Will Humphreys explains how narrowing your focus to a specific niche solves hiring problems. He uses physical therapy recruiting as an example, showing how systems around entrepreneurship, mentorship, and flexible schedules attract the right candidates.
Chapters
All of us, we have to find our niche. Like, once we get our niche developed in recruiting, then we build a system around it and that's when we don't worry about hiring again. And so like, for example, again, just to review, my niche was I was hiring pts that wanted to open their own practices and it was like, yeah, I expect a three year commitment from you to drive to the middle of nowhere. I'm going to teach you how to lead a company. I'm going to teach you how to start your own practice. And a very small percentage of those people actually did, but I fulfilled my commitment to them, but that was my niche. I would go into a classroom and say, hey guys, we're going to teach you how to find your best job fit of all time. By the way, who here wants to open their own practice? Whenever hands went up, I'm like, okay, I'm going to talk to you guys specifically because I have something really cool I want to tell you. And then I'd meet with them individually and that's how I started hiring and building a bench. So what's your niche until then? It's a lot like hunting. And every time you get a kill. That's a bad analogy. Every time you find murder. Murder is where we're going. When you find a great fit for your company, until you know why that was special and what it is that you offer them that's unique, when that person leaves, it's just going to put you right back to square one. So until then, just be patient. You're doing great. Yeah. Okay, so here's general niches and I'd love to hear from the group as well. If you're developing one and you think you have it there, you may not. If you're on the call, maybe that's the case. Right, so again, what are examples of good niches that can build a bench? Entrepreneurship is definitely one. Professional development is another. Like being the professional development lead, I'm here to help all PTs intentionally create the career you deserve.
Then there's the mentorship specialization niche. That can range from diagnostics to hand specialty to just straight up general physical therapist master. Like you want to be in the outpatient. I'm going to teach you how to be really good at a lot of different conditions. There's that piece of it. Then there's the.
Autonomy piece. These are people who are looking for part time individuals that want a really crazy flexible schedule. There's actually a whole niche around that that can help you build a business. We get pigeonholed a lot of times in what we think we need. And that's why it's important for only this one step to step out of the humanity of hiring and step into the objective looking at the physical need of the company. Like, if I have 2.0 FTE need full time equivalent needs, I can get 2 full time hires, or I could hire 420 hour a week hires. So that is interesting, because I have success in my current company when I switch my mindset in my billing company around full time and part time. 50% of my employees are 0.5 FTEs that I hired intentionally, because these are talented people who want maximum flexibility. And I actually don't care what hours of the day they work, as long as they get certain hours done. And we have to put them on a schedule, but they create it completely on their own. So there's all these niches around what you can create.
