How to hire someone who won’t just leave and take patients with them
“Who is to say a potential hire wouldn’t just open their own practice next door after working for me?”
If you’ve ever thought this, you’re not alone. You’ve worked hard and gotten to this point in your practice where you are successful and have a thriving practice. But you are feeling spread thin — even staying late to fit people in. You’re at a point where hiring someone will allow you to have more time back in your life and help more people than you can just by yourself.
But the fear is real: one concern you have is that you hire & train someone, they work for you, and then they open up a practice somewhere else.
3 Reasons to Consider Hiring Even Despite This Concern:
Reason #1: If you let this concern hold you back, you’ll limit your impact.
You may not feel the pain of it today, but as you get busier, you’ll likely find yourself either getting more burnt out or having to turn patients down. That doesn’t help you nor others, especially when more people could be benefiting from your practice. If you stay in this “just me” mode for too long, you’ll hit a ceiling.
What if hiring was actually the key to helping twice as many people…while giving you your evenings back? Or even if you love to work, what if it allowed you to have more flexibility and freedom to take time off the rest, vacation, or spend more time with your kids/family?
Reason #2: We can’t control whether someone will leave or open up their own practices, but we can influence our systems and culture.
Here’s the truth: even big companies can’t stop turnover. What do most Fortune 500 companies do that we as holistic health practitioners can learn from? They make sure they have systems in place that allow someone new coming in to be trainable & catch on.
They also create a culture that makes people want to stay. Just as someone may want to either leave or not be a fit for your practice, there are people out there who will love what you’ve created and would want to be a part of it.
How you can you create a work environment in your clinic so that someone would want to be a part of it and stay?
This starts with 2 key shifts:
1) Trainability systems: Create repeatable processes so you’re not reinventing the wheel every time you hire>
2) Team-based culture: Build an environment where both staff and patients feel connected to the practice — not just one particular provider.
One possibility of creating culture that decreases the impact of someone leaving and opening up a practice somewhere else is creating culture so that patients don’t carry expectations of being tied to see one provider.
I know of a very successful acupuncturist with several acupuncturists in his practice. He decided to create the culture of patients expecting to see different acupuncturists. His philosophy is that it’s more helpful to the patient to have a team-based approach. This also decreases the issue of scheduling when a patient is wanting to come in but a particular acupuncturist is not available then.
You may think, “but a patient has a relationship with one provider and they will ask for that provider.”
I go to a chiropractic clinic where the culture is such that either of the 2 chiropractors will see you. Although I have only seen one chiropractor simply because of the schedule I’ve had, it’s interesting that because of the way the admin staff have prepped me for that, I’m not bent out of shape on the thought of not seeing that chiropractor. I trust in the skills of the other chiropractor.
How is your clinic communicating the credibility of your other practitioners? Are you helping your patients feel confident in seeing your associates, or do you secretly like the idea of people just asking for you?
Reason #3: Let’s say that someone works for you and does open up somewhere else. So what if they open up elsewhere?
There are enough people in your area to go around.
There are some people who will prefer to see you. There are some people who will be drawn to going somewhere else.
When you come from the space of abundance, you will feel limitless instead of feeling lack 🙂
Protect Yourself
Of course, being abundant doesn’t mean being naive. When you’re hiring, put in place an agreement that supports decreasing the chance of an associate leaving with your patients without you being compensated. Have a non-solicitation clause in the agreement that your associate can’t solicit your existing patients. Also, if your associate does open up their own practice down the street and ends up taking your patients, there is a financial compensation clause where if patients do transfer after the associate leaves, you’re compensated for the loss in your business. This financial agreement would be entered into before they become an associate in your practice.
That way, expectations are clear and everyone feels respected.
Ready to Hire the Right Person? (Not Just Anyone)?
The next thing you need is to have a way of attracting and finding the right hire for your practice – someone who aligns with your values, fits your clinic culture, and helps you grow faster without adding more work on your plate.
Hop on the FREE Masterclass that will help in your hiring process, so you can focus on doing what you love without burning yourself out. Register Now:
“How to Find the Right Hire + Build the Right Team to Grow Your Practice Faster” 🚀
You will come away with sample questions to ask in the interview process that most holistic health practitioners don’t think to ask, which will help you screen for the right candidate. Plus, learn behind-the-scenes secrets of what’s working now in this job market. We’ll also get into how to spot red flags early — and hire people who stay. It will help you find the right person to help you grow your practice.
You’ll hear things that you haven’t heard of before. Afterall, one of my businesses is a recruiting business that we grew to 7 figures in less than 5 years, so we know a thing or two about recruiting.
Click here to access the FREE Masterclass now and start freeing up your time!
Or if you’re ready for the full system,
Get the 4 Weeks to a New Hire system here.
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