Why are so many service engineers willing to take a pay cut?

It might surprise you to find out that 19% of service engineers in the diagnostics space are willing to take a pay cut when moving jobs if it means securing the right role.

This result really stands out as being unusually high – service engineers are clearly far less driven by money than other professionals in the diagnostics market!

So why do so many service engineers say they’d be happy to take a pay cut for the right role?

The products are key

When we looked at motivators to move for service engineers in the Diagnostics space, products and equipment came in as the second most important factor.

Engineers want to be excited and challenged by the products they are working on. In a market that is full of innovation and cutting-edge technology, engineers may feel the desire to jump ship if they are working on technology that begins to feel outdated or superseded.

You can find out more about these motivators in our insight report that you can download here!

Service engineers have been known to willingly take a £5,000 pay cut to work on the latest release from a well-established brand – they often value the content of their day to day role and the challenges of working with such high-tech equipment over extra money.

Speaking of which…

They want to be challenged

Engineers in the diagnostics market place the most value on progression in their job roles, far over remuneration. No one wants to feel stagnant in their role, particularly when there’s so many exciting developments going on in the market.

When seeking a new challenge, service engineers will often be happy to take a pay cut to secure a role that has them working on more challenging projects.

The nature of the market

The technology in the diagnostics space is genuinely life changing – whether it’s new releases in imaging, or the latest in cancer care.

A lot of the time the big names in the market are at the forefront of these technologies, and the pull of working with equipment that has such an impact on the patient’s lives can be more than enough to warrant a pay cut particularly in less money-driven engineers.

A lot of engineers may also have years of experience and will have reached a certain pay level – they may well be more inclined to move on to challenge themselves rather than for extra pay.

A balancing act

Remunerating service engineers is a bit of a balancing act. When you’re one of the big companies in the space with market-leading technologies, you can attract top talent even if it means some of them take a pay cut to come to you.

It can be trickier for smaller companies or third-party service providers. In these cases, remuneration packages will often be higher to incentivise top talent to work for them. The equipment is still highly-technical but may be slightly less attractive, but for those service engineers that are more financially-minded, this cash injection is often enough to secure them.

On the other hand, whilst the higher pay may be an initial attraction to these companies, some service engineers just really want to work on the latest tech and eventually these people will move on, often taking a pay cut to do so.

You can find out more about UK remuneration levels for diagnostics service engineers by downloading our free report here!

Some do want an uplift…

It’s worth noting that not all service engineers are willing to take a pay cut. Those who are looking to make some more money by moving roles generally look for between 1% and 10% in uplift on their current salary.

Interested in more?

If you want to find out more about desired salary uplift for service engineers in the diagnostics space, alongside additional salary and motivators to move insight, download our UK Diagnostics Service Engineers Report 2018 here!