Should You Know Your Travel Nursing Pay Before Submission?

Many travel nurses wonder whether or not they should negotiate a travel nursing pay package prior to being submitted by their agency for an assignment. My experience indicates that the vast majority of travelers believe that pay should indeed be negotiated prior to submission. However, standing firm on this requirement can diminish a travel nurse’s options and negotiating power.

Reasons Travel Nurses Give for Wanting to Know Pay First

I recently came across a social media conversation in which a travelers asked if they should obtain the rate of pay before being submitted. 94% of the 32 respondents said yes, many of them offering emphatic responses. Two primary reasons were offered.

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First, some travel nurses cited that they didn’t want to waste their time with interviews and/or paperwork for low paying assignments. Second, some travel nurses cited that they didn’t want to burn bridges by declining offers due to low pay. While these may seem like legitimate concerns, we’ll explain why they are rarely of any consequence.

First, it’s important to recount that landing travel nursing jobs is still highly competitive in the current job market. Most jobs are filled within 2 weeks of opening. The best jobs can be closed to new submissions within an hour. This is true of jobs for low demand specialties like Medical Surgical Nursing as well. In any case, delays in submitting for a travel assignment diminish a candidate’s chances at landing the assignment. While this reality is pronounced in the current job market, it is nonetheless true for any job market. Assignments have a low “time to fill.”

Is it a waste of time to be submitted first?

With that in mind, let’s consider the concern regarding wasting time on interviews. There’s typically a very strong chance that submitting your profile will not result in an interview. There are typically a large number of candidates submitted for every assignment. In fact, agencies usually track their recruiters’ submissions as a “Key Performance Indicator.” In this regard, the agency typically maintains a submission to interview ratio.

For example, the agency may maintain that for every 5 submissions, they can expect 1 interview. 5 to 1 is in fact a common ratio. So, from the agency’s perspective, there’s a 20% chance that travel nurses receive an interview. Therefore, there’s actually a very minimal chance that your time will be wasted.

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Admittedly, 20% is an average. So it’s true that this number will be higher for less desirable assignments. But that also means that it will be lower for more desirable assignments. And again, delays can diminish a your chances of landing the best jobs because the competition might get there first.

Now let’s consider the concern regarding wasting time on paperwork. Agencies need a submission profile in order to submit a candidate for an assignment. A submission profile is comprised of an application, a skills checklist, and references. It typically takes a candidate at least a day or two to complete the paperwork. Then, the agency must check the references prior to submitting the candidate for the assignment. Therefore, it can take days to weeks for an agency to complete a submission profile. As a result, you should not rely on landing jobs with an agency unless your submission profile is already complete. However, you can gain an edge and reduce the amount of paperwork you complete by taking control of your own submission profile with BluePipes. Either way, paperwork should not be a concern when it comes to knowing the pay for a particular assignment prior to being submitted.

Will you burn bridges if you reject an offer?

In addition to concerns about wasted time, travel nurses also express concern about burning bridges when they decline offers. Having completed thousands of submissions during my time as a recruiter, I can assure you that this is very rarely an issue. Job candidates decline job offers all the time, and travel nurses are no different.

In fact, given the nature of the industry, travelers are expected to decline offers more frequently than permanent candidates. There isn’t a blacklist for travelers who have declined one offer. If it happens repeatedly, then the unit manager and/or hospital staffing office may take note. But this isn’t going to happen as both you and your recruiter will know beforehand that this isn’t the right facility for you.

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Additionally, if you decline an offer because the pay is too low, then it’s a near certainty that you won’t be accepting an assignment there in the future. Hospitals with low bill rates are not in the habit of dramatically increasing those rates at any time. However, you may be concerned about potential permanent employment in the future. In this case, the potential to interview even without knowing the pay rate should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a risk.

You can actually build a bridge as opposed to burning one by taking the appropriate steps during the interview. Let the nurse manager know that you’re interested in their facility. Express your gratitude for the interview. And politely let them know that not all of the details have been worked out with your agency yet, and they’ll hear from you as soon as they are. If the nurse manager inquires what details aren’t worked out, then let them know there are issues related to housing and travel costs that you still need to discuss with the agency. This is very common as housing is always a difficult issue for agencies to deal with. The facility will certainly understand.

Your Strength in Travel Nursing Pay Negotiations

Perhaps most importantly, working out the pay details first is a disadvantage for your bargaining position. There are two reasons for this. First, experienced recruiters will take advantage of the opportunity to determine your pay sweet spot for accepting assignments. Remember, recruiting is a sales job. Recruiters derive a significant percentage of their income from commissions. Therefore, the higher the profit margin they can work out on a deal, the more they get paid.

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So crafty recruiters will determine what you’re willing to work for and always offer that rate regardless of the bill rate for the job in question. Eventually, they’ll get you on an assignment where they’re raking a 25%-35% margin. Now, you may contend that recruiters are able to do this either way. But that’s where the second reason that pre-negotiated pay rates are a disadvantage comes in to play.

Recruiters and agencies are much more likely to acquiesce to your compensation demands when an offer is on the table as opposed to before the submission. Before the submission, they have little vested interest. They know that there is only a small chance that you’ll even get the interview. When an offer has been made, they are chomping at the bit to get the deal closed. They have invested some time and energy at that point. They can taste the revenue it’s almost so close! Moreover, they want to deliver for their client facility. The dirty secret is that the facility more often holds the agency accountable for a job offer declination than they do the travel nurse. This all means that you gain an advantage in the pay negotiations after the offer has been made.

There is one final problem with getting the pay for an assignment prior to submission. The quoted rate is often unreliable. The recruiter is well aware that they need to get your profile submitted quickly. However, putting together an accurate pay package can be very time consuming. And at best they’re only going to be able to obtain an estimate on housing costs. This is why you’ll see so many stories of pay packages being changed after the fact.

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Some travelers contend that they get their pay quotes sent to them via email in order to hold the agency accountable. This may work in some instances, but an agency is not going to lose massive sums of money on a deal, so you may often find yourself right back at square one, declining an offer because of low pay.

What’s the Best Approach to Negotiating Travel Nursing Pay?

When approaching pay negotiations, you should choose the approach that you’re most comfortable with. However, keep in mind that delays in the submission process can diminish your chances of landing an assignment. In this regard, you should consider the potential demand for your expertise and the health of the travel job market in general. If you’re an RNFA or a CVICU nurse with years of nursing and travel nursing experience, then there maybe a longer lead time for the jobs you’re applying for. But if you’re a Med/Surg, TELE, or ICU nurse, then you you can count on the market being more competitive. In any case, you can improve your negotiating position by starting negotiations after the offer has been made. In the long run, you maybe able to increase your annual pay by as much as 5%-10%.