Adding Salary Ranges To Internal Job Postings.

This simple change helps HR weed out inappropriate candidates--and demonstrates your competitive salaries to employees.

Should you include salary ranges on in-house job postings?

Yes, according to compensation specialists and HR professionals. Otherwise, you risk raising employee

* Indicate the position's level of responsibility.

* Reduce the number of unqualified applicants.

* Contribute to an atmosphere of openness and trust.

* Demonstrate that wages are competitive.

Conversely, a reluctance to post salary ranges may indicate an inferior compensation system or a lack of trust between employees and management. And given that employees now have access to plenty of information about the pay of competitors, lack of openness about pay ranges may dishearten internal candidates.

"In the current business climate, not posting salary ranges is the equivalent of corporate suicide," says Karen Larson, HR director for the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch and former manager of strategic program development for CSX Corp., a Fortune 500 transportation company. "It conveys so many negative messages to both employees and outside job applicants.

"If a company has a sound compensation system, if they communicate well with their employees and they are in synch with the market data for their region, they will truly be competitive and have every reason to post salary ranges internally," says Larson.

Weed Out Inappropriate Candidates

The first benefit of posting salary ranges is that it can help employees determine whether they are qualified to pursue the job. Ranges that are higher or lower than their current salaries can give employees an indication of whether the job responsibilities fall inside their career path.

"In large companies, people may not have an accurate idea of salary ranges for positions, particularly if they are considering a job in another department. By giving them a salary range, you give them some idea of where the position fits in," says Gary B. Omura, managing principal of Omura Consulting, a Los Gatos, Calif., firm that specializes in compensation issues.