Our organization also doesn't define experience in exact years, but it would be unlikely to have the relevant experiences in less than five to ten years of management. You have to love reading, writing, number-crunching, abstract concepts, coaching people and finding their strengths and potentials. To manage professionals, usually you just need to have at least the equivalent to their standing, and it doesn't hurt to have a little more. My staff are members of a public-service union but as management, I am not. I am a member of the professional engineering associations and three ergonomics-related professional societies.
Benefits are comprehensive.
As this is Ontario, there is a full health care insurance program for every resident anyway, but the job benefits include dental plan, prescription drugs and other extended health care, as well as group life, pension and so forth. Transfer depends on how much you identify with the specific technical aspects of the department and how much you see yourself as a management generalist. Promotion is also possible, depending of course on the people who have the positions up the ladder and whether they move along. Within the hospital there was much less transferring. I do have the opportunity to research in this position but the areas of research are determined by organizational priorities, instead of being up to the researcher as they are for university professors.