Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: 
Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Madeline Camejo, PharmD, MS
Vice President and Chief Pharmacy Officer, Baptist Health South Florida
Miami, Florida

Michael Alwan, PharmD, MS
Director of Pharmacy, University of Washington Medical Center
Seattle, Washington

Provided by ASHP  Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Supported by an educational grant from Chiesi USA LLC 3:00 – 4:00 pm ET

Relevant Financial 
Relationship Disclosure

No one in control of the content of this activity has a relevant 
financial relationship (RFR) with an ineligible company.

As defined by the Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Education definition of ineligible company. 
All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to the CE activity.

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Learning Objectives
• Describe the impact of the pharmacy technician
shortage on pharmacy department workflow and the
pharmacist’s ability to provide optimal patient care.
• Apply strategies to help the pharmacy department
partner with human resource departments to make the
pharmacy technician position more attractive.
• Analyze how professional development of pharmacy
technicians can lead to improved job satisfaction and
retention of staff.

Key Takeaways from Part 1 – March 2023
• The pharmacy technician labor market is projected to be
competitive for the foreseeable future.
• Developing structured processes to manage and communicate
staffing changes is critical.
• Strategic use of automation and centralization can alleviate
pressure on staffing.

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Tools and Strategies
• Creating Technician Ladders
• Technician Training Program
• Innovative Technician Roles
• The Case for Improving Pharmacy Technician
Compensation
• Developing Technician Leaders

Creating Technician Ladders

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Meet with your hospital leadership to gain support to be 
able to create ladders.
• It going to increase labor cost so be prepared to communicated the 
benefit for your department and the profession.
 Involve your operations and management team when you sit 
to create your ladders. 
• Collaboration will bring out good ideas and buy in 
 Be Realistic and Clear 

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
Benefits of having a pharmacy clinical ladders
 Clinical Ladders recognize and reward the progression of 
gained skills and competency.
 Gives the staff motivation and value
 Formalizes criteria and standardizes a career path
 Creates a well‐trained work force
 Good retention strategy  

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
To create a successful pharmacy technician clinical ladder, you need 
well defined criteria’s : 

• Must have different levels and advancing job profiles within the 
ladders
• Must have defined responsibilities
• Guidelines on formal advancement and specialized roles
• Defined competency versus responsibility
• Must have staff buy‐in

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Think outside the box ! You can create groups of different career 
ladders within all your pharmacy services . 
 Create simple job outline to guide you for new job descriptions 
you will need to create 
 Create Competencies table that outline the skills needed to 
function in that position 
 Develop clear guidelines for promotion into the clinical ladders.
• Helps standardizes promotions with management team and 
makes it clear to staff what is needed.

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Examples of Technician Clinical Ladders

Sample of Job Outline for Hospital Technicians

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Creating Competencies Tables

Creating Competencies Tables

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Promotional Guidelines

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Ask compensation for an excel spreadsheet of your 
current staff salaries and current grades, with min and 
max salary ranges.
 Use the spreadsheet , add an extra column and begin to 
place staff into where you think they fall in the clinical 
ladders you created.
 Group and create an avg salary for each  ladder to be 
able to compare to compensation tables they will 
create.

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Compensation Table
Pharm Sys  Pharm Sys 
233456 Mickey  Martin 50293 T34 $24.26  $30.32  $36.39 $24.26 
Specialist Specialist
124312 Michelle Mayo 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.50  Technician 1 $20.25 
232345 Diana Winters 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.44  Technician 1

234533 Laura Martinez 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $19.82  Technician 1

233423 Julio Brito 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $21.29  Technician 2 $20.83 
234221 Micheal Broiche 13420 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.75  Technician 2

343566 Emily Watson 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.22  Technician 2

451234 Andrea Hernandez 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $21.07  Technician 2

234112 Brittany Alvarez 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.21  Technician 3 $20.48 
234253 Angela Gonzalez 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $20.75  Technician 3

124235 Sabrina Lopez 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $22.17  Technician 4 $21.97 
234233 Dionne  Summers 14430 Technician H18 $16.38  $20.48  $24.57 $21.76  Technician 4

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Create your new job descriptions using the tables you created
• Should paint a picture of what the employee will be doing 
day to day, the non‐negotiable skills and training that are 
require.

Once you have completed all the documents you are ready to 
meet with HR and Compensation

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Meet with both HR and Compensation at the same 
time to present your clinical ladders
• Don’t meet with them separately !
• Be prepared and use the job outline, 
competency table and promotion guidelines. 
 By end of the meeting, they should understand 
the departments clinical ladder .
 Ask Compensation to do a market analysis in your 
area

Creating Technician Clinical Ladders
 Once compensation completes the clinical ladders 
and market analysis , meet with them to review 
salary ranges.
 Group and create an avg salary for each  ladder to 
be able to compare to compensation tables they 
created.
 You want to see where the current staff compares 
to the new pay grades.

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Sample Compensation Table

Technician Training Program

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Technician Training Programs in the community
Partner with a community or technical college. Consider a joint venture in
which the college provides the instruction, and the hospital provides
experiential rotation sites.

 Offer your site as a rotational training site and oversight  for 
their students. Develop a standardize orientation and training 
program that will benefit both the department and student.
 Pair them with a department trained mentor 
 Operations leaders meet with each of the student at their mid 
way point and check‐in. Be Engaged 

Technician Training Program 
Create a Pharmacy Technician Scholar Position with HR.
Assigned a Manager to oversee the program 
Created a Technician Scholar position with HR
Hired and on‐boarded as BHSF Employee assigned to one of our entities
Full‐time program paid $17 per hour
• Program is 600 hours and we use Pharmacy Technician University 
software by Therapeutic Research Center
oDidactic courses on‐line ‐ 160 hours
oSimulations on‐line and on‐site 100 hours
oExperiential learning 340 hours
 Retail, General Hospital, IV Admixtures

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Technician Training Program 
 Pharmacy staff were given the opportunity to apply to be a 
preceptor and interview candidates with pharmacy leadership.
 Selected preceptors go through preceptor training, including 
teaching adult learners, documentation and the value of 
mentoring.
 Set a tuition value of $3600 which is waived in turn for 2‐year work 
commitment 
• Must payback if they leave before commitment completed
 Program has strong IV training component 
• Fully certified with fingertip testing and media fill

Technician Training Program 
 Help prepare them to sit for the national technician 
certification exam 
 Opened to accept other hospital employees and transfer with 
their current salary or start at the new tech scholar rate which 
ever is higher. 
 Post internally and externally 
 Once in the program may work extra hours to support the site 
open shifts.
 Pending ASHP Accreditation in June
 19 Candidates have graduated to date

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Innovative Technician Roles

Creating New Frontiers for Technicians
• Identify functions that could be moved to a technician, centralized or 
new functions that are needed 

• Consider characteristics that may improve attractiveness of role
– Work from home
– Flexible or more predictable schedule 

• Rotation between advanced role and core technician function

• Utilize training resources to develop skills (e.g. ASHP or state 
organizations)

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Examples of Advanced Roles
• Auditor roles
– Control Substances Auditor
– Purchasing Auditor
– 340B Compliance Auditor
• Informatics/automation support
– Pharmacy Automation Specialist
– Pharmacy System Support Analysts
– Pharmacy Data Analyst
• Pharmacy Business Office
– Pharmacy Rev Cycle / Reimbursement
– Pharmacy Warehouse
– Pharmacy Business Analyst/Coordinator
– Supervisor of Pharmacy Billing
• Sterile compounding quality assurance
• Unit/service‐based technician coverage
• Pharmacy Trainer/Educator
• Purchasing or 340B technician
– Purchasing Coordinator
– 340B Program Analyst/Coordinator
• Medication access
– Prior Authorization Specialist
– Refill Authorization
– Medication Assistance Program
– Reimbursement Specialist

The Case for Improving 
Pharmacy Technician 
Compensation

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Assess the Environment
• Market evaluation
– Peer health systems
– Other health care technicians
• Understand labor cycles and opportunities for pay 
changes
• Where do your technicians fall on the pay scale?
• Don’t wait for the perfect time to ask

Compensation Options
• Signing bonus
• Retention bonus
• Pay scale adjustments
– One‐time increases 
– Increase starting point to attract new technicians
– Top end expansion for more experienced technicians

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Making the Case for Increasing Pay
• Cost of turnover
– Calculate turnover rate or vacancy rate
– Expense of OT or use of pharmacist to cover vacancies
– Cost of training shifts for new hires
• Calculate cost of outsourced work that can be 
insourced
• Incalculable loss of institutional knowledge 

Developing Technician 
Leaders

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

A Role for Technician Leaders
• Create formal position that allows technicians to 
increase leadership responsibilities
– Lead, supervisor or manager

• Incorporate technician leaders into hospital and 
departmental leadership teams

Developing Technician Leaders
• Utilize organizational training resources for 
leaders
• Include tech leaders in pertinent 
resident/student journal clubs and topic 
discussions
• Support association involvement for technician 
leaders to develop new skills and network

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Recruiting Strategies

Partnering with HR
• Identity career fairs or targeted job sites to post 
positions
– Partner with local technician programs
• Use interview event sessions through third party job 
search sites
• Evaluate incentives being used for other roles in the 
organization (e.g. referral bonus)

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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 Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention: Tools and Strategies to Address the Crisis

Practice Changes
 Discuss with colleagues the impact of the pharmacy technician shortage on
pharmacy department workflow and the pharmacist’s ability to provide
optimal patient care.
 Develop a plan to manage pharmacy workflow when technician staffing is
limited.
 Work with the human resources department to make the pharmacy technician
position more attractive.
 Collect feedback from staff on workload issues encountered when pharmacy
technician staff is limited.
 Provide resources for professional development of pharmacy technician staff.
 Discuss with hiring managers the challenges of recruiting and retaining
pharmacy technicians.

Key Takeaways
• Technician career ladders recognize technicians for
advancing their skills while providing a career pathway to
retain your team.

• Technician training programs are an accessible way to
build your pharmacy technician team.

• Increasing technician compensation is critical. The
increases may take time and come in incremental steps.
Visit the Pharmacy Technician Recruitment and Retention Resource Center available at: 
www.rxtechteam.org

© 2023 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc. All rights reserved.

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