Congratulations you have hired a rock star to join your team!
It is absolutely key that in the first 2-3 months your new team member builds momentum and feels like a valued and important part of the team. A systemised and structured onboarding process is a great way to ensure this. The idea of having an onboarding system is to provide the information, resources, structure and support a practitioner needs to develop into a strong part of your team.
At Health Space we have developed a 12-week onboarding system. Each week the practitioner receives an automated email. The email outlines a topic and the training outcomes around that. There are also 4-5 links to short videos we have created that need to be watched. A senior team member meets with the new practitioner for 15-20 minutes once a week to review the email and discuss and action the points in it.
It is very important that your onboarding system strongly reflects and reinforces your team’s culture , mission, vision and values. These should be mentioned multiple times throughout. The content should cover everything from the procedures the front desk uses all the way through to the practitioner specific systems to ensure the best clinical results. It is powerful to include topics on mindset, team integration, daily habits, organisational skill, conflict resolution, marketing, scripting and communication.
Three Key tips to an onboarding program:
- Make sure it strongly reinforces your team values.
- Make as much of it automated as possible so you don’t need to keep saying the same things.
- Begin with the end in mind. What sort of practitioner do you want in your team? You have hired well now this step is about grooming them to be the perfect asset for your dream clinic.