Drug Topics - March 2009 - (Page 22) Cover Story EXCLUSIVE SALARY SURVEY Sucech said one of the biggest attractions to pharmacy was the benefits package. The Walgreens in Illinois where she works offers a 401(k) plan, life insurance, vision and dental plans, health insurance, a discount on store merchandise, profit-sharing, and paid holidays, sick days, and vacation days. Those are the kinds of things she considered when going into the field, she said. “The field was in demand, the salary was definitely a plus, and the benefits were available. Those are all things I wanted.” Of the rest of the respondents, the most commonly received benefits were vacation (96 percent), health insurance (96 percent), dental insurance (89 percent), holidays (89 percent), sick days (82 percent), and life insurance (82 percent). The two least-common benefits were job-sharing (2 percent), and student-loan repayment (6 percent), with more hospital pharmacies offering repayment of loans (10 percent) and chain drugstores most likely to offer job-sharing (3.2 percent). macists polled said the invitations to apply for positions with competing pharmacies have increased in recent years, while 46 percent said there has been no change. The frequency of the invitations varied, with 9 percent of respondents receiving them daily, 24 percent receiving them once a week, 29 percent receiving them several times a month, 30 percent receiving them several times a year, and 8 percent rarely receiving them. Pharmacists working in suburban chain drugstores were most likely to receive calls from competing pharmacies, according to the survey. Benefits may not be enough But the benefits aren’t enough to persuade all pharmacists to stay with their current jobs, as the survey revealed. Respondents may be satisfied with their jobs, but that’s not stopping about 25 percent of them from looking for another job in 2009. Pharmacists working at chain drugstores were the most likely, at 31 percent of respondents, to say they plan to look elsewhere for work. Pharmacists in the northeastern part of the United States were the most likely to say they are planning a job search this year. The most common reason pharmacists cited for making a move was professional advancement (41 percent) with income following closely behind (38 percent). Barnes said he has no plans to leave his full-time job at a retail pharmacy and his part-time job at a hospital pharmacy because he’s managing the stress from both jobs and is happy where he is. But he’s still getting calls three to four times a month from competing pharmacies that are willing to make him an offer. Drug Topics’ survey revealed he’s not alone. Survey participant Christopher Smith, PharmD, was surprised at the lengths some pharmacies will go to recruit new employees. While working at Walgreens in St. Louis, he has received calls from recruiters weekly. “They usually call me at a very busy time when I can’t think about anything, let alone talk to them about another job,” Smith said. He doesn’t think the trend of competitors calling will last long or be very successful, because pharmacists don’t think it’s professional to take those calls at work. “If people are searching for a job, they’ll do it on their own time,” he said. “They’re not going to be taking that call.” But that’s not stopping the invitations from flowing in. In fact, calls from competing pharmacies were common in 2008, according to respondents. Forty-three percent of phar- Stress levels increasing Many pharmacists who said they would consider accepting a competing offer cited stress as the reason. More than half of respondents (57 percent) said the stress level at work had increased during the past year. Meanwhile, 37 percent said it remained the same, and only 5 percent said it decreased. Of those who reported an increased level of stress, about 65 percent worked for mass-merchandiser pharmacies, 60 percent worked in a chain pharmacy, about 60 percent worked for a hospital, 41 percent worked for an HMO, 48 percent worked for independent pharmacies, and 51 percent worked for a supermarket pharmacy, Pharmacists working for HMOs were the most likely to say their stress levels had decreased between 2007 and 2008 — and they were also most likely to say it had remained the same. Salaries match stress, workload Smith said stress may increase nearly annually and workloads can increase just as often, but the salaries in the industry match the stress and workload well. “Our volumes are going up, and our support staffs aren’t,” he said. “We’re expected to do more with less as time goes on.” But the increased salaries and bonuses have helped to motivate pharmacists despite the rising levels of stress and demands of work. The most common reason for increased stress at work was increased work volume (cited by 83 percent of respondents). Also making the list was inadequate staff support (63 percent), increased paperwork (54 percent), negative workplace environment (32 percent), and lack of training and continuing education (15 percent). One respondent said his “senior management is out of touch with day-to day-activities/good standards,” which contributed to his increased stress in 2008. Another said that “upper management only looks at the hospital as a business,” and she gets “no support for added workload.” Other answers named the economic crisis, pharmacy closings, new technology, and inadequacies connected with insurance reimbursement. Only time will tell, Smith said, whether these trends in salaries and stress will continue and what new trends are yet to come. W W W.D R U GTO P I C S .C O M 22 DRUG TOPICS March 2009 http://WWW.DRUGTOPICS.COM
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