Resource Spotlight: Guidelines: Incentives for Health Professionals
for Health Professionals
The growing gap between the supply of health care professionals and the demand for their services are recognized as a key issue for health and development worldwide. Policy-makers, planners and managers continue to seek effective means to recruit and retain staff. One way to achieve this is to develop and implement effective incentive schemes.
An effective workforce strategy will address the three core challenges of improving recruitment, improving the performance of the existing workforce, and slowing the rate at which workers leave the health workforce. Incentives can play a role in all these areas, providing a means by which health systems can attract and retain essential and highly sought-after health care professionals. Effective incentive schemes also help build a better motivated, more satisfied and better performing workforce.
This paper provides an overview of the use of incentives for health care professionals. It describes some of the different approaches taken and presents characteristics shared by effective incentive schemes. The paper also suggests some approaches to their development and implementation. It is available in English, French and Spanish. [Adapted from author]
View this resource.
The HRH Global Resource Center has other resources on this topic including:
- Health Worker Motivation in Africa: the Role of Non-Financial Incentives and Human Resource Management Tools
- Review of Non-Financial Incentives for Health Worker Retention in East and Southern Africa
- Financial Incentives, Healthcare Providers and Quality Improvements: a Review of the Evidence
For additional resources on this topic, visit the Incentives subject category.
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