Building Out Your Team

Welcome to Pelby biz podcast. I'm Dr. Kelly Alhui. I have grown and established brick and mortar practice in Northern Virginia called Ortho Pelvic Physical Therapy and also founded Pelvibiz, which is an online business consulting company that helps healthcare providers make more money and be healthy while doing it, especially in the pelvic health realm. And let's get into today's episode.

Today I'm going to talk about the last nine months. 2023 has been an interesting, interesting time and over the last nine months I have had 21 people come and go in both companies and every single change that was made was for the better, even at the time if I didn't think so. So there's many different people that kind of moved in and out. Therapists, managers, admins. I hired a coo, so a chief operating officer, hired many social media people, podcast people, tech help, software help. I mean, you name it, hired it. Over the last nine months, 21 people have come and gone in and out of both companies and it has been a whirlwind. So when it comes to hiring, firing, what to look for, what I've kind of learned, I'm going to share that today on things that I have learned throughout the process that maybe I wasn't as adverse to compared to when you are constantly getting the reps in basically like every other week it felt like, okay, so when you're constantly getting those reps, it will teach you quickly on the do's and don'ts of hiring and letting go and all the different things. So here's the biggest thing that I learned is number one, if you don't have an HR team, how to actually post an ad. And when you post an ad, I'll just start there first. When you post an ad, truly think about before you post it and copy and paste it from someone else's post or whatever else, truly think about what that position needs. And even if you've posted this job post before, maybe that position has changed. So just be mindful of that that maybe I had an ad out two years ago for the same position and instead of just copying and pasting it, really deep dive into what truly does that position need. Because the company changes, you change, your needs change, the company needs change. So each position that you put out an ad, number one, I would carefully think about what is the purpose of this position and if I were to hire for this position, what return basically on the investment, AKA a person will you be getting in return? Is it your time? Is it A dollar amount? Is it more organization? What are you going to be getting when you make an investment in a human being? And by the way, they're the best investments that you can make. It's just what is, what is going to be the outcome for if you hire this person? What is it going to bring to the company? I think that's massively important. Number one is just writing the ad correctly and it doesn't have to be perfect. All I do is put bullet points on like this is what the app, this is what we're looking for and just strictly list out every task that that position has. And I'm just so upfront. The more upfront you can be in a job post, the better you set expectations. If you just put out a job post that's like, hey, looking for people to answer phones and call people. You may get Sally that's calling from, that's been, you know, what do you call it? Someone at the register working maybe at Chick Fil A and nothing wrong with that but I'm just saying like she has no background of talking to people on the phone. Or you may get this high exec that's you know, been in banking and talking to everyone and everyone, anyone and everyone on the phone. So you want to be very specific. So, okay, so we need to at least call 20 patients a day. We need to be able to handle the drop off list, we need to be able to schedule, we need to be able to fill scheduling spots, we need to be able to market, we need to be able to do this like so very specifically what are those specific tasks listed in the job description? I highly, highly recommend that. Number two, I would say to this, that I have realized is hire slowly, not fast. Even though sometimes positions all of a sudden you have an opening in them. Whether or not you induce that by letting someone go or you or you know, person's just leaving because they're just leaving and moving on. Even if it's an emergency, like oh my gosh, I have to get someone in here, take a moment, pause, breathe and figure out like who is the best fit for this person. Instead of just hiring anyone and everyone that you can think of from Indeed or LinkedIn or whoever else. And then what I do is I just first get them on a zoom call at first, before I even do that, I make sure a, that they can drive to the clinic. Okay. Because we've had people, we've interviewed, they're like no, I live in Maryland, I can't come. Alright, well that's Not a good fit. So can they drive to the clinic? So having questions ahead of time, sometimes we'll do video submissions ahead of time, answering specific questions. And can they drive to the clinic? Are they comfortable answering questions over the phone? Are they comfortable with talking about pelvic health? Sometimes people are not comfortable with that. So we'll have these questions that kind of weed people out. And that's okay because we want the best candidates. I always say I want all A players on my team. If you're not an A player, you gotta go. So, you know, can they pass that part? Then once they pass that part, we get them on a zoom call, 10 minute zoom call. I have my COO screen them first before they're even on my schedule. Because we try to keep my schedule for only tasks that I can do. I don't need to screen people because my COO can do that. So my COO gets on the phone and screens them, says like, hey, how are you? You know, what do you, what, what's your background? What do you like to do? Just really basic informational things and then starts to go into asking kind of more heavy hitting questions. How comfortable are you handling objections? Let's just say if I'm hiring for an admin, how comfortable are you handling objections? How comfortable are you problem solving? How comfortable are you multitasking? How quickly can we move from one task to the next? And what's an example that you've been able to do that to basically balance like lots of balls in the air all at the same time? How comfortable are you with working with a team? How do you problem solve? What is the strategy that you use to problem solve? Are you a person that you go to Google and just try to look it up or call the company and look it up? Or are you someone that waits until you know you have someone there to ask a question? To which one are you? So those things kind of give us an indication of are they gonna be a good fit. Now, all that being said, you can be the best interviewer in the world and ask the most perfect questions. People can trick you guys. People will say, of course, I'm not that person that comes to you for everything. Oh, I just look up everything. And then they come on board and they only want you to tell them what to do. So people will say yes to whatever they feel like they need to say yes to in an interview. And it's not your fault. It's really not your fault at all. So once you kind of get a clue of like, hey, this person's a good candidate. Then the next thing I like to do is that I like to get them on a zoom call. I'll start going over, maybe objection, handling with them how to answer the phone, different tasks and roles, and can they multitask? Like, what do they do first? Like problem solving. So if we have this going on, this going on, this going on, what's the first thing that you would hit first? And I just want to see the problem solving skills to see can they, can they keep up with the demand. Okay, then if I feel that they're good enough, then I'll bring them into the clinic for a third interview. Yes, it takes a lot of energy to hire someone. Okay. But I'm telling you, find the right person, it's worth the 3, 4, 5 hours you spend on a potential candidate that you may not even get a return on. So then I bring them into clinic, I literally have them do a two, three hour full on test to see what's the first step that you would do. Okay, yes, we listen to the voicemail. What's the second step? All right, we check the software to see who's calling, who's coming in. What's the third step? Okay, we put them on the call log. Great. What's the fourth step? So we go through and can I just watch them? Can they problem solve? Can they ask the right questions? Can they move quickly? Can they use technology? Can they be able to just try and they don't get frustrated and give up? Like what? I'm watching all that. I'm analyzing all of it. So once I feel like, okay, this person is the right fit and, and I don't always go with my first one. Now, if you talk to any recruiter, recruiters say that within the first 24 hours of job posting, whoever applies those are going to be your best candidates. But sometimes I wait and I wait a couple days and kind of play them not against each other, but basically compare them between each other. And I'll schedule them back to, back to back. When I'm in clinic, I'll just be like, okay, so Sally's going to come in from 1 to 3, Susie's going to come in from 3 to 5, Josie's going to come in from this time to this time. And so I'll just have a full day of interviews and just see like comparing them on the same day. So my head is wrapped around like who did a better job. And then I'll pick from there. Once I pick, then I make an offer, make an official letter and then send it to them. So I think that's kind of the process that I've learned how to hire. I used to. Before all this, I used to just have someone off Dean and then I would pick them two seconds. I would just interview them within 10 minutes and then be like, we got good vibes. All right, Good vibes. That's all I care about. Okay, you're hired. And good vibes are good. But the problem is where I kind of get in trouble myself is I do go off vibes a lot. Like, how is the person's energy? That's all I care about because I can't teach energy. So the person's amazing. But I run into the problem where the person. I absolutely love the person, but they're just not a good fit for the job that needs to be done. And so that's when it's really hard because then you have to let them go, but you still, like, love them as a person. And it just makes it challenging. So you really kind of have to take the emotions out. And it's hard because we are humans, but we're also running a business. So you have to take a step back. You have to take the emotions out. And do they actually check the boxes of what the business needs to move the business forward? I think that was a hard lesson. This year is not just the vibe check is what else can we do to make sure it's a really good fit for the company? And speaking of that, they also have to be a good fit for company culture. Are they someone that you want to be around a lot? You're going to be around these people a lot. Are they someone that works well with the whole team? Are they going to be a vibe of the whole team? Because the whole, like, you have to create the team and the environment. Otherwise no one's going to want to talk to that person. And then it's going to create this friction in the clinic. We don't want that. So I think that's, you know, really important. What else? I mean, I would say that's probably the process. Whether or not it's admin, whether or not it's manager, whether or not it's a PT, PTS, I do the same thing or OTs. I will bring them in not only for a vibe check, just to see, like, can they interact with the patient? Are they standing in the corner? Are they hopping into the exercises? If I'm teaching exercises, are they hopping into that and instructing without me having to be like, hey, like, go ahead, it's okay. You can say something instead of awkwardly just sitting there. So those are the things. And if they can do that, I know they're going to be a phenomenal therapist speaking to that too. Like, I don't even care if they pass their boards. Actually, I want them to fail their boards because they will be a better therapist. I could just tell you that someone that can take a test really well versus someone clinically. I really believe that people that take tests well are not necessarily always the best in person. So, you know, that's what I'm looking for is just, do they have the charisma? Do they have the likability? Do they have, like, they're just a good person. Those people, that's who I want in my clinic and that they want to be a players and. And will continuously try to keep bettering themselves rather than be like, oh, yeah, I'm like, done. I'm kind of burnt out. No, no, no. I don't want any of those people in my clinic. We'd like to move and make changes and they have to be okay with movement changes and just being really flexible with that. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's just. I think there's a lot that's happened over the last nine months with bringing people in and out. Let me think if there's anything else that I would, you know, kind of give pointers on. Make sure that if you do have contracts, I would say make sure that lawyers are looking them over. Making sure you're documenting everything. What else? Making sure that you, like I said, hire slow and fire fast. Yeah, that's another good point. If something is not working. Okay, let me give you an example. Someone that I hired recently was taking a lot of my energy and I kept fighting it because I really love this person. Like, really love this person as a human. And I really want it to work. But everyone else saw the signs around me, but this person was stressing me the heck out. My face was breaking out. I was holding their hand 24 7. I mean, I was double checking, triple checking every single thing. It's like, why did I even hire someone? If you have to go back and triple, double, quadruple check everything, there's no point to have that person on if that's what you're doing. So that's a key sign that if you're doing that, that is not the right fit. So I didn't realize it until a month or so in. And then I was like, you know what? We have to make a change to this because it's just not working and it's not personal. It's strictly just business because it wasn't working for the business and. And the business wasn't moving as much as I needed it to. There was a lot of mistakes that were had and I just had to make a change. And it's painful, but I could have kept this person in because it would have been a lot less painful for me. On one aspect, like, it would have been a lot less painful because I wouldn't have to have a talk and all that kind of stuff. On the other aspect, it would have made it kind of more painful for the business long term because I would still have to be really holding hands and triple, double, quadruple checking everything. And that's not why you hire someone. So if you are feeling friction with anyone that you hire anyone that's on your team, number one, I'd highly suggest having a conversation, making sure it's documented, making sure it's in writing, and really kind of coming up with like an improvement plan on how we're going to make steps to improve. And if we're not, then the person has to go. So, you know, that's a lesson as well. Like, have the hard conversation sooner rather than later, even if it is really painful, so that everyone can be on the same page and have a good understanding of what's required and what's needed to make things go. And no one's feeling like, oh, I don't know what to do now, like, what's happening. So, yeah, those are some lessons I've learned, I would say, over the last nine months. And I just wanted to be, you know, open with you guys and kind of give you some insight for hiring and what I've learned with it. So hopefully this is helpful. I try to bring all the mistakes that I do to you guys and hopefully you guys can learn from it and not make the same mistakes and move faster than I do and. Or slower, or more accurately or however you want to phrase it, so that you don't have to go through all the pain that I've been through. So hopefully this helps. Hopefully, you guys have a great day. Bye, guys.

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