This article is aimed at doctors applying for jobs in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and explains the remuneration offered by employers to consultant physicians in all medical specialties including family medicine (general practice)in both public and private sectors.

Define Your Goals and Negotiation Outcomes

Before attending an interview or attempting to negotiate a job offer, each physician should have sound objectives and outcomes in mind and commence discussions in basic agreement with the employer.

Ideally one should start with the concepts of a good offer and an acceptable offer (less than ideal but nevertheless acceptable) and red lines at which the deal becomes untenable and negotiations are discontinued. If these are not formulated in advance, and articulated with clarity, many doctors will drift unwittingly into poor contracts and put themselves at the mercy of the employer's discretion to amend the terms later on.

Some questions to consider:

1. What is the annual or total income you seek for the duration of the contract?
2. At what income level does the contract become untenable?
3. Is an incentive scheme important to you?
4. Are you content with a minimum guaranteed incentive payment or do you want the full incentive payment due?
5. Do you require a transparent incentive policy and formula for its calculation with variable percentages according to revenue level?
6. Do you wish to work in a specific hospital or clinic or city or are you willing to be located to the employer's choice of hospital or city?

These are some of the important pre-conditions to consider before entering into negotiations.

Incorporation of Agreed Terms in the Employment Contract and Job Offer

Generous verbal or written assurances given during the recruitment process, including at interview, cannot be relied upon if not incorporated into the terms of the job offer and the employment contract. This is important. Do not believe promises of vast fee revenues and generous revenue/ profit shares. Unless the details are set out in a policy and detailed in your job offer and employment contract, you will have no right to claim these, and it will be the employer's choice to award them or not. And more often than not, you will not receive them.

Remember that once in Saudi Arabia, you have rights to claim only the terms set out in your job offer and employment contract. Accordingly, it is essential to ensure that these are correct before signing the job offer and employment contract documents.

The Monthly Salary: Basic and "Professional / Speciality Allowance"

Most job offers define salary as a monthly rather than annual rate with 12 payments per year. The salary should be a single figure, termed "basic salary". For consultant positions this is in the range of Saudi Arabian Riyals SAR 45,000 - 90,000 per month depending upon the speciality and level of seniority of the physician as well as the employer. 

The basic salary is an important figure because it is the value upon which other benefits are calculated, especially the end of contract award which is mandated by the Saudi Labour Laws. This is a sum of 2-4 weeks salary paid for each year of contract completed.

Some private hospitals split the basic monthly salary into two components - "basic salary" and "speciality or professional allowance", with the basic salary falling well below the national average at just SAR 30000 - 35,000 per month. As the total salary monthly paid is the same, many doctors do not recognise the negative implications this has upon the overall value of an employment contract.

Example

The example below compares the end of service award (bonus) paid at a rate of 4 weeks' salary per year worked at the end of a three year contract by two hospitals paying the same total monthly salary ie SAR 90,000.

Hospital A pays a basic salary of SAR 90000 whilst hospital B pays a basic salary of SAR 30,000 making up the total with a "speciality allowance" which does not count towards the end of service award. At the end of three years, the final award payment from hospital B is just SAR 90,000 reflecting a loss of SAR 180000 ie two month's earnings.

Incentive Schemes

Incentive schemes are a feature of the revenue / profit generating private healthcare sector intended to motivate high performers with a share of revenue generated by the individual physician's practice. Fees are paid for each item of service by patients or insurance companies with interventional procedures generating the highest fee rates. Surgeons, particularly orthopaedic and plastic surgeons, usually generate the highest revenues.

An incentive scheme should be transparent and contain the following elements set out in a formal policy and illustrated with an excel spreadsheet with formula.

• basic revenue level at which the incentive scheme commences
• fee per item of service
• target revenue per physician
• minimal accepted revenue per physician
• costs of practice - salary, administrative costs, allowances
• percentage of revenue due to physician, often with a sliding scale increasing according to revenue levels.

This information should be requested and studied before a job offer and employment contract are signed, and if necessary, renegotiated to secure more advantageous terms. The agreed terms should then be set out in the job offer and employment contract in detail. If not done, the incentive scheme will likely not be paid.

During negotiations, you need to ascertain the performance targets you need to meet to remain employed and evaluate the feasibility of these targets.

Benefits

Employee benefits are non-cash provisions within the reward package, including paid holidays and cost of living subsidies such as accommodation allowances, transport and healthcare insurance. The education allowance paid by some, but certainly not all employers in Saudi Arabia, is paid directly to accredited schools within the Kingdom as a contribution to the tuition fees. It is restricted to 2-3 children under the age of 18 and over the age of 6.

ELIGIBILITY FOR BENEFITS

Contract Status: family or single status

Authorised Dependents: Spouse and 2-3 children under the age of 18 (non married partners, parents and extended family members are not authorised). Additional children may live in Saudi Arabia but are not eligible for benefits such as travel, healthcare and education)

Working Hours: 40-48 per week (5 or 6 days)

BENEFITS

PAID LEAVE

Annual Public Holiday: 10-14 calendar days

Annual Vacation: 21-40 calendar days

Professional Leave: 7-14 days but may be eligible for this only after completion of probation or a specified length of service.

ACCOMMODATION

Housing: Furnished family accommodation with all basic necessities and home appliances or an allowance to cover rent.

TRANSPORT (LOCAL)

Transportation: employee travel from home to work

HEALTHCARE

Health Care: provided to Employee and authorised dependents

TRAVEL

Designated Airport: Point of Hire - Economy or business class tickets at start and end of contract.

Leave Air Travel: the employer will provide economy / business class round trip air tickets, for the employee and authorised dependents, from the employee's assigned port in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the Designated Airport. Eligibility is subject to completion of probation and in some cases after a defined period of service, often 12 months. In some cases there are clawbacks ( see below).

CHILD EDUCATION ALLOWANCE

Child Education Assistance: a sum of SAR 16,000 - 20,000 paid per annum per authorised child between 6-18 years of age.

Recoupment of Expenses by Employer

Job offers and contracts should be ready carefully for terms which state that allowances, benefits or other costs and expenses are payable to the employer in the event that the employee does not complete the full term of the employment contract and leaves early.

This clause is common: "Failure to complete the subsequent period of service will result in recoupment by the Employer of all ticketing and travel cost paid" and indicates that air travel paid for vacation leave will be deducted from money owed by the employer (salary) to the employee if the doctor leaves employment early.

Similar clauses exist for the recoupment of travel, visa, professional licensing and recruitment expenses incurred by the employer and these can add up to substantial amounts. Before signing an agreement it is wise to negotiate the removal of these clauses or a cap on the sums which can be recouped. If that is not possible, estimate the potential costs of quitting early and take steps to mitigate them.

if you are looking for medical jobs in Saudi Arabia, our recruiters will be happy to guide your job search. Please register your CV and contact us to discuss your interest.