Health care employees benefit from retention bonuses

Health care workers are reaping the benefits of federal agencies' efforts to use cash incentives to keep stellar employees on the job, the Office of Personnel Management reported Monday.

Based on data from every agency that awarded retention bonuses in 2005, OPM calculated that five of the top 10 occupations to receive retention incentives were in health care: nurse, medical officer, pharmacology, physician's assistant and practical nurse.

One reason for the health care emphasis is the disproportionate use of retention incentives by the Health and Human Services Department. HHS, which employs less than 70,000 people, doled out more than a third of the 3,000 retention bonuses throughout government 2005. The agency spent about $12 million on the incentives to keep high-performing employees at risk of leaving the agency.

Only the Defense Department used more, awarding 1,470 retention bonuses. But Defense, which employs more than 700,000 civilians, spent less than $7 million on its incentives.

Regulations allow agencies to offer the extra cash to a "current employee with unusually high or unique qualifications" or when an employee's abilities are essential and he or she would likely leave government without the incentive.

In HHS, 70 percent of retention bonuses went to employees in health care occupations; most of the rest went to employees in the biological sciences. Defense awarded about 40 percent of its retention bonuses to health care workers, too.

HHS told OPM that the incentives are most effective in retaining staff at remote locations. Defense said its retention bonuses help keep medical staff who could command larger salaries in the private sector.

In 2004, Congress passed a law lifting some barriers to certain incentives for federal employees, including recruitment and relocation bonuses and retention awards. As part of the law, Congress required OPM to file an annual report on the use of these incentives throughout government. Monday's report is the first under this requirement.

In addition, OPM found that federal agencies were more likely to use retention bonuses for upper-level employees. In the General Schedule pay system, employees with positions at the GS-11 through GS-15 levels received almost 90 percent of retention bonuses; GS-14 and GS-15 positions alone received more than 50 percent.