Site operations

Why research coordinators leave, and how sites keep them

By TrialNotice · Updated
Clinical research coordinator in a rust sweater smiling on a phone call by an office window with autumn trees outside
Short answerResearch coordinators leave mainly for pay and career growth: SCRS reports site turnover of 35% to 61% a year, with 85% of departing staff going to sponsors and CROs, where pay is higher. Coordinators average about $55,000, while clinical research associates earn a median near $78,000. Sites keep coordinators with clear career paths, competitive pay, protected time, and less unpaid chasing work.

How big is the turnover problem?

  • Patient facing staff turnover at sites reached 35% to 61% a year, versus a historical 10% to 37% (SCRS).
  • 85% of departing staff went to sponsors and CROs (SCRS).
  • A site can take 6 to 12 months to get a study back on track after losing staff (SCRS).
  • There is some improvement: at the 2025 SCRS summit, half of sites reported they had been able to grow their workforce (Bourne Partners, citing SCRS).

Why do coordinators leave?

  1. Pay. 42% of sites struggle with salary competition (Clinical Leader). Coordinators average about $55,000, ranging from roughly $41,000 to $70,000 (Payscale), while clinical research associates, the typical sponsor and CRO role, earn a median near $78,000 (Augusta University, citing Payscale).
  2. Career progression. 36% of sites struggle to offer it (Clinical Leader).
  3. Workload. Training alone averages 17.5 hours per study per month (SCRS), on top of visits, data entry, regulatory work, and recruitment.

What does turnover cost?

Beyond hiring and training, the larger cost is study disruption: 6 to 12 months to recover (SCRS). Recruitment suffers most, because patient relationships and referring office contacts often live in one coordinator's head and leave with them.

What keeps coordinators?

  1. A visible career ladder: coordinator I, II, senior, lead, manager, with defined skills for each step.
  2. Pay reviewed against the market every year, not only when someone resigns.
  3. Protected time for data and regulatory work.
  4. Cross training so no one is the single point of failure; sites at SCRS favored staff who can pivot across screening, finance, and enrollment (Bourne Partners).
  5. Less chasing. Cold calling for patients is some of the most draining, least rewarding work a coordinator does.

Where does a referral system help?

When physician outreach runs as a system, with lists, mailings, follow up, and tracking handled outside the coordinator's day, the coordinator's job shifts from finding patients to screening the ones who arrive. Referral relationships also stay with the site when people change jobs.

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TrialNotice builds a physician referral pipeline around one active study. We identify relevant local physicians within driving distance of your site, send study aligned direct mail, follow up by email and LinkedIn, track engagement with recipient level QR codes, and route warm responses into your site team's workflow.

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Sources

  1. Society for Clinical Research Sites, Workforce Challenges at Clinical Research Sites
  2. Clinical Leader, "Site Staffing On The Upswing, But Still A Challenge"
  3. Payscale, Average Clinical Research Coordinator Salary (2026)
  4. Augusta University, "Clinical Research Coordinator: Salary, Job Description and Requirements" (citing Payscale)
  5. Bourne Partners, "Update on the Fundamentals of Clinical Trial Sites" (SCRS Global Site Solutions Summit takeaways, October 2025)
  6. Society for Clinical Research Sites, "Reducing Site Training Hours: A Call to Action"

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