Signed Retention Agreement Made Easy

Sign retention agreement

what's up everybody its Justin an APM wealth hope you having a great day wanted to take a couple minutes to discuss contract negotiation strategy that I've been using with some of my clients to really good effect for graduating residents and fellows it's no secret right now that negotiating during the time of coronavirus is a challenge many many private practices are deeply financially distressed some of them are going out of business there's a lot of consolidation pressure all the deferring of care that patients are going through right now is creating a financial crisis that's no secret and so stepping into that environment looking at prospective employment can be a thorny issue especially if you're trying to get more money a practice can view that somewhat adversarially when you're walking in the door so I've been brainstorming with some of my clients how do we get the financial benefit that we want from signing a new contract and be able to work with the practice to help them make it work from a financial standpoint usually if you're signing a new employment agreement you'd be looking for a signing bonus 30k 50k 75 K depending on where you're at and then the type of role you're gonna be stepping into right now that's not really tenable because practices are laying off employees and furloughing physicians and that's if you walked in the door and said hey I want 50k to sign on the dotted line they would look at you like you're crazy but what I've been encouraging some clients to do is think about proposing something like this a retention bonus this is essentially you can think of it as like a a back-end loaded signing bonus where you say okay practice ABC I understand that you're financially strapped we all get it I know that you need help that you're gonna have probably a huge boom of patient volume in the summer and fall and I as a committed team member want to be here and want to be helping to you know pull in the right direction with the rest of your physician team but at the same time I'm interested in some compensation for signing on the dotted line and it's going to come instead of today in the form of a signing bonus it'll be a retention bonus that basically pays out in 12 months meaning if I'm still here a year from now and assuming that this huge rise in patient volume happens the way that we anticipate that you're going to be the recipient of that big chunk a change after 12 months and it's way better to do this than to totally you know punt on not getting the signing bonus at all right there's three good reasons I can think of to structure a deal this way the first is obviously financial impact you're going to be getting money that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise and negotiating upfront is always the easiest money you're ever going to make in practice second reason you're establishing professional credibility what this means is you're showing that I as a professional as a physician as a team member I take myself seriously and I expect others to take me seriously and by valuing yourself at a high value you're showing that you're cognizant of your own Worth and so you're probably going to have other discussions in the future with the same management team about partnership buy-in or about raises or about buying into an ASC and you're going to be getting off on the right foot for those future negotiations by showing that you are to be taken seriously in these types of discussions and the third reason that this is definitely a great idea is showing that you are a strategic thinker that you are a leader that you are cognizant of the financial situation that the practice is in that you understand the challenges that they're experiencing and that you want to be reasonable you want to take into account their well-being as well as your own and come up with a deal that's gonna work for everybody so hope that helps three great reasons to ask for a retention bonus instead of a signing bonus that's all I've got for today hope everybody has a great day