snippet from letter posted in a break room
Text from image, company information hidden to protect workers:
“GROWTH AND FINANCE
[Company] announced that budget season is almost over and are at the last stage in putting together. [Company] is 2 million over what is annualized for 2022. Even with the increase in revenue there will still be a gap between expenses and revenue. As an organization we must look at ways to close that gap. Agency usage and incentive pay are a huge part of that gap. Retention of employees is another area for managers to investigate for cost saving measures. As revenue grows try to keep expenditures flat.”
Notes like this are becoming commonplace, I’ve seen it in two different places I’ve worked now. This was displayed in a break room. Corporate expects healthcare workers to give “suggestions” to fix their budget problems and are pressuring lower management to magically retain people in underpaying positions. They want to use less agency staff but won’t pay their full time employees more. As a result many healthcare workers quit full time employment to pursue agency contracts, shrinking the pool of potential full time workers. Incentive pay, also mentioned above, is additional hourly pay for full time employees when they pick up shifts that aren’t covered. It stacks on top of overtime pay and is meant to entice people to take the open shifts. Without it, the team works short staffed. TLDR hospital CEOs/corporate/etc want to be able to retain staff while underpaying and overworking them and have the audacity to ask their employees how to do it.