As many of you know, the topic of pediatric compensation - for partners and employed clinicians - is perhaps my most consistent conundrum that I've addressed as a consultant.  You can see some of the discussions here, here, here, here, and here and a quick check tells me that I've presented on it at least twenty times in the last decade or so.

One element of the discussion I've come to emphasize is the importance of  autonomy, typically in the form of control over the working schedule, to employed clinicians (and, frankly, even partners).  Too often, the focus is on "how much should I pay?" when the repeated surveys tell us that many clinicians value control of their schedule as much or more as payment.  Let me say that again: it's not always, or even usually, about the money.  

Of course, the pay:control balance isn't the same for every clinician.  Some need to generate as much personal income as possible, perhaps to pay off loans, for example.  Others, often because of childcare, are more focused on when they work instead of how much they make.  The best outcome for practice and clinician is to match the needs of both parties and you can't figure that out without asking!

To walk practice owners through this discussion, I came up with a 2-element continuum matrix where the employERS take an opportunity to ask the employEES to share how they prioritize two sets of competing dynamics: 

Guaranteed Salary vs. Potential Income
and
Total Reward vs. Schedule Flexibility

Once you know how important these values are to your clinicians, it becomes a lot easier to create a compensation model.  Someone who values a Guaranteed Salary and Schedule Flexibility (most commonly a new parent)? Set up a straight salary model.  Someone who values Total Reward and Potential Income?  Develop a productivity-reward-focused model.

After sharing the same slide deck and drawing this on napkins 100s of times, someone who had seen my lecture a few too many times decided to formalize it and did a fantastic job.  Check it out here!

Dr. Mike Jordan and his partner at ResponseRX developed this hand tool for his own use and when he shared it with me, I asked if I could share it with the world.  He generously agreed - seriously, go play with it.  You can use it to sit down with your clinicians and say, "OK, where on the spectrum of 'Reward vs. Flexibility' are you?"  Move the sliders around and then based on the quadrant someone is in, you get specific advice about what kind of compensation model might be best for that clinician.  It's a sincerely awesome production of the vision I've had in my head all these years.  I plan to update my slides to use this tool!

Thanks, Dr. Jordan and ResponseRX!

[What's ResponseRX?  It's a review generation platform to help get more reviews for your practice.  I told Dr. Jordan that if he's going to give this tool away, he should host it on his business site in case someone might be interested in his service.  Everyone wins.]