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Vital Signs - Issue
30
Our motto is
"Doing What Is Right
In
Hiring"
Part of that is
to help our
clients and
contacts in what you do best everyday, ..recruit, hire, and retain
top
professionals!
Additional
Information:
- Search
Candidates
Do you have comments,
questions regarding hiring,
or topics you would like us to address?
Contact
Terri@IntegrityPersonnelinc.com
www.IntegrityPersonnelinc.com
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A monthly online publication
designed to help employers
recruit, recognize, reward, and retain their
workforce.
What Are Your
Employees Worth?
Retention has
been a focus of this newsletter recently, and with good reason—because the
only thing more important than recruiting and hiring the best talent in
the market is keeping that talent on board and not letting it get
away.
There are many
components of an effective retention program, with compensation being
one of the most important. Many companies believe they set their
compensation structures, while in fact the marketplace sets compensation
standards and your top
performers stay on top of
those. This is why it’s crucial for you to stay on top of current compensation in your field, as
well.
Now, if you’re
doing everything else necessary to retain these superstars and your
compensation is on par, then there’s an excellent chance they’ll stay
right where they are. But if your compensation is below what they could be
earning elsewhere, they might start to speculate about whether the grass is really
greener on the other side (even if it isn’t).
If it’s
substantially below . . . well, we don’t even want to think about that scenario. This publication
is sent to a number of
diversified clients. While Integrity Personnel, Inc focuses in
Healthcare,, it also focuses on Healthcare IT. Since different
readers will be interested in different content—and compensation
reports—we’re highlighting information in both IT and Healthcare in order
to provide a more comprehensive
reference guide.
Crunching the
(compensation) numbers
Healthcare:
Perhaps no
industry can match Healthcare when it comes to the number of trends occurring in regards
to its compensation and growth.
Due to the demand for workers
in the industry during the last several years, pay and other compensation
have expanded dramatically on a year-over-year basis. Although that
expansion is slowing overall, some areas are still experiencing rampant
growth.
Let’s start
with average compensation increases for this year. Whereas in the past,
increases in certain sectors
reached as high as double digits, that won’t be the case in 2008. However,
in most areas of Healthcare, the average will still be above the national
average of 3.8% (as forecast by HR consultant Hewitt Associates).
Traditionally, compensation is largely determined by the demand that
exists in particular fields, and in Healthcare, that demand has been
driven by two main factors—the
aging of the Baby Boomer Generation and the emergence of new
specializations.
The retirement
of the Baby Boomers is also having another effect. Baby Boomers holding
high-level positions within the Healthcare industry are retiring, as well,
accentuating both the demand and the compensation that companies are
willing to pay in order
to meet it. According
to Monster Career Advice, below
are industry occupations that are currently in the highest
demand:
• Radiology
technologist, as well as CT technologist and MRI technologist
•
Pharmacy technician
• Occupational therapist
• Physical
therapist
• Speech language pathologist
• Certified registered nurse
anesthetist
• Primary care physicians
While overall, average
compensation increases in Healthcare will be lower this year and in 2009,
that’s not the case in quite a few specialty areas. According
to Monster Career Advice, the
best salary increases are found in physician-extender occupations, such as
nurse practitioner ($78,400 median salary), physician assistant ($77,900),
and certified registered nurse anesthetist. The pay for CRNAs is exploding
at the moment, quickly approaching an average salary of $200,000. And of
course, among those currently earning the most money are anesthesiologists
and radiologists, both of which are comfortably above $300,000 per year.
However,
here’s where Healthcare once again differentiates itself from other
industries in the marketplace. Regardless of the increases in base pay
compensation, the majority of companies and facilities are offering
excellent fringe benefits. These benefits include loan forgiveness,
payment of student debt, tuition reimbursement, the offering of signing
bonuses, and continuing medical education. Top-shelf candidates are
inquiring about these types of benefits during the interview process, and
the company that fails to
produce them is most likely the one that will lose out on the
candidate.
Like all
industries, Healthcare continues to evolve on a yearly basis. What hasn’t
changed, though, is the demand for workers across a wide range of
specialties, a demand expected to exist for the foreseeable future. As a
result of that demand, superstar candidates in the industry will seek out
the employers that can provide them with the best overall compensation
package possible.
Information
Technology:
Despite
whatever rumblings that might be currently occurring in the U.S. economy, pay and
compensation increases for workers in Information Technology and related
industries have been about the same this year as they’ve been in recent
years. According to the Gartner
2008 IT Market Compensation Study, companies that participated in the
study reported a median salary budget increase of
3.6%.
Furthermore,
the projected salary budget increase for 2009 will be nearly identical,
although slightly lower at 3.5%. Regardless, IT companies appear ready,
willing, and able to compensate
their workers through an increase in compensation. In addition, it appears
that they’re willing to
compensate their top performers
even more. The survey indicated that the top 10% of performers in the IT workforce
received an average of 3% to 4%
more in base pay increases last year than the bottom 10%, a trend expected to continue in
2008.
And who,
exactly, is experiencing a greater increase in compensation? According
to Janco’s Mid-Year IT Salary
Survey, workers in a number of different positions are experiencing that
increase. The survey identified key positions that are most in demand,
citing a corresponding increase the amount of compensation tied
to those positions. It also
identified which positions are most in demand at both large enterprises
and mid-sized enterprises. The breakdown is as
follows:
Large
Enterprises:
Information
Service Vice President
Systems and Programming Director
Data Warehouse Manager
Computer
Operations – Shift Manager
Wireless Communications
Manager
Data Center Facility
Administrator
Mid-Sized
Enterprises:
Security (CSO)
Vice President
Systems & Programming Director
Planning Director
Computer Operations – Shift
Manager
Computer Operations – Shift Supervisor
Change Control
Analyst
The Janco
Survey, released earlier this year at the end of June, also contained data
regarding fringe benefits. It addressed the following areas (percentage of
respondents receiving said benefit in parentheses): health insurance
(93%), life insurance (84%), 401k (69%), flexible hours or schedule (58%),
personal performance bonus (57%), enterprise performance bonus (44%),
stock options (21%), and use of
a company car (9%).
Perhaps the
most telling result of the Gartner survey, however, is the fact that
approximately two-thirds of its
participants don’t have a formal workforce planning process. So while
overall, companies are seeking to adequately compensate their employees,
especially their top
performers, they’re failing to
pro-actively plan for the future of their workforce, which could be
impacted by any number of factors, including shifts in demographics or
additional economic challenges.
An investment,
not a cost
With the end
of 2008 on the horizon, this is a good time to evaluate the compensation of your employees.
Use the information provided above to ensure that this compensation is in line
with industry standards, and if it’s merited, make sure that it exceeds
those standards.
The cost of
losing one of your top
employees far outweighs the cost of providing that employee with more
compensation. In fact, it’s not even a cost, it’s an
investment. That employee, through their
skills, talent, and experience, will continue contributing in a positive
fashion to the company’s
bottom line. In all likelihood,
the return on your investment will increase in accordance with the
employee’s increase in compensation.
So . . . what
are your employees worth? Are you expressing that worth through the
compensation you’re providing? Your answers to those questions will ultimately have a
profound impact on the success of your company through the rest of this
year and into
2009.
If you would
like a review of your current compensation structure on a consultative
basis, contact us for more information.
(As always, we value your
input regarding the content for our newsletter. If you have any ideas or
suggestions for future topics,
be sure to contact us at terri@integritypersonnelinc.com
We look forward to hearing from
you.)
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