Transcript
josh MacDonald: I'm Josh McDonald.
Miranda Materi: And I'm Miranda Materi, and we are Hand Therapy Academy.
josh MacDonald: We're going to talk today a little bit about Who are we looking for as a candidate when we're trying to hire a therapist for our clinics? so We can have all different kinds of candidates apply to things. And we've gone through the hiring process a bunch of different times.
josh MacDonald: What do we want to see? And maybe we you can learn a little bit about... what you should be presenting when you're applying for a job. So Miranda, what are some of the things you look for just kind of right off the bat when you're when you have someone applying for a job?
Miranda Materi: Yeah, I feel like the number one thing I look for is the soft skills. so How is that individual and interacting with the patients and our other staff? That one's big for me because I feel like those are a little bit harder to teach. Like I feel like the clinical aspect, as long as they're willing to learn, that's a little easier to teach than it is to teach.
Miranda Materi: someone how to have a good personality. now
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah, i you're right. I can teach them the clinical skills, and if they're a newer therapist, that's that's kind of a given that we're going to need to do that. And we want to teach them to do the way they think things the way that we do them, but you're right. like being Just a nice person and someone who's going to fit with the dynamic. Well, that's super important because I've worked at places, not in any recent clinic, but I worked with places with therapists who are good.
josh MacDonald: But no one really cared for them. And then they kind of like added tension to the whole. clinic. And thats that's the opposite of what we're looking for.
Miranda Materi: Right. And if you think about it, we spend a lot of time with these people, right? Like our coworkers, is we spend so much time with them.
josh MacDonald: you
Miranda Materi: You you want to like them. What?
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah um So I have this little like. three thing that i like to tell students new grads whatever that i say i'm looking for a good therapist a good employee and a good person.
josh MacDonald: and I feel like those are all very different things.
Miranda Materi: That's it.
josh MacDonald: um I want the I want someone who's a good person that that's the, you know, they get along with other people. They're nice. They're generous. They're you know outgoing and personable with the patients as much as they're.
josh MacDonald: they're uh co -workers I want a good employee. And that's someone who shows up consistently on time. That's someone who does their documentation consistently. Someone who's going to. adjust there like oh we just learned we have to build this way and they're willing to adjust that good employee and then a good therapist obviously someone who can help patients and make a difference But that's that's hard to find. That's kind of a...
josh MacDonald: Um, A diamond in the rough a little bit.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, I agree. It is really hard to find. and I had a student ask me. um Why is it so hard to find good? Good therapist. and I was like, you know why is it so hard? But I think it's because. Well, at least where we're at now, the market is.
Miranda Materi: um You know, like there's a lot of outpatient clinics that are not. um privately owned but ones that are owned by orthopedic companies and they obviously can pay a lot more and offer a lot more benefits than we can as a smaller company.
josh MacDonald: Yeah.
Miranda Materi: So I think and they'll you know they'll pay like five ten thousand dollar sign -on bonuses and i'm like well that's just not feasible for us right so we can't offer some of those packages like that so i think that makes it a little bit more challenging for us to find
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah.
Miranda Materi: stuff.
josh MacDonald: And you're you're right. we're a difference We're appealing to a different person. in a smaller privately owned outpatient clinic if someone's looking for fantastic benefits great insurance with low deductibles and
josh MacDonald: Um, great sign on bonuses and all that. That's just not something we can offer, but we can offer like flexibility. There's never been a time that a staff member asked for a time off that I said, no, like we just always make it work. We are. you know it's It's a cliche, but we're a close -knit group. I wouldn't say...
josh MacDonald: Now we're... We look out for each other. we are on you know We're on each other's sides. And so we have someone who who just had a loss in the family. And she just took some time off. with like zero notice but we can all make it work because we all care about that so it's just a tighter knit group and we're looking to help educate each other so it's a different kind of
josh MacDonald: job that you're looking for. And those therapists are maybe willing to say like, Hey, I know I'm not going to get the giant $10 ,000 sign on bonus. But I'm also going to work in a place where they kind of let me do what I want to do as a therapist. And I don't have to nickel and dime patients on things. And so it's just kind of a different environment.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, it definitely is. And I think one thing that I really look for in a therapist is one who's willing to develop their skill set in a certain area so like right now we have a therapist i was really interested in um eds yeah so i'm like oh that's great because then you know we can help them to develop that specific niche or that area where they can have basically it's kind of like them having their own clinic right without the
josh MacDonald: Yeah.
Miranda Materi: overhead headache.
josh MacDonald: and Yeah, and and they can kind of... develop that. that pet interest that they have that kind of side project and we give them the opportunity to do that and that can serve to grow our clinics at the same time and so we can both benefit from them doing something they have some other interest in at the same time as um and helping the clinic as a greater whole.
Miranda Materi: Yeah.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah.
Miranda Materi: what ah What other things are you looking for? Are you looking for? younger, more experienced.
josh MacDonald: Honestly, I prefer to hire younger therapists. um I really kind of. i I like the energy that a younger therapist brings. I think that's something that as I get a little bit more seasoned, I think I lack sometimes. So it's good for me to be around other therapists that have.
josh MacDonald: that that maybe aren't jaded. Maybe they they aren't as... um Uh, They've got the energy coming into the clinic. They're way more interested in all of the newness. It's all very novel, and that's exciting. um I also like being able to train a therapist to do the things do things the way we do them. We have a very efficient and effective system, and I think patients get better, and it works well.
josh MacDonald: And sometimes when I hire an older therapist, it's something that you have to kind of like find this balance point when they say like, well, I make this splint this way and I've done it for a long time. Like, well, but we do it this way. And so you've got to kind of find that in between or the new therapist, I just say. hey, do it this way and it works. And they're like, great, sounds awesome.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, that's true. I would say the the flip side of that, or just when... um because i had ah a therapist i had as a student and then we didn't have a position open for her but ah i knew as soon as we had an opening she was who i'd call so she went and worked for um another company for three, I don't know if it's like three or four years or whatever it was, but I realized that she had she brought back a lot of skills that...
Miranda Materi: um you know just I guess I'm so used to doing things the way that I do them and in the routine that I do them. But she brought in a lot of different things. And I was like, actually, that's really great. You know you brought a lot to the table that we wouldn't have if you just started working for me right away.
josh MacDonald: You're right. And it's certainly a skill set and it exposes us to new things. If we hire a therapist who's got who a little bit more seasoned, a little more experienced. So it's kind of this blend of like, I want someone who. Bring some new...
josh MacDonald: ideas to the table. But yeah, it's it's kind of a mixture of things. Yeah. Yeah.
Miranda Materi: Yeah.
josh MacDonald: But I do think that hiring. students either right after they graduate or maybe a couple years later you kind of reach out to them again and say hey i got an opening you're a great student i think that's a fantastic way to find student or to find new employees we take students a ton all year long it's good for us to be teaching but it's also a great way to find potential future future employees
Miranda Materi: Yeah, I agree. And for whatever reason whenever we've had ah job openings, I think it always has appealed to the younger therapists because I don't even really remember a lot of experienced therapists applying.
Miranda Materi: You know and I think it's maybe because they're already in their clinics or you know And maybe the pay range isn't high enough.
josh MacDonald: Yeah.
Miranda Materi: I'm not sure. but
josh MacDonald: And I've had, I really haven't had the need to like. post a job. listing very much. I've had once or twice when I needed help and I reached out to some therapists that I knew and it worked out pretty well. But I really haven't like posted on Indeed or on ASHT or any of those sites.
josh MacDonald: in order to get those more experienced therapists i've had one therapist that came to me and said like hey i'm looking for another another job i'm like hey i could use something and we kind of talked about it and it wasn't the right fit for her but very rarely do i like post a position out there it's kind of an organic talking to a student the student's about to graduate i could use some help and it's you know the season kind of timed well so um Yeah, I don't really post very often for jobs.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, that's true. I i know a couple of years ago, Josh and I were asked to hire um a director for a hand surgery clinic. And so we kind of went through the process of hiring someone and Even with that application process, and we did it you know all over the United States, we ended up hiring ah yeah a newer therapist. But I think it was just because we didn't have a lot of experienced therapists that applied, even though we were looking for someone with lots of experience.
josh MacDonald: Yeah. Yeah. Posting things like on indeed and job listings is one of my least favorite things to do I feel like it is just weeding through massive amounts of resumes and Kind of judging people based off of a piece of paper that they've kind of tried to sum sum up their entire career into this one or two sheet of paper thing. It's just not my favorite task to have to look through, even if it's for front desk. It's just this massive amount of resumes or.
josh MacDonald: um are people applying that's like, I got to make quick judgments on people. And that's, I just don't, none like the task.
Miranda Materi: Yeah, it's definitely not fun.
josh MacDonald: Yeah, yeah Well, hopefully this gives you some ideas of maybe what how you want to present yourself when you're interviewing for a job, kind of what maybe employers are looking for or what you might need, what you might want to apply for. um But if you have any questions or suggestions or anything, feel free to reach out to us on our Instagram page at Hand Therapy Academy, or you can reach us on our email info at handtherapy .com.
