Empowering Women in Chiropractic -Building and Developing Your Team During Difficult Times

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Hi, everybody. Welcome. I'm Dr. Nicole Lindsey, founder of a DominateChiroMarketing, where I help bridge the gaps between chiropractors and medical doctors to help build their practices. I wanna thank ChiroSecure for bringing us together today, as they do often allowing us to share information with you.

So you can expand, grow your practices, be inspired, and do things the right way. So let's go ahead and jump into our topic. We're gonna go ahead and go to the slides here. This topic, I think, is very poignant for where we are in life and business. Today we're gonna talk about building and developing your team during difficult times.

If you are living life right now, running a business or trying to run a business, you have witnessed that all industries, no matter what it is, whether it's a restaurant, it's a store that sells clothes chiropractic office, a medical office, it doesn't matter. No matter what industry. It is they're experiencing a difficult time running their business because of staffing issues.

I'm sure you've been in a restaurant and you've waited to be sat, but there's a million open tables, or you finally pick out something you wanna buy at a store. You go to the front and there's only one cashier and the line wraps around the entire store, right? This is real. This is happening in every industry, so I know we all have to take a big deep breath and realize that.

You're experiencing this and so are they, So what's the deal? Why is it so difficult? They can't find help, right? Just like you, there's fewer applicants than there ever has been applying for the jobs in your office. And at these places of business, the baby boomers, they're retiring. A lot of our population are baby boomers and during Covid and the pandemic, and over the past three years, They have decided.

They don't need to go back to work. They figured it out. They can live with less or maybe they're gonna take that early retirement, end it now. So there went 20 to 30% of our workforce because of that. So there's less people applying for jobs, less people working. Because of that, a lot of people have also discovered.

Life in the virtual world and work in the virtual world, and they figured out how to do it from home. And they're either creating their own businesses or working for jobs that allow them to work from home. So this means less people are applying for jobs and also people are just learning to do with less, they're not spending as much money.

And maybe they decided, they don't wanna work anymore. They don't have to work. They can live on one income instead of two in their household. Whatever it is. All of that combined, and I'm sure other things that I haven't thought of is why it's difficult right now to run a business and then when you finally find somebody to bring.

For whatever reason, it seems like help is a little less dependable than what it used to be. I'm sure. You can share stories with me right now about employees that you've hired over the past year or so that didn't show up or that did show up and then quit after a day. We all have these stories.

It's so bizarre. But it is what is going on. And not only that, these people are demanding more money than ever before. You're lucky if they show up and then when they show up, they're demanding more money. So a lot of businesses are struggling with this. They can't afford it, and they're just pulling their hair out of their head because it's very difficult to work in these conditions.

If you have a business, and if you're a chiropractor, you're listening to this that's you. But if you rely on staff ir, regardless of the size of your business cannot operate. Without employees, and that's the real deal, right? So we need to figure this out. We need to make sure that we get employees, we hire them the right way, we train and develop them, and we help them.

Learn that being in your practice is one of the best things they can do in this time. One of the best places to work in this time. So that is what I'm going to talk about now. I like you have struggled with this, but. Anytime I find I face a challenge in business I try and figure it out, what can I do to fix this?

And I go into fix it mode. And that's what I've done. And I'm not saying I'm perfect, but I am coming out of this on the other side. So I'm gonna share with you some of these strategies, some of these things that I have done and that other businesses have done that I've talked to and got ideas from.

They're getting creative. Businesses are getting creative and that's what we have to do, right? We don't just die and say, You know what? Forget it. I'm gonna just close up shop and I'm not gonna practice anymore because I can't find anybody to answer my phones, or I can't find employees to help me put the patients on therapy.

Business owners are going to great lengths to stay in business. And that's what we do as visionaries, as business leaders. We get creative and we figure it out. So what are we doing? Outsourcing is one of the things that a lot of business owners are doing. They're using virtual assistance now more than ever.

I know a colleague that hired a virtual assistant couldn't find a front desk person, hired a virtual fit assistant, put the monitor on the front. and had the virtual assistant greeting people as they came in. It's not ideal, but it's a solution and it worked. So that's what a lot of businesses are doing.

They're also using hiring apps. There's one called Workable, and these apps allow you to hire people for one day at a time. So not ideal, not perfect, but if you're in a situation where you know you have a packed day and you need somebody in the office, you need just somebody with a pulse, like a greet people, and you can show them simple things, answering phones, you can show them basic things.

You can hire a person for a day by using one of these apps, some business. They're downsizing, they're figuring out, you know what? I don't need to have that extra employee. So they're learning to do without, in their business. Maybe they're getting rid of systems and things that we're creating a lot of busy work so that they can do with less employees.

And some businesses are just saying, You know what? I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and I'm gonna do it myself. And that's what I did for a good part of this problem is I did a lot of things myself. And let me tell you, this was a really good exercise and I absolutely recommend. Doing it.

If you haven't done that a while, throw yourself in your practice by yourself. Tell your employees to go home and do this as an exercise and give them the day off, and you do it and you get behind the front desk. You answer the phones, you become your techier. You do your associate's job, you figure it out.

And what you'll find, which is what I find found in 21 years of practice that. There were so many things going on. Systems that were created by other employees that were unnecessary, that were redundant, creating a lot of extra work, and I found that this time, me jumping behind the front desk, me answering the phones, I was able to clean things up a good bit.

I was able to create better systems, and this was so helpful. In order to bring people in and then train them effectively so I could prepare new protocols, prepare new training manuals, and so that I too could learn the systems so that I could train my new employees coming in better. So those are some of the ways that you can get creative if you haven't already.

So here is my post pandemic business plan, as I call it. Number one, hiring, number two, building and developing your team, the foundation of that. And then three, developing, taking the time to develop your team. And I love this quote. By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail so we can expect somebody else to figure this out for us.

But if you are the business owner, you are the leader of your practice. If you don't prepare, then. Yes you most likely are allowing yourself to prepare to fail. So this can be a good thing, and this was a good thing for me, and it could be for you if you take these strategies and work them in your office.

So let's talk about hiring. Hiring effectively. I found that my hiring strategies completely had to change the way that I hired in the past pre pandemic is so different than what I do now. And so we need to make this process efficient and we need to streamline it, especially if you're doing it yourself.

So here are some dos and don'ts. Let's look at the don'ts first. Nobody wants to be invited. or show up to a group interview anymore. Nobody wants to do that. Nobody's doing it. There's lots of things that we've done in the past as chiropractors running our business and we have to change, as.

As things change and things evolve and people evolve and change. So do our business strategies, and this is one that I think needs to change. And I changed it. I used to do the group interviews, know, I'd have 50 people show up and it's just a thing of the past now. So I recommend not doing that.

IQ tests, lengthy application processes long winded tests and questionnaires and personality questionnaires. Again, when you had 80 resumes coming in, this was something you could do. It made sense. You needed a way to filter through this. , but not so much now. We're lucky if we get 10 to 20 decent applications now.

So this is not a, this is not a recommended way to make hiring efficient for you right now. I'm just saying , so I do not recommend doing that right now. Dues. Put an ad on Indeed. I found Indeed to be one of the best ways to hire staff in your office right now. You can put your deal breakers in there, if you absolutely want one of your employees to have customer service experience, put that in there.

If you want them to have a college, Put that in there and you indeed will filter that out and will not give you applications that don't meet those requirements. So figure out your deal breakers, what are they? And put them in there. Do your interviews on video. Everybody wants video now.

People don't wanna show up for workshops like they used to. They don't even wanna show up for interviews like they used to . Do this as a video as well. And when I started doing that, you can do it right on Indeed, which I'm gonna show you here in just a minute. It's so efficient, it saves you so much time.

When somebody applies, do respond quickly. Don't wait. Back in the day we could wait two weeks, we could set up the group interview for three weeks out. Don't do that. They're gonna find a job later that day because that's how many people are hiring right now. So the longer you wait, you're gonna lose that potential candidate, which could be a good one.

And do check references. You can get more information that. So those are some of the dos and don'ts. So when I say streamlining the hiring process, this is what I mean. So figure out blocks of time you have available over the next week to conduct 30 minute video interviews. and what you're gonna do is create an email template in Indeed that you can use to respond to the applicants immediately, and indeed has a nice app that you can use right on your iPhone so that as you get a notification that somebody applied for your job, you can immediately, and if you have the deal breaker set up, you know that they fall into your requirements.

You don't even really need to look at it. You can. Immediately respond with your email template that already has the interview times in it, and then. The person will respond and you can schedule the video interview and basically plug that right into Indeed and the person will get the email immediately that the interview is scheduled.

And this can all take place within a couple minutes of time. And boom, you set up the video interview within a minute or two without even talking to the person yet. So here, An example of my email template would I use to send out to my candidate when they apply immediately. Hello, Hannah. Thank you for applying and completing the assessments.

Now, that's one thing I didn't mention On Indeed, not only can do you have deal breakers, but you can also have template or assessments on there that they let you choose. So if you're hiring for a front desk ca, you would want them to be highly organized and attention to detail. I would think. I know I do.

So there are assessments specifically geared towards that and only pick two. Don't go crazy with those. If you're hiring for ataxia, you may want to see what their skills are with hands on working with patients. There are assessments specifically geared towards that. That can be your deal breaker if they're not completing these assessments, then.

Indeed can filter that out for you. You're thanking them again and going back to this email. I would like to invite you to an interview. Virtually this interview will be conducted on video right here on Indeed. Indeed has a platform with video in it, so you don't have to do it through Zoom or get complicated.

It's all through Indeed. You will need to have audio and visual enabled and wifi connection now for me. This is also a way I can weed people out because I'm letting them know they have to have audio and visual enabled and wifi connection. If they show up and that's not working or if they show up and they can't get it working listen, I need my employees tech savvy.

We are paperless. We are, everything's on the computer. The last thing I want is an employee who can't figure out computers. . I need to be the one less fig knowing how to work computers in my office, not them. So this is also a way they can't figure it out and they waste 10 minutes of the interview.

You know what? That one's not gonna work for me. So this is also a way you can weed that out. So indeed we'll send you a link to confirm once an interview time is scheduled. Then at the time of the interview, you will need to join the interview by clicking the link from Indeed. I have openings for interviews and I do it right away.

So if I'm emailing them today, it's gonna be today, the date, the time, and blocks of 30 minutes. And then I give them two days, typically back to back days. Do any of these work for you? I look forward to seeing you virtually. And they'll usually respond right away. And then here, and indeed what you'll do is set up the interview.

So if they say, Tomorrow at noon Works great, You go to Indeed and I have shown you there. You click that set up interview button, and then I do it in 30 minute blocks. I click on the video and then the date and the time. And then in the message to the candidate, I type in. Please have audio and visual enabled.

For your interview and click send interview request. And that's how simple it is. That is how simple this process is. So remember, once you conduct the interview you're going to, Then ask for references and check those references on those folks. I found this to be really helpful when you're down to trying to figure out between two candidates which one is going to work for you or not.

I always get something from, I'll check usually three to five references, and I'll usually get one bit of information that sways me one way or another. So I think that's really important. Okay. So the next thing is once you've hired, you're bringing people in, now it's time to build your team foundation.

In this process, especially if you're short staffed and maybe you're cleaning house because you're using this as an opportunity, that you're hearing this and you're saying, You know what? I need to do that. I think I'm gonna just go ahead and clean house, start with a clean slate. I'm gonna throw myself in the, throw in the throws of each position in my office, learn it, develop, and then hire.

I recommend doing that process. That's great. You can build your a team doing that. Don't be afraid to hire two people at the same time. It can work out great. You can streamline hiring. You can group train. Instead of just hiring one person, you can hire two at the same time. Right now I have two new employees and a student intern.

I'm training three people at the same time, and it's fantastic. They're doing great. And you say it once three people get it. We're cross-training as well. So you're cross-training your entire team. You wanna talk about building cohesiveness. It's awesome. So don't be afraid to do that.

Don't be afraid to hire two people at the same time. Hands on training is great for everybody. You can tell them. every which way. But a lot of times, not until they actually get into doing the task, do they really put it into action and can you see them at work? And then they really learn how to do the job better that way.

But what I find that this does, when you get them going sooner than later, the team the team member will learn that this pace is normal and they become more comfortable with. The other thing you wanna do is define roles for each position and use that for training. I'm gonna show you that on the next slide.

I think this is really important. It's one of the first things that you need to do in order to build a success, a successful team, is to clearly define the roles that. , each person in your office. And although there may be a lot of crossover and cross training, each position needs to have their roles clearly defined.

And so you need to do that if you haven't, sit down and write that out. And then create checklists for everything checklists so that everybody knows exactly what they're doing. I'm the checklist queen, and you can use these for training. And then of course building your team. It's, it involves training.

Training Training. So here is an example of the sheets, the role sheets for one of the positions in my. It's the front desk position, and I have written the majority of the roles that employee needs to do on a day to day basis, and this will be in front of that employee. In during the first 90 days of their employment.

And we make sure that person from week to week, month to month goes through and checks these things off as they have them down. And so that way I know from week to week, month to month what I need to train that person. I can pull that up at any given time, see something that's checked off that tells me, you know what, this employee does not know that yet.

Let's go over that. So these can be used as gaining clarity. For your employees so they know what's expected of them, number one. But number two, you can use these for training, which I think is important. So every position needs to have these and you need to have checklists as well. So the last part of my post pandemic hiring plan and developing your team plan.

Is actually developing your team. And these are the things that you need to do on an ongoing basis. So this isn't just a one time thing. This needs to be part of just like your marketing plan, you have things you do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly. You gotta do the same thing with your team if you wanna develop a good team and have a successful business.

So daily huddles looking at. your schedule as a team and having one person lead that and go through each person. Setting expectations for the day, getting all of your employees on the same page. Accountability as well. For example, say that you're running a promotion and you wanna make sure everybody asks a patient for.

Review that day, and you each pick a person. So this way you can hold each other accountable by doing these sort of things. You can also use this huddle as a time to do something fun together. You can put one person in charge of having a fun, creative thing you do every shift every huddle.

So maybe it is telling a. Maybe it's two truths in a lie. Go around and everyone gives two truths in a lie, and that's a really good way to get to know each other really well. There's lots of fun things you can do there that can help build and develop your team on a daily basis. Is that, is is that huddle?

The second thing is weekly team training. These can be painful or they can be fun and they can be good in creating clarity for your team. Keep 'em short. 30 minutes. Don't drag this out. Don't get on your soapbox and, talk about things that don't need to be talked about. Use this as a time to come together.

What was good from last week? Talk about that. Housekeeping. What are some issues that are coming? That we need to talk about and we need to fix clarity, discipline, letting your team know where you're at. They need your leadership. So use this weekly team training as an opportunity to do this.

Set boundaries. And then pick one training topic that you're gonna train on that week. It could be answering the phone, you hear them not answering the phone. You like, you don't like what you're hearing. So train on that. On a weekly basis, do. The next thing is building team cohesiveness.

Like I said, doing fun things during huddles. You could do contests with your team. For example, we did a contest with a promotion we were doing last month. and whichever team member worked the hardest over the week. Got a $10 gift certificate for to a smoothie place that we frequent. So just building team activities having your team share a recipe.

Maybe everybody cook something that they love and bring it in one day. Maybe it's doing an exercise before a shift. There's lots of fun things you can come up with if you think about it. But all of this helps to develop your team and. Bring them on the same page and build cohesiveness.

Starting with a bang. If you have a whole new team you want to set a quarterly team training, Meeting as soon as possible. You're gonna close the office for a half a shift for this, cuz you need about four or five hours for this. Go somewhere different, get outta the office, go somewhere different.

We're doing this tomorrow as a matter of fact with my team and we're going to my lake house and we're shutting the office down and we're going and have a lot of fun things planned. I'm excited about it and they are too, but we're just getting out in a different area. You'll serve lunch for them and snacks.

You'll have creative. Exercises and things in between the brainstorming so that they can have fun and have a break build cohesiveness. We're gonna do some goal setting. We're gonna give them a journal and allow them to do that. I have a lot of fun things planned, so that's something that you should do once you get new team members.

Go ahead and start. Don't wait for the quarter. If your quarter needs to start in month, November, do it. Don't worry about it. For years, my quarter was off the normal quarter you know of what? We think it quarters are in a year. Start that quarterly team training. Get everybody on the same page as soon as possible.

That's how you develop your team. And then of course, accountability. This is important. You gotta have your somebody doing that, whether you're, it's your office manager or you holding the team accountable, being the leader so that they know what to expect. And they don't set standards for other people that you don't appreciate or don't want.

So that is how. You develop a team. Daily huddles. I talked about that, the weekly team trainings, what was good from last week, building the team cohesiveness and starting with a bang. So there you have it. Growing, building a business, sustaining that business is harder now more than ever. 21 years of practice right here.

And I think over the past year I've worked harder than I ever have. And I know lots of you listening to this right now are saying the same thing. And, we're all, wiping our brow. Like we made it through the pandemic, but now this, right? All I can say is, It's work and it will pay off if you put the work in.

Using these tips and strategies, I hope will help you cuz you, you really have two choices. You have a choice of giving up and letting your business just wither away to nothing. And you doing it all and further exhausting yourself or you roll up your sleeves. You use this as an opportunity to pivot.

Learn more about your business, what needs to be corrected, and you may pleasantly be surprised that you may grow in this situation like I did, and grow a better team, a more efficient team, A team that's happy, that wants to be on this journey with you. So I hope that I've given you information to do that.

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. I leave you today with that thought. I thank you so much for listening. If there's anything I can help you with, don't hesitate to reach out to me, dominate ChiroSecure marketing gmail.com. Don't forget to tune in to our show next week as we will continue to share great information with you all.

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