlessly.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Internal equity becomes almost impossible.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, of course, recruitment inherits the mess.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: So why do leaders need education?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: The part that's often forgotten is education.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can have the perfect REM framework.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: You can have beautiful salary bands.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: You can have benchmarking.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: But if leaders don't understand it, it falls apart.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Managers need confidence explaining salary.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: They need confidence discussing progression.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: They need confidence saying no.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And also, not yet.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because transparency isn't simply publishing numbers, it's explaining why those numbers exist.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where trust comes from.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: We need to start small.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you're listening today and you're thinking, gosh, we're nowhere near ready, that's okay.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: The answer isn't waiting another decade.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: The answer is starting somewhere.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe step one is benchmarking every role.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's introducing salary bans internally.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's simply reviewing your highest risk areas.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is checking for pay equity.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's documenting career pathways.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's introducing more governance around salary approvals.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these aren't glamorous projects and they don't generate thousands of LinkedIn likes, but they're exactly the work that enables transparency later.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if I was building an organization from scratch, and I'm no REM specialist, but for me, best practice would probably look something like this.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Clear job architecture, defined career pathways, and I'm not talking up the ladder.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: I love a jungle gym.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's important.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Objective job evaluation, market benchmarking, salary bans, leader education, annual governance, regular pay equity reviews, I mean regular, transparent promotion criteria, and finally transparent job advertisements.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now do you notice something?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: Advertising salary would be the final step.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not the first.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: But others desperately want to get there.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're simply carrying decades of organizational history.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those two organizations shouldn't be treated the same.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: What you see in a job ad has no context.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: Intent matters, progress matters, direction matters.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a people leader that is listening today, ask yourself one question this week.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not should we advertise salaries?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Ask.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: What would stop us if we wanted to?
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because this isn't a HR thing.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is important for all people leaders.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: I want to stress that.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because whatever answers emerge from asking those questions, that's actually the roadmap.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's governance, maybe it's inconsistent salaries, maybe it's outdated job descriptions, maybe it's manager capability.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is, start there.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: And make this a partnership with people leaders.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And my challenge to Telen Acquisition, for those of us in Telene Acquisition, let's keep advocating for transparency absolutely.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Candidates deserve clarity.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Candidates deserve respect.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: Candidates deserve honest conversations.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: But let's also recognize this isn't a talent acquisition project alone.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: It belongs to people experience, finance, leadership, executives, boards.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone has a role.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: I genuinely hope Australia continues moving towards full pay transparency.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's better for candidates, better for organizations, better for trust, better for equity, and ultimately better for business.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I'd encourage us to celebrate organizations making genuine progress rather than criticizing those that are still climbing the mountain.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Transformation isn't measured by one job at advertisement.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's measured by the work happening behind the scenes.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because anyone can publish a salary.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Very few organizations have done the organizational work required to make that salary defensible.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Defensible.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now thanks again for joining me for another episode of Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you've enjoyed today's conversation, I'd really appreciate if you followed the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you could share the episode with someone working in talent, HR, or reward.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: As always, there are no guests, no sponsors, just one practitioner sharing what's happening on the tools every single week.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.