Part of a good account manager’s job is to manage the salary expectations their clients have when it comes to making a hiring decision.  Being able to properly educate your clients on what the fair market value is for a certain skill set comes with a certain level of expertise in the staffing industry.  Ultimately, properly advising your clients that their salary expectations may be inaccurate will likely set the expectations of your clients before the search for candidates has even begun.

A very common staffing scenario is when an employee has grown into a unique role and leaves for another opportunity.  It is a fair assumption that most of the time this employee is moving on because he or she finds another opportunity that is going to pay them a much better rate.  This causes your client to replace this person however they usually want to do it at the salary level the former employee was at.

Does it make sense that you would be able to find someone at the same salary when that salary level was not enough to hold on to that employee?  NO!!

However, this is a frequent scenario with permanent placements and usually does not work out well for both parties.  A client in this case needs to realize that when they go out to the market for this new employee, they are likely going to have to pay more then they were.  This is somewhere where the account manager can help their clients.

If this scenario is not addressed before the position is recruited, how can you deal with it during your search?

If you run into this scenario after you have already started speaking with candidates you have to communicate your challenges to the client.  You should present them with some CVs of candidates you have spoken to and express their salary expectations to your client.  If you can find a candidate who is weaker then your other candidates, but is within the salary range of your client, you should also present this candidate but convey to your client that this is what their salary expectations will get them in the current market.

Use the feedback you get and tailor your future searches to match that feedback moving forward.  There may come a point where the client is unwilling to change both their salary expectations as well as the requirements.  If the two do not match, it may be in the best interest of the staffing firm to walk away from that particular order instead of burning their cycles on unclose able business.