Compensation fields are a type of custom offer field that you can use to present currency information, such as salary or bonus pay.
Standardizing a compensation field means adding additional information to the field to make it trackable and reportable. The following information is required on standardized compensation values:
- Type of pay
- Frequency
- Pay rationale
Standardizing your compensation fields gives your organization better insight into its compensation offerings over time and across roles, leading to greater accountability for fair pay practices.
Note: If your organization already has its own versions of frequency or pay rationale set up, check out our FAQs to learn how to navigate this.
Mark a field as a compensation field
Note: Only custom offer fields with the type Currency can be configured as compensation fields. The type can't be changed once the field is created. In addition, custom offer fields tracking exceptions against a range must be tracked against a currency range, not a number range.
Go to the Manage offer fields page. (Configure > Custom Options > Offers)
Click on an existing offer field, or create a new one by clicking Add field.
Add the required information if you haven't already, then scroll down to Field type.
Check the box next to This is a compensation field.
Three new standardized fields will appear: Compensation type, Default frequency value, and Pay rationale.
Compensation type
Note: We'll be rolling additional compensation types in a future release. Stay tuned for more information!
Select Base pay or Bonus from the dropdown.
Default frequency value
This is how often the candidate will receive their pay. Choosing a default value helps automatically apply that pay unit to the specific role. For example, a position could be paid Hourly or Weekly, based on how your organization wants to structure the role's compensation.
Base Pay frequency values
- Annually
- Quarterly
- Monthly
- Semi-monthly
- Bi-weekly
- Weekly
- Daily
- Hourly
If the role is eligible for bonuses that occur on a different cadence than the role's Base Pay, you can choose a Bonus frequency value. This value will be entered separately from the role's Base Pay.
Bonus frequency values
- One-time
- Annually
- Quarterly
- Monthly
- Semi-monthly
- Bi-weekly
- Weekly
If you want a user to be able to update a role's pay frequency when an offer is created, check the box next to Allow frequency value to be changed at offer creation. This option allows recruiters more flexibility when creating offers but may impact your organization's ability to effectively standardize compensation values.
Pay rationale
This allows you to input reasoning for the compensation offered to a candidate.
Example: When completing an offer for a candidate who lives in a location with a higher cost of living, your recruiter can record the justification for the candidate's higher salary band so it is recorded along with the standardized compensation values.
You can track this data to ensure your organization upholds its pay equity goals.
When you're defining pay rationale setting, you'll need to choose how the field will display to recruiters during the offer process:
- Show: The pay rationale field always displays.
- Hide: The pay rationale field is never shown when generating offers.
- Show only if out of range: The field only displays if the entered compensation range is above the range for the position. This option will only be available if the candidate's compensation is tied to a custom job field or custom opening field with a Currency field type.
You can make pay rationale part of every offer by checking the box next to Pay rationale is required.
Email tokens
Find the Email tokens section near the bottom of the page. Check the box next to the field to create an email token for that field. Creating an email token allows you to include field information in offers and emails.
The frequency token will only be available if you selected a Bonus Frequency during setup.
Note: If you convert an existing field to a compensation field, any existing email tokens will stay the same, and emails and offers that use the tokens will be unaffected.
Note: Greenhouse Recruiting will automatically populate a suggested name for the email token, but you can rename it.
Fill in the rest of the offer information if you haven't already, then click Save.
Compensation fields are indicated by a green label with their compensation type on the Manage offer fields page.
Similarly, any fields configured as compensation fields will display with a grey label.
Report on compensation fields
View your compensation field data in the Offer Details report.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I already have a field set up for frequency or pay rationale. What will happen to these fields?
You can continue to use your existing custom offer fields as they are.
How do I update or replace my existing offer fields with standardized compensation fields?
When you standardize your compensation fields, you're adding a layer of organization to any existing custom offer field data. Therefore, any existing custom offer field with the type of Currency can be converted to a standardized compensation field. To update an existing field, navigate to the offer field editor and check the box next to This is a compensation field.
If your existing custom offer field has a different type, you can't convert it to a standardized compensation field and will instead need to replace it by creating a new one.
Example: You may already have custom offer fields with the field type Number or Short textbox. You won't have the option to mark either of these field types as a compensation field.
If you create a new custom offer field to replace an existing field, you may choose to delete the existing field. If a custom offer field is deleted, any previously entered values will still display on the candidate's offer paperwork for your records. However, new offers will not be able to define or use this data, and any values associated with deleted offer fields will not appear in reports.
Will changing a pay frequency's default value affect past offers?
No. When you update a pay frequency's default value, it only will update the cadence that automatically displays on new offers. Since they've already been generated, past offers won't be affected by changes to the default value.