Formal offer received, awaiting to start new job, new HR now asking for current salary?

tink17

I'm tempted to avoid the email and see if the HR contact sends a chasing email, or if she just decides to put any old figure in the box and get me onboarded. Although I know that sounds childish, it would save me the embarrassment...

Dakta

"I'm really not worried that it'll be any less than that"

Dunno, when I went perm from a stint contracting I got a JD with a salary range, when I finally got a formal offer it was for a third less than the lower of the bracket. I kindly invited them to revise it... (they did). 

I'm not saying you'd be in the same boat but you need to *know*.

Smoulder80

With it being public sector I'd wager that in the past Internal Audit have recommended that candidates current salary is logged during the recruitment process and its a box ticking exercise to satisfy that as nobody has bothered to stand up and question the value added to the process in collecting it

Undervalued

400ixl said:

Marcon said:

I think OP knows what the salary is going to be.

Not until it is written for a contract. It is an assumption based on what band the OP believes they will be put into.

A contract of employment is not simply a sheet of paper with the word "contract" on it. All kinds of things can form a part, all the way from the original job advertisement through to staff notices on the tea room wall!

To answer the OP question about why they wanted confirmation of previous salary....

It could simply be box ticking, as one poster has suggested. It could also be because of a suspicion (right or wrong) that they have been misled.

Although it is generally good advice not to hand in your notice until an unconditional offer confirming all of the agreed terms has been received, keep in mind that there is generally little security for the first two years beyond your contractual notice. If you are exceptionally valuable to them you may be able to agree some special terms that provide further protection. However this is unusual and only tends to happen in head hunting situations for very senior roles.

Exodi

Sandtree said:

you've never heard of a HR system that needs another employers salary figures.

400ixl said:

I have never explicitly told an employer what I am earning in a current role.

I'm a bit curious by replies like the above. They will ask you for your P45 to set you up on payroll, which shows your gross pay TD... they need only divide it by the amount of months passed in the tax year to work out your previous salary.

Unless you also fabricate a reason for why you can't provide your P45 and get set up on an emergency tax code initially.

I think just send it, you haven't lied to them and you are able to justify the reasoning. Pretending to have not seen their email plays out worse in my opinion - especially as it's likely only a tickbox exercise for payroll.

Sandtree

Exodi said:

Sandtree said:

you've never heard of a HR system that needs another employers salary figures.

400ixl said:

I have never explicitly told an employer what I am earning in a current role.

I'm a bit curious by replies like the above. They will ask you for your P45 to set you up on payroll, which shows your gross pay TD... they need only divide it by the amount of months passed in the tax year to work out your previous salary.

Unless you also fabricate a reason for why you can't provide your P45 and get set up on an emergency tax code initially.

I think just send it, you haven't lied to them and you are able to justify the reasoning. Pretending to have not seen their email plays out worse in my opinion - especially as it's likely only a tickbox exercise for payroll.

First of all you've trimmed off the piece that said to play dumb/coy 

Secondly... they aren't asking for the P45 at this point but simply what the salary was... have you ever known payroll to be based on that rather than the info in the P45? The figure given by the OP could have only come into effect last week, could be unknown levels of commission, bonus, unpaid leave etc... clear tax calcs won't be based on this 

tink17

Exodi said:

Sandtree said:

you've never heard of a HR system that needs another employers salary figures.

400ixl said:

I have never explicitly told an employer what I am earning in a current role.

I'm a bit curious by replies like the above. They will ask you for your P45 to set you up on payroll, which shows your gross pay TD... they need only divide it by the amount of months passed in the tax year to work out your previous salary.

Unless you also fabricate a reason for why you can't provide your P45 and get set up on an emergency tax code initially.

I think just send it, you haven't lied to them and you are able to justify the reasoning. Pretending to have not seen their email plays out worse in my opinion - especially as it's likely only a tickbox exercise for payroll.

So I've decided to just reply to the email and be honest having read all the replies. I'll just have to hope that if my current salary mattered, they would have asked me at some point between the provisional offer and the formal offer. As the request has come from HR supposedly as part of setting me up on the system, and they can find out my current salary from my P45 when I get it, my thinking is if they are going to withdraw the offer because of it, then they would be terminating my contract anyway when they got my P45, so I may as well know now!

I didn't lie in my interview, I didn't exaggerate my current job, I was open about the reasons for wanting to move back into a post with more responsibility and influence. I just didn't delve into how "low ranking" my current job is due to changing fields, because they asked me competency based questions and I answered them with my strongest examples from my previous job. I made it clear in every answer that I was referring to my previous job too, so I definitely didn't mislead them to think I was still doing any of that in my current role.

Thanks everyone for your help. Fingers crossed I don't end up out of a job given my notice is already in! I was reassured that most people haven't actually signed a contract before their first day on the job. I know what's going to be in the contract, it's just I wasn't sure if they would change their mind about my fit for the position based on my current salary.

Exodi

Sandtree said:

First of all you've trimmed off the piece that said to play dumb/coy 

Secondly... they aren't asking for the P45 at this point but simply what the salary was... have you ever known payroll to be based on that rather than the info in the P45? The figure given by the OP could have only come into effect last week, could be unknown levels of commission, bonus, unpaid leave etc... clear tax calcs won't be based on this 

I trimmed it off because I didn't think it was of any relevance to what I said. Making a passive aggressive request to clarify their request won't make them say 'Oh, no other employers have asked you this in the past? In that case, you can completely disregard our request' - in reality playing dumb will probably lead to them thinking you are dumb and have them reply 'yes, your current salary is the salary you are currently on.'

I do agree with your second point however - in reality I don't know what the purpose of asking the OP's current salary is. My point that they would still find it out from the OP's P45 (unless he chooses to refuse to provide this also) is still valid.

Own_Worst_Enermy

I don't know but I told the company a bit about my past (I thought they were bring rude but nope) and for the first time in 24 months I am an on the right tax code with a little tiny gesture of good will refund from HMRC  I haven't had to submit a P45 in a good 4 -5 years.

Andy_L

Smoulder80 said:

With it being public sector I'd wager that in the past Internal Audit have recommended that candidates current salary is logged during the recruitment process and its a box ticking exercise to satisfy that as nobody has bothered to stand up and question the value added to the process in collecting it

I suspect its there so that internal transferees from other parts of the public sector can keep their salary & not have to start at the bottom of the scale & that HR have just c0cked-up & are trying to use it for external candidates