Top 3 Things You Should Do FIRST When You Need A Physical Therapist | Physical Therapist

So you're a physical therapy practice owner and you know you needed a physical therapist yesterday. Maybe someone's left, maybe you've grown really fast and you're in a position where you're desperate for a physical therapist. In today's video, I'm going to go over the top three things you should start doing right now in that situation.

The number one thing that we're going to start with is something you don't want to hear, but it's absolutely the most important one, which is stop the bleeding or, and or focus on retention. If you're already in dire straits in the position you're in, the last thing you can afford is to have another physical therapist leave. So what should you do? Well, either when you're stopping the bleeding or if you're and or focusing on retention. I want you to begin by creating a discussion with each one of your physical therapists. In that discussion, your goal isn't to try to keep them on board. Your goal is to try to determine where they're going, not just in the short term, but the long term. It's called a vision meeting. In it, you're going to discuss what their long term goals, ambitions are, and if possible, and this does come up, maybe some of their out points or complaints they have about the company. That's a good thing if those issues come up, because in that meeting your whole discussion is, hey, listen, I really see a long term future with you. What I'd love to talk to you about is what you want to create in the next three to five years. That type of language and experience helps physical therapists feel like they're a part of something special, something bigger than themselves. And it gives you the space to be able to guide them so that they're not thinking about leaving, they're thinking about staying on board. And in that moment, they can feel free to talk about anything that would prevent them from wanting to stay. Which is useful because then you have time to fix it before they go. In addition to that, you want to invest in culture. You want to help that physical therapist be a part of that culture of your company in any way, shape or form. Ask them what would make this place amazing? 0 to 10. How would you rate working at my physical therapy practice? And if it's not a 10, what would you say or recommend to make it a 10? What could we do? And then if you act on those items, you absolutely can create an experience for them. Now lastly, this goes without saying, but when you're in a position where you need Physical therapists. This is a great time to take a pulse on your company and get an idea of whether or not you're paying competitively. It is super vital at those times to know that what you're paying isn't only within the boundaries of what most companies are paying in your area, but that they're also going to be able to be competitive. So if you do those three things, then you'll stop the bleeding and or focus on retention. Once you know that you have your current team fairly handled, it's time to do something you probably don't normally do, which is to organize your schedule so that you can focus on recruiting. The biggest problem I find when I coach practice owners is that they've let themselves get into a place where they're complacent or they're just dealing with the constant ebb and flow of their company. And so they don't put attention on recruiting the way they do on marketing. And how silly is that? We need to reorganize our time not just in this immediate moment where you need someone yesterday, but for the long term. We need to spend minimally five hours a week, an hour a day on recruiting. Some people work it better where they block out one five hour period once a week. And some people delegate that out to others who aren't really meant to do the recruiting. And the way I ask this, if you want to know if your person who's doing that is a good fit for recruiting or not, just ask them. Would that person be someone you'd want to go do your marketing? Because marketing and recruiting are the same thing. They're sales. In physical therapy we call Dr. Marketing Marketing, but it's not, it's actual sales. We stay away from that word for some reason. And so if you have someone doing your recruiting who's not truly like a salesperson, who's not high toned and super engaging, you're wasting your compensation to them and you're not getting the results that you need. A strong recruiter is someone who's absolutely engaged and the best person is going to be you until you can hire someone to do that, which might be what you need to do. Go hire an employee who's so good at sales and possibly has recruiting experience that they can come on board and help you grow. Now, in that timeframe when you're putting time and attention on your recruiting, the first thing you want to look at again are your job ads and your job applications. Meaning are you on indeed, are you using monster? Like, what are the platforms my Recommendation is always indeed. And what I would tell you is that when I coach people, when they pay me to help them recreate their ad, we make dramatic changes in the number of lead generation PTs who come into the interview. If you're not getting PTs in the door, check your ad wording first. If you're interested, I will do a resume, not resume a job ad video in the near future. Just put that in the comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe. But at the end of the day your job ad wording matters. And then lastly, you want to put yourself in a position where you're doing something unique in that five hour period. Be creative. Go outside the box could you offer a career development learning opportunity for students physical therapy third year students who are graduating in your area in the next three to six months? That has been one of the most successful tactics I have used to hire new graduates is by getting into their space as soon as possible, but no later than three to six months before they graduate because at that point they're really open to whatever it is that you want to tell them. And the last thing I'd have you do immediately once that you've focused on patching the hole or focused on retention, then you've gone on and created the space to stay focused long term on recruiting, then it's time to get help. There are so many resources out there. Obviously people go to headhunters and traveling therapy companies and you already know about those. But most people don't know about companies like CareerTree Network. This is a company that has a totally different model. They focus on the lead generation for physical therapists to your company and it is an absolute miracle for finding pts just to talk to that are qualified who would possibly be great fits for you. Another person you can reach out to is me of course. Although I'm not taking clients currently, if you ever email me, I will take a moment to help you with your job ad wording or whatever it is that I can serve you in. If I get enough interest, I'll create little groups and we'll go from there. But right now it's so important that you get help. If you're a member of the in the Black Partnership family, by all means use that in the next coaching call that we have to be able to walk through your process and identify any holes in your recruiting program. But at the end of the day it's important to start reaching out, start going to other physical therapy practice owners, start bonding together. Maybe there's an opportunity to split the cost of some larger, more expensive initiatives with physical therapists who are either in your area or complementary to where you are. Either way, you can solve this. I know that it seems like there's not a lot of PTs out there at the moment, but this creates a tremendous opportunity for those who can learn how to pivot, find the unique thing that they can offer pts that would make them want to take the job. Remember, there is something that you do that's better than any other PT owner out there, and even though you're doubting that question right now, I promise the better you are at seeing it and wording it, the easier it will be for you to find physical therapists. If you have any questions, any other comments, put those in the comments below. Thank you so much for watching. Until next time. It.