2005 Salary Survey Results: Salaries rise, risk managers are getting additional recognition
2005 Salary Survey Results
Salaries rise, risk managers are getting additional recognition
Position yourself for more responsibility by expanding your knowledge base
Increased salary levels may indicate that risk managers finally are being paid more after years of taking on additional duties, according to the results of this year's Healthcare Risk Management Salary Survey.
This is a good time to be a health care risk manager, but also a tough time to be one, says Pamela L. Popp, JD, MA, DFASHRM, CPHRM, senior director of claims and litigation at Stanford (CA) Medical Center and immediate past president of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in Chicago. One challenge is that so much is expected of a risk manager, she says, that there is little time to do research to get yourself up to speed.
"This year has been difficult in the way so much has been asked of us with disaster planning and expense issues, things that in past years were a component of risk management but weren't front and center," Popp says. "In the past, you had a chance to call on others and take some time to learn more, but now you have to know what you're doing so you can go ahead and do it."
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Risk managers enter limelight
That challenge is an offshoot of the way risk managers have been gaining more of a leadership role in the organization, she says. Risk managers have been maneuvering for more influential roles in health care, and now they are often among top leadership making decisions and responding to crises.
"The limelight is great when it brings more attention to you and highlights what you can offer as a risk manager, but it also means people are looking to you for more," she says. "You have to be able to deliver when people come to you for guidance."
The trends of past years are continuing, with risk managers being asked (or told) to put on more and more hats, taking on responsibilities in patient safety, compliance, and crisis management, Popp says. Those added responsibilities came without added pay for a while, but Popp says it now appears that employers are opening their wallets.
Many risk managers are happy working where they are, even though there are a number of job openings in the field, she says. "People don't tend to be happy if they are overworked and underpaid, so we're seeing people who are by and large happy with their compensation," Popp says. "They feel like they are being recognized."
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Finally more recognition, more money
ASHRM president Peggy B. Martin, ARM, MEd, DFASHRM, senior risk management coordinator with Lifespan Risk Services in Providence, RI, says this is an exciting time to be a risk manager. The career is finally getting more recognition in the health care field and beyond, she says.
"My mother never understood what a risk manager was, but now I can talk to people from other fields and they understand what I do for a living," Martin says. "I call that progress."
Martin attributes much of that improvement to the patient safety movement, which has received so much attention from the general public that it has elevated the status of risk managers in general. Martin says risk managers should ensure that they are using all the opportunities afforded by the patient safety movement. Are you involving yourself in patient safety as much as possible and in the most visible way within your organization?
"It's an opportunity, though it's not the only way to advance as a risk manager," she says. "It happens to be the avenue that we have right now that is offering a way to advance your career and move in to a more strategic position within your organization."
Risk managers are moving up in most health care organizations, being recognized more as a part of the leadership team, Martin says. Many more risk managers are reporting to top level executives or sitting on hospital boards, she adds.
The financial rewards for that kind of added responsibility are found more in the larger health care organizations, Martin says, even though risk managers at smaller facilities are taking on more duties without as much compensation. Overall, she says, risk managers are better compensated for their work than in recent years, she says.
"We still have to fight for that compensation sometimes, but at least we're no longer the stepchildren of the organization and last in line for anything," Martin says. Especially for the lawyers and some of the nurses, their pay is growing along with the rest of the administrative staff, she says. "I think risk managers overall are moving up in terms of having a chance at some of those resources in the hospital budget," Martin says.
Nurse risk managers in particular are making more money these days, because employers must match what others would pay them to work as nurses, she says.
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Expand your knowledge base
Popp says one of the best ways to position yourself for the future is to look for opportunities to expand your knowledge base. Look for the areas in which you might not be so strong, and build there, she advises. The goal is to avoid being someone who is highly skilled in only one area, Popp says.
"The folks who are progressing up to chief risk officer positions are less niche specialists and more well rounded," she says. In the past, it was easy for risk managers to fall into a niche, such as clinical or risk financing. "What we're seeing now is that you need to know all of it," she explains.
However, you don't have to be an expert in every area, Popp says. The goal is to have good baseline knowledge and then know where to go for more information. Certification from ASHRM and fellowships are good ways to show employers that you are well rounded and experienced in all key areas.
Look for ways to stretch yourself, and then look for ways to put that new knowledge to use in your organization, Popp says. For example, it's not enough to go to a seminar in risk financing. You need to come back and apply that knowledge to your organization and show in a concrete way how much money you can save for next year's budget.
"It is important to show people that, not only do you know it, you know how to apply it and get results," she says. "To establish your value to an organization, sometimes you have to create something tangible, some benefit that was very clearly brought to the organization by you."
Increased salary levels may indicate that risk managers finally are being paid more after years of taking on additional duties, according to the results of this year's Healthcare Risk Management Salary Survey.Subscribe Now for Access
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