Is It Time To Hire?

Feeling overwhelmed? Like your plate is Overflowing? Maybe it’s time to hire another or even your first employee. I know this is a scary step but the truth is that if the business is growing and you want it to continue to grow, there will come a time when hiring someone is necessary.

I was faced to deal with this dilemma many years ago. As my practice grew, I realized that the business could not continue to grow unless I hired an employee. I was working 14 hours a day trying to keep up and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I realized that if I was going to continue to grow the business and have a life, I needed to hire an employee, at least a part time person to answer phones, schedule appointments and to greet patients while I was busy completing diagnostics and recommending and fitting hearing aids.

So how do you know when it’s time to hire an employee? If you are missing opportunities to schedule patients because you don’t have a person answering your phone, then it’s time. Or, if you are scheduling new patients out more than a week, then it’s time. Colleagues have shared that they are reticent to hire an employee for fear that they will lose control of the business or that patients will not like to talk with anyone but the owner. I hate to burst your bubble, but if employees are managed properly and have specific written job descriptions that you are monitoring, then employees will Add and not Detract from a business. The world won’t fall apart if you don’t do EVERYTHING yourself. That’s the joy of owning or managing a business, you have the opportunity to decide what tasks you want to retain and what jobs you want to delegate.

So, if you find yourself overwhelmed with jobs to do and don’t have enough time to see patients and revenue generation has stalled, then it’s time to take the leap of hiring an employee.

A business owner or manager should be focused on revenue generation and the employee should handle all the support work. But.. beware. If you give an employee a job, you have to let them do it. I have many friends (and actually I do it too) that hire someone and still keep the employee’s job on their plate.

While you are evaluating if it’s time to hire someone, it’s also worth considering if there are tasks you could contract out. Some services can be outsourced or completed by free-lancers. This work may include accounting, web-site design, marketing, etc. Most Patient Care Coordinators should handle calling patients to get them to return for re-evaluations, annual evaluations, or to invite them for a special technology event.

Deciding what tasks to outsource and what to hire an employee for may come down to whether the function is needed on a regular basis.
I know it’s a scary thought to think about taking on the expense of an employee, but in many cases, it will be the only way to grow the practice.