Dollars & docs: navigating physician compensation redesign

We began by listening to the faculty physicians and then developed a listening and learning platform that encouraged feedback on the compensation redesign.

The team discovered that the primary source of concern was not the plan itself. Rather, there was a lack of trust in leadership and a strong feeling among faculty that they did not have a voice in the redesign. Therefore, the new development process focused on ensuring faculty physicians were closely involved in ongoing plan development. A team made up of physicians, HR, legal, communications and external financial management consultants led the process.

Over 18 months, we worked alongside the team to revise the new compensation model based on greater transparency and stakeholder feedback. Leadership held office hours, created a team structure and polling system that allowed for real-time feedback and launched a regular “Did You Know?” email series for updates. We also communicated back to leadership how faculty feedback helped evolve the model.

The delay and ensuing redesign paid off. The disciplined engagement strategy led to a well-received compensation plan. It was initially rolled out as a one-year “shadow” period to help physicians see how the plan would affect them while leaving room to work out unforeseen issues before formally implementing the model. A group of physician champions for the plan helped explain it to their peers, gaining buy-in from faculty. The email series remains as a key mechanism to loop in physicians about other news and strategic initiatives.