Blog # 5 -Why should I invest in a graduate?
Many of you I am sure have hired a graduate to take up a position because there is an overflow of clients or demand that needs to be met. You hire a graduate and then you find those clients are either not coming back or your graduate has an empty appointment book........
When you review the monthly KPI's and financial data you see that it takes them nearly 6-12 months to start making a profit in your business. Frustrated yet?
Ever heard of the saying 'You only get out, what you put in'. This is true to the word. By investing time, experience, clinical knowledge and business skills into your graduate you will be surprised the effect it has on their revenue making for your business. Many of you will be hiring graduates in your business due to:
1. Senior clincians are hard to find and often come with their own way of treating that may not be in the culture of your practice.
2. Graduates are keen to learn and are enthusiastic and you can mould them to be what your practice needs.
If you are concerned about investing in your graduate, but you are hiring them, then you should be concerned about your business profitability to prop up a member of staff that is under performing for up to 12 months.
What you should be investing in is a program that transcends your graduates and becomes an attraction tool for other quality graduate applicants wanting to be apart of your business for the mentoring and development program they will be exposed to. As business owners we often are prepared to pay a professional development fund to send our graduates off to clinical courses that they will get the certificate for and take on to their next job, but perhaps we need to invest in our graduates in-house in the early stages of their careers to create private practitioners.
The detrimental effects of not having a structured, graduate development program with 1:1 caseload mentoring is:
A graduate that is not supported.......
Will doubt their abilities and often early discharge clients with little treatment effectiveness. Only for the client to feel unsatisfied with this service and seek treatment elsewhere.
A graduate that is not monitored or made accountable in the business............
Will not learn or develop the business knowledge that is vital to being a private practitioner. Accountability that they contribute to the bottom line in your business is essential for motivation and motivation is only driven by a structured implemented plan of action.
What will the outcome be if I invest in a graduate......
Imagine having a graduate that is profitable at the 3 month mark and not 12 months. This is the outcomes that are achieved with structured, specific mentoring for graduates in private practice. This profitability is a reflection of customer satisfaction to return for appointments, confidence in their clinical skills to be treatment effective. Even imagine you as the business owner may now be able to have some time off in your business and get your work/life balance under control.
Investing in a graduate will also decrease your staff turnover rate as the support and development you offer your graduate will be reciprocated in loyalty and retention because they are enhancing their professional growth. By investing in your graduate you will make it very hard for them to want to leave and find the same support and development elsewhere.
By not investing in a graduate, these are the common complaints private practice owners experience:
- High staff turnover
- Lack of revenue in the business
- An empty appointment book for a graduate
- A graduate that has not developed advanced clinical reasoning
- You as the business owner take up the caseload of the graduate for fear of losing customers.
Richard Branson has created a culture at Virgin that everyone wants to be apart of and it stems from his valuable comments that we should take on board in our own businesses to retain graduates of the new generation that are hungry for mentoring in their chosen careers.
