TAMPA, Fla. — Sunstar Paramedics is giving a $35,000 bonus for paramedics who stay with the company for five years.
The new program is intended to attract qualified paramedics and reduce turnover, reported the Tampa Bay Business Journal.
The company is using the cash incentive to overcome a local and national shortage of qualified paramedics.
“We were brainstorming on how to retain people [and came] up with a number to keep people with the organization, especially with increasingly younger workforces,” said Mark Postma, Sunstar Paramedics COO. “We had to adjust to see what meets their needs and people don’t look for a pension but are looking for something, and we thought this might be a hit with group we’re looking at.”
The majority of Sunstar’s 550 employees have opted into the bonus program and the company has a goal to hire more than 50 medics in the coming months.
“We almost doubled the number of applicants we are trying to get in,” Postma said. “There has been a national retraction of jobs in emergency medical services coming out of the recession, and we’ve seen an 8 percent to 10 percent increase in turnover.”
Sunstar is the Pinellas County 911 contractor, responding to more than 500 calls a day.