Home Career A look at recruiting incentives and noncompetes

A look at recruiting incentives and noncompetes

What perks can hospitalists expect when they sign on?

May 2015
recruitment incentives

Published in the May 2015 issue of Today’s Hospitalist

GIVEN THE ONGOING hospitalist shortage, what kinds of recruiting perks are organizations willing to offer? According to the 2014 Today’s Hospitalist Compensation & Career Survey, more than half
of hospitalists received some kind of sign-on incentive, from cash to moving expenses to loan forgiveness. Here’s a look at data from full-time adult hospitalists from our most recent survey.

Sign-on bonuses
With sign-on perks, cash is still king. More than one-third of hospitalists (37%) received a sign-on bonus in the form of cash, making it the most widely used recruiting incentive.

Cash bonuses were most likely to be given to hospitalists working for multispecialty/primary care groups (47%) and least likely for those working in medical schools and universities (10.5%).

Moving expenses came in a close second as an incentive, with 31% saying their job helped pay them to relocate. Just over one-fifth (21%) claimed they received tail coverage when they took their current job, while only 4% reported receiving loan forgiveness.

Dollar values
As for the value of sign-on bonuses, hospitalists reported a mean of just over $16,000. Hospitalists working for multispecialty/primary care groups received the largest bonuses ($14,450), while those in national management companies received the lowest bonuses ($12,839).

Men reported receiving 23% more in sign-on money (an average of $17,122) than their female colleagues (an average of $13,952). By region, signing bonuses reached a high of $21,055 in the Midwest and a low of $10,866 in the Southwest.

As for loan forgiveness, the average amount was $44,415. And when it came to moving expenses, hospitalists reported receiving just over an average of $8,000.

Noncompete agreements
Finally, just over half of hospitalists (58%) said they had signed a noncompete when taking their current job. Noncompetes are most prevalent at larger hospitals: 61% of hospitalists in facilities with 250plus beds reported signing a noncompete compared to 53% in smaller facilities.

Noncompetes were more common among hospitalists with multispecialty/primary care groups (66%) than universities/medical schools (47%). Geography also played a role, with 66% of hospitalists in the Midwest signing one, compared to 52% in the Northeast.

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