Wanting a salary increase

Medical Laboratory Observer, March, 2006 by Christopher S. Frings

Q I would appreciate suggestions about how to handle a wage increase for our lab. Our neighboring hospital has given a wage increase, and I now have disappointed employees. I contacted HR about checking with our neighbors about their pay scale. What is appropriate next for my employees and me as a manager?

A Marti Bailey warns, "Unless your hospital is in an area where there is little or no competition for the employee pool, the compensation specialists in your HR department should be sensitive to market rates. So, you have taken the right first step by contacting HR regarding the issue. Rather than just checking with this one hospital, you may want to formally request a market survey for lab workers. But be prepared for a response in either direction. Even though this one hospital gave a raise to laboratory workers, if a larger sampling is taken, it may turn out to be the outlier rather than the norm. If you do make a formal request, follow up by making certain that your concerns remain on your HR department's radar until you get a definitive response.

"It is unlikely that your employer will offer a wage increase unless the organization's administrators either decide to offer it across the board to all employee groups, or there are retention issues with particular employee groups creating critical personnel shortages. You can query your administrators regarding the possibility of a general pay increase while you are waiting for results of a market survey. Regardless of the results, be sure to get back to your staff with whatever you learn, whether positive or negative. If you are unable to effect an increase, you need to share market survey results with the staff, as well as a summary of your negotiation efforts."

Alton Sturtevant advises, "You should do as much of the groundwork as possible to help HR with the evaluations of your staff's salary levels. This will keep the issue on the front burner with HR. I am sure they will speak with their appropriate contacts in the area when looking for pay-scale data. You may find that HR will be given pay scales for the other local facilities but may not be given actual current employee pay rates. Hopefully, they will get current pay data.

"In my area, the Alabama Chapter of CLMA does annual salary surveys of its members in an attempt to be proactive in evaluating salaries. The survey asks for the starting, midpoint, and endpoint of the scale for each employee category. More importantly, the survey also asks for the current pay by category as well as the numbers of employees in the category. We recently completed the survey; and when I received the report, I sent it to our corporate HR group. I would get data for HR by:

1. checking with the local facilities using your contacts;

2. inquiring through local and national laboratory groups for the pertinent information;

3. inquiring through your state hospital association;

4. searching the Internet for "medical technologist salary scale." (I did and got over 11,000 responses.) Evaluate and distill the results into a report for HR using pertinent data; and

5. discussing what the local HR would like to have in order to move forward with its evaluation."

Larry Crolla recommends, "You need to send a letter, in writing or e-mail, to HR and copy the head pathologist and your hospital administration. State that another area hospital has increased its pay and that since there is a nationwide shortage of trained medical technologists, you are concerned not only about retaining current staff but also about recruiting top-level personnel if the hospital's pay scale is not competitive. Ask HR to do a salary survey and inform you about the results and any actions they deem appropriate based upon the survey results. By sending the letter and copying others, you have done your job and put the ball in HR's court so HR does not delay doing its job. Following this formal action, some good conversations with your superiors would be the next stage to further your cause."

Bottom line. Be proactive in getting salary data from other institutions, and provide good data to your HR group. Also be prepared to discuss your findings with your staff at an appropriate time based on your response from HR.

Christopher S. Frings, PhD, is an internationally known consultant and speaker on the topics of leadership, managing change, time management, reaching goals, and stress management. His consulting firm, Chris Frings & Associates, (www.chrisfrings.com) is in Birmingham, AL.

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