Job-title inflation is the latest method being used to entice an experienced candidate to join their team.
This method has shown to be effective, however negligent it is. Who wouldn’t want to go from Director to Senior for the same position?
“Entire careers of job titles are being condensed into a decade, ten years’ worth of titles are being condensed into five, so new titles have had to be invented,” Shawn Cole, president of Cowen Partners said. “Firms can only offer so much money.”
According to job listings on LinkUp, a global job-market data and analytics firm, the number of open positions with “Senior” in the title increased by 57%. Pre-pandemic open “Senior” roles in the US were at 3.9% and are now around 6.2%. That’s a 57% increase.
All sorts of benefits have been added to boost compensation packages, so why not add job titles to the list?
Here’s why that could be counterproductive and cause your company more harm than good:
- The new hire will expect specific responsibilities associated with the title but lack the power to execute those responsibilities.
- The new hire will be expected to perform specific duties, but lack the authority to do so. When you give the title, but not what comes with it, there is a disconnect in the chain.
- The employee with the boosted title lacks the experience needed to fit the actual role, making it harder for them to make a lateral move to another company. They would need to take a step down the rank, which takes a hit to the ego.
- Recruiters will scrutinize their work history and leave some employers wondering if the candidate has the previous experience needed to fill the role.
In conclusion, when you embellish the job title, you risk giving your new employee a hit to the ego. There are expectations of responsibilities associated with job titles, so when you give the title but not what comes with people get confused and frustrated with the process.
Having an inflated title on their resume will give future recruiters the impression they have the skill set and experience that goes along with the title. Recruiters must scrutinize their experience heavily before hiring for a non-inflated position. This ego-driven job title makes it hard for candidates to accept a position with a lower title in the future; even though they are more suited for the lower position, their ego may stand in the way.
It’s detrimental to the future workforce and will make it more challenging to hire in the future.
If you have a position that needs filling, just be honest about the skills and experience needed and give it a title that correlates to those responsibilities. Connect with River City Staffing to help you fill open positions responsibly.