If you’ve extended an offer lately, you already know the hard truth: a strong base salary rarely closes the deal on its own. As noted in a recent blog post on physician compensation trends, guaranteed pay is climbing only modestly year over year. The real competition is happening in the recruitment incentives offered alongside the base salary. It’s easy to assume that the highest numbers get the contract (and it certainly helps!), but this is not always the case. Increasingly, how the candidate can use the incentives matters as much as the amount. Keep reading to learn how organizations are effectively leveraging physician recruitment incentives to win candidates today.
Incentives Are Carrying More of the Competitive Weight
Recruitment incentives have quietly become the deciding factor in a growing share of offers. In fact, 81% of Jackson Physician Search placements in 2025 included recruitment incentives, up from 77% the year before. While base salaries are often tied to revenue, which may not be trending up, employers often have more flexibility with incentives, so this can often be the differentiator.
This is where some recruiters leave value on the table: they treat incentives as a fixed menu. A set signing bonus. A set relocation figure. A standard loan repayment amount. Everyone gets the same package. That approach feels fair and orderly, but it quietly wastes dollars on things a given candidate doesn’t need while underdelivering on the thing they need most.
Pool the Funds, Then Stay Flexible
The single most effective shift I recommend is this: instead of assigning fixed amounts to specified line items, secure approval for a total incentive pool and let the candidate help decide how it’s used.
We recommend organizations build pools in the range of $150,000 to $300,000 that can be directed toward signing bonuses, student loan repayment, relocation, residency stipends, down payment or housing assistance, and more. The amounts allocated to each should be based on what that specific candidate actually values. (For a fuller menu of the elements that can live inside a package, Tonya Hamlin’s piece on structuring competitive compensation is a useful reference.)
Think about how differently the math works from one candidate to the next. An early-career physician carrying a median medical education debt of roughly $200,000 (the figure the AAMC reports for the Class of 2025) may value loan repayment above almost anything else. A mid-career hire relocating a family across the country cares far more about moving costs, temporary housing, and a spouse’s transition. A candidate buying a first home wants down payment help. You may extend all three the same dollar amount, but a package tailored to meet their needs signals that your organization listened. The candidate feels seen, which often matters as much as the money itself.
Flexibility Only Works If You’ve Done the Discovery
A pool is only as good as your understanding of the candidate. This is why the screening and discovery conversations matter so much. Before you present anything, you need to know: What’s driving this person? Debt? A working spouse? Aging parents in another state? Proximity to a specialty program for a child? You can’t allocate flexibly if you don’t know what problem you’re solving for.
The recruiters on my team understand that discovery is a key part of that first call. Whether conducted by a recruitment partner or in-house, this is a core recruiting step, not a formality. It’s also essential that whoever holds the budget has pre-approved the total pool of incentive funds so you can move quickly when you learn what a candidate needs. Speed and flexibility together are a genuine competitive edge.
Structure Incentives to Retain, Not Just Recruit
How you structure the dollars matters as much as the amount. Tax-advantaged, forgivable structures, for example, an upfront bonus with annual forgiveness that’s taxed incrementally rather than as one lump sum, tend to be appreciated by candidates and quietly serve your retention goals, since the benefit vests over time. It’s the rare case where what’s good for the physician and what’s good for the organization align!
It’s worth noting that compensation can’t be the only piece of the retention plan, but it is still worth setting it up in a way that encourages physicians to stay.
Don’t Overlook Your APP Candidates
Everything above can be applied to advanced practice providers, too — and increasingly, it has to be. The competition for APPs, particularly those with specialized experience, is tight, and when demand outpaces supply that sharply, incentives become part of the conversation for APP roles, not just physician ones.
The dollar figures are typically smaller, and the priorities may differ. APPs generally carry less educational debt than physicians, but relocation, childcare support, and schedule flexibility frequently rise to the top. The pooled, flexible approach works just as well here: find out what matters to the individual, then direct your incentive dollars there.
Present It with the Same Care You Built It
Finally, don’t let a thoughtfully built package fall flat in the delivery. Walk the candidate through the full value of what you’re offering, item by item, so they understand the total picture rather than fixating on the base number. As my colleague, Neal Waters, likes to say, you are asking the physician to invest their time with you, so present the compensation package the way a startup might pitch an investor. Walk them through what they can expect to earn. The clarity of the presentation reinforces the message that your organization is a serious, thoughtful partner.
The employers winning physician and APP candidates in this market aren’t simply outspending everyone else. They’re pooling their incentive dollars, staying flexible about how those dollars are used, and matching the package to the person in front of them. They also make sure the candidate fully understands the offer and how it benefits them. Do all of this well, and the candidate feels both valued and understood, a critical foundation on which to build the trust needed for the physician to fit, succeed, and stay.
If your team is working to strengthen its offers in a competitive market, the recruiters at Jackson Physician Search can be an invaluable resource. We understand what today’s physicians and advanced practice providers are looking for — and how to structure an offer that wins. Contact us today
