Negotiating Your Future: How to Get the Best Compensation Package

By Wendy Abdo, Staff Writer and
Craig Fowler, Director of Training/Business Development for Pinnacle Health Group.

You like the opportunity! Both you and the medical facility have agreed to enter into negotiations—the most delicate and difficult part of the hiring process. Are you ready for it and have you done your research? Worse yet, do you find yourself foundering while trying to compare several different job options?

To prepare yourself for the impending tidal wave of paperwork and legalese and ensure that you are getting the best possible compensation package, be sure to do the following:

The Specialty Marketplace

Determine what the going rate is for your specialty. Don’t just go by what you are making now or what your family and friends think you should earn. You could currently be over or underpaid. Research the latest compensation surveys such as those put out periodically by the MGMA, AMGA, and other recruitment and consultant firms. The more surveys you can consult, the better. This will enable you to feel more confident in negotiating the right salary. However, this is not the only aspect you should research.

The Regional Marketplace

Another facet of salary research deals with where the opportunity is located. Some salary surveys such as the MGMA’s Physician Compensation and Production Survey, actually breaks down each specialty into four major U. S. regions: Eastern, Midwest, Southern, and Western. This can prove very helpful to physicians who are comparing salaries in different areas of the United States. Yet, this can even be broken down further.

As a rule, positions in rural communities with a defined need will pay much more than positions in larger metropolises. This is because medical organizations in larger cities have more physician candidates from which to choose. If you decide to relocate to a larger city, you are trading a higher salary for the location. To find out exactly how much others in your specialty are making in a particular city or community, try speaking with your peers in that area.

The Value of Perks and Benefits

Salary isn’t the only thing to look at when weighing your contract. Bonuses, benefits, and other perks can score high marks, especially if they are hard-to-find in the job market. You can be offered outstanding 401K and pension plans. There is a wide array of insurances such as life, health, dental, and disability, not to mention lucrative production and incentive bonuses that are well worth it, even if the base salary is somewhat lower than the norm. Another attractive option might be a flexible workweek or a reduced or non-existent call schedule. These benefits must not be ignored. Oftentimes, a prospective employer may not be able to offer a large base salary but will bend over backwards in providing you with attractive benefits.

Compare Apples-to-Apples

What job offers do you currently have and how do they compare to the ones you are negotiating for now? You must make sure you are measuring up each opportunity properly. For instance, Opportunity A might offer a higher initial salary, but Opportunity B has a better payor mix. Further, if you are looking for flexible hours, Opportunity A may require you to work 50 hours a week and take 1:2 call while Opportunity B requires only 40 hours a week and no call.

A Helpful Comparison Tool

Are you still having a tough time comparing opportunities? Below is a weighted averaging tool you can use to help objectively determine what job offer will be the best overall value to you.

How to Use:

1. List all the features that are important to you in the left-hand column. For instance, you might list call schedule, climate, and practice potential here. Each physician’s list will be different depending on what s/he values.
2. Now assign percentage weights to your features in order of importance. Note that all features must total 100% (no more, no less).
3. Rate each opportunity’s feature based on a defined, common scale. The table above shows a scale rating from 1-4 (1 is the worst rating and 4 is the best rating).
4. Multiply each weight by each opportunity’s rating. For instance, to determine the weighted average for Benefits on Opportunity B, you would multiply your rating of 4 by the overall weight of 10% to get a weighted average of 0.4.
5. Finally, total all the weighted averages for each opportunity. The opportunity that has the greatest weighted average (in this example, Opportunity B) is the best overall opportunity for you.

Using Professionals

By using the services of a physician recruitment firm, you will have a definite advantage. Recruiters have extensive experience working with physicians and medical organizations and have successfully resolved many tough negotiation issues. These recruiters act as go-betweens and will assist you throughout the process. In addition, recruiters have an excellent understanding of how competitive your compensation package should be for your particular location and opportunity.

Negotiation is a fine art. By researching and objectively comparing offerings, you will obtain a compensation package that is well suited to your needs while building trust and mutual respect that will benefit future relationships.