Introducing SmartReq’s New Wage by Experience Meter

Lightcast’s tool, SmartReq, is made specifically for sellers and recruiters, providing concise and actionable data to find and sell the right reqs. SmartReq delivers the information on supply, demand, and compensation staffing companies need to advise their clients. And the compensation feature in the tool just got better! We are excited to roll out the Wage by Experience Meter in the wage section of SmartReq’s Sell a Req tab.

What is the Wage by Experience Meter?

The Wage by Experience Meter or “wage bar” is a new feature designed to give staffing companies and their clients a clearer understanding of the types of candidates their proposed wages may attract. Now, companies will be able to see if the wages they are willing to pay are appropriate for the level of experience they’re requiring for a job.

Dialing in for precision

Are you searching for a Python Engineer in Washington DC with extensive programming experience but can only offer up to $85/hour? Will this pay level work? This may not be attractive for an expert level candidate, but the wage should attract most moderately experienced candidates.

What experience levels should I expect to see for my job?  

The wage bar is dynamic with each job having its own ranges based on typical experience levels seen in certain roles and the variance of wages in those levels. Looking for accounting clerks in Phoenix? Candidates will typically be considered entry-level or expert based on how seasoned they are in the role, with entry-level wages spanning a broad range before giving way to the highly experienced candidates.

Maximizing insight in the wage section with the wage bar

We designed the wage bar to give users multiple views into the way their market is behaving. To do this, we simply combine the trend graph with the wage bar below and the wage you have settled on for the client. Let’s say you are looking for an experienced and skilled Market Research Analyst in Detroit. Before we look at the output, one important thing to note is that the government has a very broad definition of Market Research Analyst that includes lower paid marketing assistants and specialists, all the way to upper-level data researchers.  

Using the Wage by Experience Meter, what have we learned?

1. In Detroit, most companies are searching for entry-level or marketing assistant level candidates as proven by the $25/hour current advertised wage. This is stated in the text directly above the wage bar.

2. Our $35/hour wage is positioned at the lower end of the intermediate experience level, so we should expect to see some moderately qualified candidates interested in this wage. However, if we want to attract the most qualified mid-level candidates, we would need to increase our wage by $5 - $10 an hour.

3. The employed wage at $33/hour is less than our client’s wage, suggesting that in Detroit most companies employ lower level marketing assistants than research level analysts.

Combining demand with the wage bar

In the above analysis, observing the advertised wage shows that most companies are looking for lower level marketing assistants. This isn’t just a guess—the table below the demand trend graph in SmartReq shows you which job titles are advertised the most in the market along with their corresponding wages. So, was our analysis correct and were we right in knowing that the $35/hour wage might be too low for the level of candidate we want to attract? Yes!

Cut down time to fill, improve quality of placement, and increase revenue

The SmartReq Wage by Experience Meter allows recruiters to know exactly the level of pay candidates are looking for. If a candidate is seeking a much higher wage, then they are probably overqualified. If they’re happy with far less, they may not have the experience needed for the role or are ready for that step up in their career. Either way, the recruiter is now fully confident that they are talking to the right person, and they can submit faster and get revenue going sooner.