To offset modest increases of 3.5% in hospital-based marketing/PR salaries projected for the new millennium, healthcare communicators will have to identify more incentive-driven opportunities that exist with lucrative retail ventures and programs that increase market share. This is one of the key findings of William M. Mercer's 1999 Integrated Health Networks Compensation Survey.
Unable to boost base salaries significantly, more and more hospitals are retaining top executive talent with incentives and bonuses tied to the success of new product lines and services. These incentives can add as much as 25% to the base salary of a marketing executive, says Jose Pagoaga, a principal and national leader of the healthcare performance and rewards practice for William M. Mercer.
"The impact of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is real and is forcing hospitals to find new sources of [retail-focused] revenue," says Pagoaga.
The average salary of a top marketing executive at a multi-market healthcare provider, integrated delivery system or managed care organization was $144,100 this year, slightly up from $143,300 last year.
However, marketing executives who were eligible for incentives boosted their compensation to $202,800, compared with $186,800 in 1998.
Though top marketing/PR executives at local hospital-dominated providers experienced a slight dip in compensation to $68,700 in 1999 from $69,600 in 1998, incentives for those who were eligible were more generous. The average incentive boosted the average salary for these professionals to $98,300 from $91,100 last year.
Next month, HPRMN will more thoroughly explore healthcare marketing compensation trends in our Special Report on Careers and Compensation.
Here are a few highlights:
- Though compensation is conservative, healthcare communicators are increasingly earning top administrative respect, support and confidence to communicate the organization's vision and develop more cohesive branding initiatives.
- For corporate PR executives, healthcare is one of the most desirable places to be. A senior VP at a large healthcare organization can expect to make $302,000 annually, up from $275,000 last year, according to Marshall Consultants, a national corporate and marketing communications recruiting firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles.
(William M. Mercer, Jose Pagoaga, 404/614-2992; Marshall Consultants, 212/628-8400)
Short-term Incentives
The trend of using short-term incentives to retain top talent is growing in popularity among healthcare organizations, according to William M. Mercer's 1999 compensation survey. This year, 57% of healthcare organizations offer at least one type of short-term incentive, compared with 55% in 1998. The most common forms of short-term incentives include:
- Organization-wide performance for executive and management employee groups; and
- Individual incentives for technical/professional employee groups.
- Source: William M. Mercer