When it comes to expanding your chiropractic practice, nothing beats hard work. But hard work can only get you so far. After all, there is only so much you can do in a single day, and there is a limit to the number of days in a week. To see more patients, you need more eyes and hands. You need associate chiropractors. Now, everyone has heard the horror story of the associate chiropractor coming in and then departing in a couple of years with half the patients.
It doesn’t need to be that way. When used as part of a larger strategic plan, hiring associates to grow your business can be effective. But it must be part of an overall growth plan. Here is how to properly hire associate chiropractors to expand your practice.
Why Hire Associate Chiropractors
From the very start of the process, you need to clearly define the outcomes you expect before you start adding one or more associate chiropractors to your practice.
Are you stretched thin and looking to grow your practice? Are you looking for coverage to expand the days and hours of operation? Is this part of a strategy to open another location?
Maybe this is part of a long-term exit strategy. Maybe you want to offer a service or technique you don’t currently provide.
Whatever the reasons, identify them and then strategize outcomes. In doing this, you will have a clear idea of the nature and direction of the relationship with your associate chiropractor.
Think of your practice as a train in a station. Trains leave the station going in all directions. Riders pick trains based on the direction they are traveling. You must be able to identify the direction your train is headed to pick up the riders that want to travel your route. That’s how you avoid the horror story.
Starting with the why is crucial to the next step in the process, identifying the who.
Picture the Person
Once you know the goals, then you can begin the picture of the ideal associate chiropractor. You’ll use this persona as the yardstick against which you will measure every applicant under consideration.
That’s because you’ll be recruiting based on your strategy and not hiring based on a job description. See the distinction?
By creating a detailed picture of the perfect associate chiropractor and burning this image into your mind, you’ll recognize the ideal candidate, no matter when or how you meet them.
So carefully consider the perfect associate in terms of:
- Hobbies
- Work hour preferences
- Likes/dislikes
- New grad or seasoned professional
- School attended
- Medical philosophy and
- Favored chiropractic techniques.
For example, if you want to extend your hours later into the evening, you don’t want to hire an early bird as an associate. You need a bird of a different feather – a night owl.
Define Expectations
Once you know the why and the who, define the expectations you’ll have for associate chiropractor performance.
For example, what role do you expect them to play in the practice? Will this person participate in regular team huddles or quarterly practice performance reviews? Do you expect them to speak on behalf of the practice or work with the marketing team?
Which patients will they see and how many patients do you expect them to see during a regular shift? Do you expect the associate to network and bring in new patients?
Will the associate report to you or the office manager?
Center your expectations back around the big “why” of adding associate chiropractors to expand your practice.
What Do You Bring to the Table?
Now, it’s time to take an honest and hard look at yourself in the mirror. What do you and your practice have to offer an associate chiropractor?
If your ideal candidate is a young graduate looking to get experience, you’ll need to serve as a mentor. Are you up to the task?
If this move is part of an exit strategy, have you built a practice with real economic value?
Recruit versus Hiring
Are you going to hire a body or recruit an associate?
If you see your associate chiropractors as team members and not just a member of staff, you’ll want to invest in recruiting efforts. Recruiting the right associate will lead to better outcomes, even if it takes longer.
If you hire associate chiropractors to expand your practice, you create a pool of applicants and pick from the best of the pool.
When you recruit associate chiropractors to expand your practice, you have a persona as a guide and search for the person that matches the persona. You aren’t comparing applicants to each other; you are comparing applicants to the persona. Where you recruit depends on the persona.
Other Ways to Grow Your Practice
Hiring Associate Chiropractors isn’t the only way to expand your practice. If you are interested in learning how to grow your chiropractic practice, how to create new revenue streams, or how to convert to a cash practice, talk to the successful chiropractors at Nutri-West of New York. Schedule a consultation with Dr. Jamie Forster or Dr. Jason Horowitz and discover how they’ve combined improving patient outcomes with increasing their revenue and growing their practice.