5 Steps To Successfully Onboard New Employees at Your PT Practice

If you can earn the buy in of new employees during the onboarding process, they are more likely to feel a drive to succeed. Because employee retention can have a big impact on your company’s resources, successfully onboarding new employees is worth your time and effort. Use these steps to help ensure you gain the loyalty of incoming employees to your physical therapy practice.

1. Set Expectations Early

Before candidates are even contacted for an interview, you can use the careers section of your website to prepare them for success. Providing an abundance of information about your company culture, values and expectations can make physical therapist practice onboarding easier by giving candidates an understanding of what your company requires from someone in that position.

2. Start Before Day One

Instead of wasting the first day explaining the basics and doing introductions, you can make it more productive by doing some things ahead of time including:

• Send a friendly email to the new employee and include links to helpful pages on your website, instructions about what to bring or know on the first day, and a list of documents needed to complete HR paperwork.
• Provide clear, specific instructions about where, when and who to report to on the first day.
• Email a copy of the employee handbook to look over
• If the employee will have a work station or desk, make sure it is clean and contains any tools needed for onboarding.
• Include an itinerary of activities for the first day to help the employee prepare mentally.
• Inform existing employees of the new hire and encourage them to be welcoming.

Completing these steps can revolutionize a new employee’s first day experience and start things off on a positive foot.

3. Focus on the First Day

Make the best possible impression on new employees by ensuring their first day is relaxed and positive. Give the new hire a chance to observe the company culture and interact with current employees. Make all necessary introductions to an employee’s teammates and supervisors. Help a new hire become familiar with simple things like where the bathrooms are located, how to use the company intranet and phone system and how break times are handled to encourage a sense of competence and familiarity.

4. Create a Structured Plan

Many companies have no formal onboarding process besides filling out the necessary HR paperwork. This can leave a new employee with many unanswered questions and have disastrous results. New hires at any company need to feel acclimated and invested in to perform to their highest ability.

5. Don’t Forget About the Follow-Through

The onboarding process for a new employee should extend well beyond the first day. New hires usually make a decision about whether they could work long-term in their new position and for their new company within the first 90 days. Checking up on the progress of a new employee weekly can ensure any issues are addressed quickly and the employee is adapting well.

At Rev-Ignition, we provide your practice with the right tools to help your business grow. We know the satisfaction of your patients relies largely on the competence of your staff and are here to help make sure your processes and workflows are as efficient as possible.