Retention bonus - how common is it?

[GrassrootMaltan]

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So I’ve been at a community based employed general HemOnc position in a medium sized town (100k pop) in the Midwest for 2+ years now. Got a signing bonus for a 3 year contract. My contract will be up for renewal in the next few months. Should I ask for a retention bonus yearly starting now? If so, what is an approximate good number? Are retention bonuses even a thing now? Just trying to know the likelihood of this being accepted vs turned down in an instant.

 

[MD46]

Would need a little bit more information about your current contract and the structure. Is it rvu based versus collection based etc

 

[anonperson]

So I’ve been at a community based employed general HemOnc position in a medium sized town (100k pop) in the Midwest for 2+ years now. Got a signing bonus for a 3 year contract. My contract will be up for renewal in the next few months. Should I ask for a retention bonus yearly starting now? If so, what is an approximate good number? Are retention bonuses even a thing now? Just trying to know the likelihood of this being accepted vs turned down in an instant.

I'm not heme onc but my organization has a retention bonus of $20k a year. Not a huge amount but nice to get each year.

You can ask for the bonus but if they say no, what's your leverage? Are you prepared to leave over this if they say no?

Anyone else in the organization getting this?

 

[gutonc]

So I’ve been at a community based employed general HemOnc position in a medium sized town (100k pop) in the Midwest for 2+ years now. Got a signing bonus for a 3 year contract. My contract will be up for renewal in the next few months. Should I ask for a retention bonus yearly starting now? If so, what is an approximate good number? Are retention bonuses even a thing now? Just trying to know the likelihood of this being accepted vs turned down in an instant.

You can certainly ask, and they can certainly politely decline.

My first job out of fellowship had no such thing. My current job has a $25Kretention bonus at the end of each years 3, 4 and 5. I intend to renegotiate that when it comes time to sign up for year 5 and increase and extend it.

 

[flowers]

I've seen retention bonuses with signing a new contract, but it isn't usually every year. I have seen the retention bonuses come in different "flavors" including - straight compensation, or a contribution to a retirement plan like a 401a. Be careful to not get too fixated on one aspect of your comp at the expense of another. Most hospitals would happily give you a 20K retention bonus rather than upping your RVU rate $5. So, figure out what you want your TOTAL comp to be and see if the hospital can get there.