West Virginia University Medicine is offering sign-on bonuses as high as $15,000 to nurses, as well as referral and retention bonuses, to quickly fill 2,700 job openings, Leeann Kaminsky, the system's chief human resources officer, told Becker's.
Ms. Kaminsky said the job openings include more than 600 nurse positions throughout the Morgantown-based system. The open positions, some of which are due to the system's organic growth, also include food service, respiratory therapists, radiology and imaging, among other areas.
"We have an array of roles across the system, [but] it's becoming harder to recruit, especially for more entry-level roles," said Ms. Kaminsky. "Everybody's paying really well for these entry-level jobs. They're offering incentives just to keep their doors open."
She said it's also harder to attract and retain nurses, especially amid an aging nursing workforce, a nursing shortage and a COVID-19 pandemic that has taken a toll on employees.
WVU Medicine if offering sign-on bonuses to nurses of $5,000 for a one-year work commitment, $10,000 for a two-year commitment and $15,000 for a three-year commitment.
The health system, which owns or manages 18 hospitals in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, will pay bedside nurses up to $10,000 if they commit to staying at the system for a certain amount of time, said Ms. Kaminsky. Nurses may also receive a $2,500 referral payment if they refer a candidate, and the candidate is hired.
WVU Medicine has about 27,000 employees and is offering the incentives through Oct. 31.