Incentivize-This topic has been coming up a lot lately. In our Facebook group, practice owners are often asking what others are doing to improve relationships with their clinicians and keep retention rates of their clinicians and admin up. I get it. It sucks to have a clinician leave. You have to start the process of finding and trusting someone all over again, train them, and build their caseload.
Although there are ways to improve your odds in the interviewing process (another article, perhaps!), there are definitely things you can do right now for your clinicians.
Let’s take a look at a few ways you can incentivize your clinicians, as well as ways to increase the likelihood that they enjoy working for you and your business.
- Pay: What is your pay structure, and it is competitive (competitive does not necessarily equal high paying. It can also mean what you pay + what you offer them, like supervision, marketing, etc.). Take a look at your current pay structure. Do you feel comfortable with it? If not, does it have to do with low pay scales or because of your own self judgement? If it is the former, time to look into reasons why your current pay structure may not be up to par. Options include flat rates, percentages, graduated percentages, salary. All come with their own benefits and drawbacks. Finding one that suites your practice is key!
- Extras: Once you feel comfortable with your pay structure, and you notice that you have the ability to give even more there are other ways to financially provide for your staff and incentivize them in other ways. Things like IRA or retirement accounts let them know you care about their future (and you can start small, at like 1% matching for example). Health insurance is another biggie right now. Although it may be too costly to contribute, there are ways of setting up health insurance that is entirely employee funded (the benefit is they pay before taxes-before payroll-and that adds up!). Bonuses can be fun, and you can gear it towards extras that help your business, like blog writing or marketing.
- What else do you offer? Aside from money, there are a ton of things you can do to show your staff you care about them. Do you offer free supervision? Do you offer regular recognition for their work? Do you check in on them to see if they need anything (maybe a workbook for clients, a candle in their office, a blanket?) Do you recognize their birthdays and workiversaries? Small things like this let them know that you are thinking about them, that they are not just people who bring in revenue for your business. Another thing we do in my practice is monthly email check ins with any recognitions for something well done: maybe a client gives you positive feedback on their therapist, or they reached their client caseload amount, or their marketing efforts bore fruit, or they did a workshop or group that went spectacular. You see where I am going here 🙂 There is always something that our staff is doing that is helping our business grow. Let them know.
I also have a podcast episode on this here.
Maureen Werrbach is a psychotherapist, group practice owner and group practice coach. Learn more about her coaching services here: LEARN MORE HERE
