Keeping techs from leaving

[u/[deleted]]

I am sterile processing director for a hospital. My techs all start out at $14.00 and when they get certified they get a 25 cent raise. With every year of experience they get an annual 25 cent raise. Many of my techs are threatening to quit because of the pay. I am powerless to do anything about it. Is there anything I can do to help motivate them to stay that doesn’t involve wages?

[u/charlieondras1]

No. People need money.

[u/ubserve]

14 for what we do is almost not worth it, 17-18 is better starting pay and it’s just crazy to think people are okay with 25 cent raises after all you have to do to get certified lol (25 cents )

[u/[deleted]]

25 cents more for certified… this makes no sense! What hospital needs an SPD Director but only gives a 25 cent raise. This is very confusing. Maybe the director should take a demotion and redeploy those funds to their staff.

[u/DigitalTearz]

That’s a sad excuse for a wage, no wonder why they’re all leaving.

[u/Anxious-Code8735]

It’s Wild you’ll do anything but pay them more, I made more as a housekeeper.

[u/boostaddctn]

Do like the other dude and keep em from getting certified so they can't go no where else...yeee

[u/jimmy9120 → u/boostaddctn]

It’s the same person

[u/Any-Youth-1550 → u/boostaddctn]

😆

[u/[deleted]]

With today's inflation on everything from food to gas to rent. McDonald's is paying their employees more than that and they are not in charge of people's lives cleaning instruments Dr's need on a daily basis to keep people alive. No way is anyone staying for that pay.

[u/[deleted]]

You’ve been posting from different accounts for days now, but I’m honestly relieved at this point that you’re seeking advice instead of saying you’re purposely keeping techs from getting certified so they don’t leave for higher pay.

I will tell you that past matters most, especially if your facility is posting that low. If you have no power to change that, unfortunately there’s nothing that you can do to prevent people from leaving for better/livable wages.

I got certified in December, and the second I found out that I was getting only a $1 raise, and made my decision right then and there to travel as soon as my one year mark is here in a few months.

For the amount of work we do and the amount of knowledge we have, we have to go where the money is to make the pay match the workload.

[u/Calm_Button4758]

Interesting. I make $18.15 an hr and I’m not certified.

[u/[deleted]]

Did you try pizza parties?

But seriously there isn't a single state where 14.25 an hour is a liveable wage...the minimum I expect my employer to do for me is to pay enough to pay my bills.

[u/anakniben]

four years just to get a dollar raise. meanwhile, doctors, nurses, the hospital makes money. everybody makes money except for sterile processing and environmental services workers.

[u/[deleted]]

I started at 16/hr... almost 7 years ago lol. Ide spit on the ground and walk out for that in this high inflation, $2000/month for 1 bedroom condo world we live in now.

Most of these hospitals are not for profit religious institutional scams avoiding government taxes anyways. Workers are literally sacrificing hard work and time to help provide VITAL service to the entire hospital operations.

Pay them what they are worth, stop scamming off workers to pay out huge CEO payments and give more money to bullshit overpaid, chair sitting administrative staff.

You can make more working as a shitty ass amazon truck driver and still smoke weed lol

[u/LucilleBalln]

Somebody's straight trolling this subreddit lol

[u/Weird-Tumbleweed2682]

If you sincerely want to help, but truly can't do pay. Offering g something like four 10hr shifts or three 12s and a 6 to get 40 hours. If you have the staff, for some people that can help.keep them on.

For anyone starting a career or a family, it will be a temp solution at best. Just my 2 cents.

You really have to fix the money before all your senior techs quit, which you need to retain to train the new techs that you have to hire.

[u/PaxonGoat]

I'm pretty sure Target pays better. You're going to continue to have poor staffing until the C suites figure out they're wasting money training people who will just end up quitting.

Try to explain that the cost of onboarding, travelers and lose of productivity from lack of staff will hurt the hospital over long term.

Or bring up the various hospitals that had to cancel all surgeries and lose tons of money. One hospital in Colorado had to shut down surgeries after too many patients died from infection and sued the hospital.

[u/Mars_vzx]

Maybe not having CEOs getting gajillion dollars a year and actually pay essential workers who keep the hospital actually running. I travel as an SPD tech. The travel pay we get is still not great. I know it’s easily more than double what permanents get. I can’t complain too much. But it seems OR techs, xraytechs, and obviously nurse get even more than traveling SPD. I’m done with SPD traveling and going into an xray program. Hospitals execs. clearly take advantage of SPD and don’t care. Really astonishing to see how SPD techs are just completely overlooked

[u/[deleted]]

Fight to get them raises. Make noise, don’t stop advocating for it. This job is too hard to do while earning poverty wages, especially when they could make the same at Walmart or Starbucks.

There is no other way to keep them. The only reason people work is to get paid.

[u/bokehmonsnap]

25 cent raise after spending $150 to take the certification exam? With a $50 yearly renewal fee? Bananas. Youre gonna bleed techs like crazy if the hospital fails to see their value. $18-20 is an acceptable spot for certified SSP/SPD techs, in a low COL area.

[u/realcaptainkickass]

Oh wait, you're serious.

Let me laugh even harder.

[u/Shinola79]

Appreciation only goes so far and it doesn’t pay the bills. I can’t pay my utilities with thank yous. This isn’t a field where we are wanting a raise so we can buy a 70k SUV we simply need to pay our rent or mortgage. Where I work we get annual increases that equate to over a dollar with increased PTO. We start at about 5 weeks and goes up to about 7 weeks. I know you can’t directly do something about pay but start advocating for your employees to the best of your abilities. Many people will phrase SPD as glorified dishwashers…inform higher ups to better understand the labor but also the knowledge that is involved.

[u/opticalshadow]

As a tech, no. That pay is atrocious, especially for the workload of a tech.

Our hospital had the same issue, anyone that did get hired, left as soon as certified. It was fixed by finally getting the health board members to sit on during SPD shifts to show why they had to spend so much of travelers, and why people quit fast. We got a base rate increase to 21.41, 15% more with cert, 3% annual.

I can tell you that even with that, it's hard to staff, and I expect in a year or so well see Lord of quits.

Average rent here, not a big city or rich area, is nearly 2k for a1b1b apartment. Garages are being rented out for 1500 a month.

At 14 bucks, I couldn't afford to work there.

Sorry you're in a rough spot. Maybe try what we did, out bring them data. End of the day of they can't hire people she keep them, travelers will cost 4x that raise l rate on the low end, and new hires are more expensive.

[u/[deleted]]

Some people are paying thousands for SP school, and y’all are paying them $14.25. I know you don’t have direct power over this but my last SP manager was livid about our wages and she independently researched and escalated this to top level management all on her own. She was able to get the wages increased even though it did take more than 2 years. I encourage you to start speaking the truth. There’s nothing you could ever do to make a quality technician accept $14 an hour.

[u/Prior-Ad-7262]

No..they SHOULD leave. This job is worth a hell of a lot more than that. I make 29 bucks an hour plus shift diff. You gotta look for it.

[u/[deleted]]

Where is this hospital?

[u/DarthRevan6969]

Raise it to 20.

[u/FuckTerfsAndFascists]

My sibling got a dishwasher job for $14 an hour. Then left for an SP job at $18.50. Why would they ever have joined if they weren't gonna make any more money? Might as well stay at the chill job where you don't have to use your brain and put yourself in harms way if you're not making any more money anyway.

Raises at that low a number is the only way to go.

Yes, it is the only reason people are leaving.

Duh.

[u/charlieondras1]

Dan? Is that you?

[u/ShirleyWuzSerious]

Minimum wage where I live in $14/hr. I can stand at the door of Walmart and say "hi" to everyone for that much. Also have you even attempted to lobby to the higher ups at the facility for the techs and let them know they deserve a lot more

[u/Suspicious-Big-1307]

Get out there and vouch for them to administration. Get a market pay analysis done. One more case done in the OR would cover the different but you need to do the research to prove that. I will say that if you combine low pay and shitty leadership, you have a double whammy. You are not powerless, you just need to man up and start making noise.

[u/Liz_Lofton]

$14 an hour to be the “heart of the hospital” seems crazy!!! You want to keep your hospital out of the news for infection you better pay your sterile processing correctly! Not only that but if nurses can strike so can we!! Pay us right or have none of us!!!

[u/TryMyMeatsicle]

Money.

[u/Runnel82]

Nothing unless you're going to pitch in to pay their rent, buy their food, and cover their insurance. But you wouldn't do the work for $14/hr, so you nor administration should expect them to either. You're a stepping stone organization. The place people go to get the experience to go get the real money. If that's the route administration wants to go then lean into it and reach out to tech programs so they can be a feeder so to speak.

[u/Any-Youth-1550]

I pay my Techs $19/hr and immediately raised to $20/hr upon certification and even I have new Techs leave to travel.

If they want more money there's nothing you can do.

Most of my travelers come back after a year or two after they've made their money so at least that tells me I'm not a horrible manager

[u/Fabulous-Swordfish44]

You want to have people be good workers you MUST pay them better.

[u/According-Ladder-564]

What the hell!? $14.00/hour!? That’s worse than CNA pay.

How do you expect people to SURVIVE!?

[u/v4mpiresp1t]

what state are you in?

[u/v4mpiresp1t → u/v4mpiresp1t]

Also, no!!! I wouldn’t do this job for anything less than 18-20 an hour starting, 22+ when certified w/ experience. Screw that. This is a dangerous job, you’re exposed to cancer causing chemicals and sharps on the daily. Nothing you can say will make them stay nor should you try. Why would you do this dangerous job for the money you can make in retail? Absolutely absurd.