Issue 14 - November 2003

Go for the gold!
Create a winning chiro team with this 3-step hiring process
By Michelle Geller-Vino

Chiropractic college teaches you how to diagnose, x-ray and adjust. What it doesn’t teach you is how to hire a staff who can make your practice shine.

The truth is — if you don’t have the right staff on board, you will feel like you are running in a race with 10-pound weights tied to your ankles.

The challenge is to build a winning team in a three-step process:

1. Hire right.
2. Set and track goals.
3. Train.

1 Hire right. Have you always hired “by the seat of your pants?” And have you always tried to keep overhead expenses down by hiring “cheap”?

It’s time to change your hiring methods.

When it is time to fill a vacancy, know what you need in each position — in terms of skills, knowledge, experience — and personality.

Once you decide what you need, search for the right person. Depending on where you are located and the availability of candidates, use a variety of methods to recruit: your local newspaper, Internet-based employment services (some are locally focused), placement offices of your high schools and colleges and referrals from friends, family and patients.

Consider conducting a group interview for each available position. A group interview will save you time, enable you to observe interactions with others and determine the true interest of your applicants:

• Schedule the group interview. When the applicants get to your interview site, collect their resumes and begin the interview process.

• Begin with an overview. Give an explanation of chiropractic, the general structure of your practice, your goals, your expectations and the job responsibilities. Give applicants who are not interested in what you have described the opportunity to leave.

• Consider administering personality tests. These help assess how interested applicants would fit into the position. (If you decide on giving a personality test, give it to all applicants, to avoid legal ramifications.)

• Conduct individual interviews. Assess skills, knowledge, experience and fit. At that time, discuss salary, incentives and other compensation.

• Invite the candidate for a preview. Before you make a job offer, ask the candidate to spend a few hours at your busiest time so he or she can observe the pace and demands of the practice. Give the other team members the opportunity to meet and talk with the candidate. Encourage your employees — and the candidate — to discuss the work environment and its challenges.

• Make a good offer. Finally, when you decide on a candidate, make an offer commensurate with the individual’s skills, knowledge and experience. Be flexible and don’t let a few cents per hour keep you from hiring a person who may become a long-term teammate.

2 Set and track goals. Now that you have each position filled with the proper personality, it is time to get them to assist you in the fulfillment of your dream. If your team members do not know the goals, they can’t help you reach them. Share your practice goals with all of your staff members and expect them to Be able to recite the office goals from memory. Many doctors place a card highlighting the office goals by each work station.

Base goals on weekly and monthly patient volume, collections, services, patient visitation average (PVA), recall percentage, referrals and/or new patient volume. Consider using profit sharing and incentives to encourage staff members to reach their goals:

• Profit sharing. After the person has hit a milestone (six months or one year,) discuss the potential for profit sharing: If you profit, then the staff shares in a portion of those profits. Develop a formula for this share, based on overall profitability of the practice, and stick to it.

• Incentives. Incentives should be linked directly to the staff member’s position. For example: The insurance person can earn a bonus on an increase in insurance collections. The front-desk CA can earn a bonus on volume on over-the-counter collections. The therapist or floor CA can earn a bonus on volume or re-evaluations.

3 Train. Chiropractic is “front-loaded.” When a new patient enters your office, you show videos, give a report of findings and offer a healthcare class, all with the goal of educating this patient to life-long chiropractic care.

Once the patient has been adjusted several times, the visits get shorter, the conversation switches to the weather and care becomes more routine.

Much the same process happens when you hire a new employee. You give her some orientation to your office, train the individual on the phone system and practice-management software and provide her with some information on chiropractic.

Then — nothing.

A dream staff requires ongoing training. You can provide this through videos, books, tapes, role-playing sessions, weekly team meetings and off-site seminars.

• Prepare a training outline. Training should be related to the position description. Identify performance expectations and the skills and knowledge that are needed to achieve each expectation.

Train the employee to remove gaps between your expectations and his or her skills and knowledge to achieve that expectation.

• Check progress. One way to check skills is to make an occasional anonymous phone call to test the way your team is handling challenges. You will get a great education yourself when you hear what your patients hear.

• Conduct weekly team meetings. Use team meetings to train staff to handle challenges that come up during the week. Applaud the behaviors that you are looking for and do not be afraid to reward. Avoid singling out any one staff member for negative reasons.

In your weekly team meeting, review a topic — for example, on chiropractic philosophy, scripting or office procedure — for additional training.

Just as patient education should be continuous, so should staff training.

Hiring right, setting and tracking goals and training are all equally important. They are the ingredients that create the practice of your dreams.

Michelle Geller-Vino is the president of MGV Marketing, Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla. She consults with chiropractors to increase their community visibility and her specialty is new patient acquisition. Ms. Geller-Vino can be reached at 561-392-5206 or through the company’s website at www.mgvmarketing.com