Recruiters, could we start being fair?

Misha’s Case: Part 1

Until 2012, Misha worked as an AVP Marketing in an e-commerce startup for five years before resigning and going on a delivery and maternity break until her son turned eight. She wanted to see her son grow and voluntarily decided to take this break. Thankfully, she has a loving husband who is supportive of every decision she makes.

Recently, she started searching for jobs to get back working. She got a call from a fast-growing edtech startup and she was excited to be a part of the team. Naturally, she went through all rounds of interviews, gave a strategy presentation — did all of it. The company executives loved the hard work she put in and the performance she displayed during the rounds of interview. They decided to extend an offer to her.

The company HR gave her a call and informed her of her selection. She was excited as she was really looking forward to get back to working — especially in this company! On asking what her offered compensation would be, she got a “not so encouraging” response. They mentioned that they would be restoring the compensation that she earned eight years ago and not give her a hike. The budget bracket told to her was higher than that — so she was wondering what was the issue! On asking, she was told that, they were “happy” to restore the last CTC (that she earned eight years ago), since she had taken a long break and was not working all these years.

Now, here are my questions:

1. Do you extend an offer to someone you haven’t liked? If you have liked the candidate, do you decide how much compensation should be offered, basis the last drawn CTC, even if it was a few years ago, that the candidate has worked full-time?
2. How do you decide on the compensation of candidates, who worked as freelancers, and are now looking for full-time jobs? If you expect them to share pay slips, and they obviously don’t have — would you not hire them basis a self-declaration, affidavit or any other documentary evidence?
3. Women professionals taking a break after maternity to raise their children — should this be treated as they don’t have an option and hence they choose to do this? And so, even if you hire them, you will not end up paying them what they deserve?
4. What matters more — a candidate’s last drawn salary or your judgement on what they actually deserve, basis the budget you have?

I will be posting a “part two” of this case in my next post. Waiting for sufficient responses before I post it.