Oct. 6, 2021

Every Avera Health employee will see benefits from a $50 million investment designed to recruit and retain workers, the health system announced today.

The plan includes moving the system to a $17-an-hour minimum wage, as well as pay increases of at least $2 an hour per employee.

“We value them. We appreciate them. We recognize that they’ve seen us through some challenging times, and we want to support them,” CEO Bob Sutton said.

“So many times when we announce an investment, it’s a building or a new physical location. But we are constantly investing in our people. We wanted to bring it all together into a package that demonstrates to our employees how much we value and appreciate them, and create some differentiators for those who are currently looking at career options.”

The investment also includes the following for employees in Avera-owned and leased facilities:

• Appreciation gifts, including cash payments.
• An on-call pay increase.
• No annual premium increase for health and dental insurance.
• Cost reductions in select tiers for health insurance.
• A $1,000 cash payment to employees who refer a new employee from outside Avera.
• Forty hours of paid time off front-loaded for new hires, rather than having to accrue hours over time.
• A new employee discount program.

The new incentives are coming at a time of unprecedented demand for health care workers. Of the 6,776 available positions in Sioux Falls listed on the state Labor Department’s job website last week, Sanford Health had the most with 1,100 jobs, and Avera had the second-most with 762.

While it’s common to have a lot of open positions at Avera, the numbers are higher than past peaks, Sutton said. It’s also a regionwide shortage in virtually every industry, he added.

“I believe there are numerous factors at play. First, baby boomers are retiring in greater numbers. That’s been predicted for some time. But the pandemic has brought along some stressors for health care workers – more patients, having to wear additional protective equipment and just the stress of caring for very ill patients, ” he said.

“These factors may have caused some people to retire earlier than they had planned. For others, the pandemic has caused them to rethink their priorities – for example, parents who have decided to step out of the workforce and stay home with children. Also, working from home has opened new opportunities. Someone can live in the same place yet perhaps work for a company based in another state.”

He said he hopes workers realize that working in health care offers “the chance to impact lives for the greater good” and “an opportunity to become part of something bigger than yourself.”

“It’s a meaningful way to invest your time and talents. We recognize that health care can be challenging work, but it’s also very rewarding to make a positive impact on the lives of others – and even save lives.”

The field still offers tremendous opportunities to advance, and its workers always will be in demand, he said.

“You also don’t have to have a clinical degree to work in health care,” Sutton added. “You can be in finance, human resources, customer service, marketing, good at project management, and we want you to work at Avera. It takes many backgrounds to run a health system.”