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Recruiters burned by "scattergun" hiring and rising salaries

Candidates are cashing in on an avalanche of high salary offers, but recruiters are getting burned by employers' "scattergun" approach, an industry leader says.

"If you're good you should be paid what you're worth and maybe people haven't been, up to now, which is why candidates are cashing in now and there's an avalanche of offers out there," says B&K Consulting director John Molony.

However, while candidates are getting substantial salary rises to move, employers often don't have a comprehensive plan in place for what comes next, Molony says.

"It's been an 'over to you' situation, which is unsettling for a new employee regardless of pay. In a recent placement we made we saw this: with the greater money came increased hours, stress and a dissatisfied candidate who departed the post within months to return to their previous employer."

Similarly, he says some employers are paying "overs" for roles that are really multiple jobs, "and in my experience that rarely ends well either"...