Note from the Associate Editorial Director: Use the new CDI Salary Survey report to advance professionally

by Linnea Archibald

As you may have seen, ACDIS published its 2022 CDI Salary Survey report at the beginning of the week. As a self-proclaimed data nerd, I love the Salary Survey. The data it offers serves as the basis for much of our editorial direction over the course of the year (for an example of this, check out yesterday’s ACDIS Podcast episode focused on remote work!). The survey data isn’t just helpful to us on the ACDIS team, however. It can also help you, our ACDIS members, make strides in your own professional development.

Of course, when you’re confronted with the massive amount of data in the Salary Survey, it can be difficult to digest and apply it to your specific needs. With 46 charts and tables of data included in the new report, it can be a challenge to narrow in on the information that will be helpful to you. While I highly suggest reading the full report too, I wanted to offer some advice for those looking to grow their careers in specific ways.

Let’s start with those of you who are looking to advocate for a higher salary. Naturally, the Salary Survey feels like a great starting place for you, but you still need to focus your attention on the information specifically beneficial to your skill level and background. When putting together your proposal, start by looking at the average salary ranges that correspond to the following:

• Those with similar job titles to you (pp. 2-3 and corresponding figures)
• Those with similar years of experience, certifications, and educational background (pp. 3-7 and corresponding figures)
• Those who live and work in similar geographical regions to you (p. 12 and corresponding figures)

These ranges will give you a good idea of what salary range you could be looking at. Then, submit your proposal to your leadership with the data to back it up.

If you’re looking to advance by stepping into a leadership or more specialized role (e.g., educator, auditor, etc.), the data most beneficial will be slightly different than my last example. Take a look at the data surrounding job title stratification (pp. 2-3 and corresponding figures) and that surrounding the prevalence of promotions (pp. 7-8 and corresponding figures).

The Salary Survey also holds helpful information for those in leadership looking to expand their staffing this year. CDI teams are increasingly asked to do more and show greater results for their organization, often without additional resources. When building a proposal for additional staff positions, combine information specific to your organization (e.g., number of reviews conducted, current financial and quality outcomes, potential missed opportunities due to short staffing) with benchmarking data surrounding bed count to staffing numbers and organization type and staffing numbers (pp. 8-10 and corresponding figures).

If your team is remote or looking to hire completely remote employees (perhaps from outside your immediate geographic area) this year, there’s data in this report for you too. For the first time, we included several questions on the survey about remote work, its connection to compensation, and the increasingly prevalent “systemwide” approach to CDI. That data can be found on pp. 10-11 (and the corresponding figures). Paired with the data about hiring plans in 2023 (see pp. 11-12 and the corresponding figures), you should be able to build a compelling case and understand the competitiveness of the market.

I hope that this year’s Salary Survey report helps you advance your career in 2023, but I also hope my advice emboldens you to leverage the other ACDIS data we have available to build your cases for future projects and personal professional development. We don’t want you to read the reports once and move on; we want this information to serve you and benefit your careers and organizations in the long run. That’s why we conduct these surveys, publish reports, and run ACDIS website polls.

Of course, if there’s a specific piece of information or data that would be beneficial to you, we encourage you to reach out and tell us. We’d love to help you gather data or leverage the data we already have available on the site to help you and your programs grow.

Editor’s Note: Archibald is the associate editorial director for ACDIS. Contact her at larchibald@acdis.org.