What I Got Wrong Hiring My First Three Clinicians

Every practice owner tells the same story about their first hire. It went badly and they blamed the person. It almost never was the person. In this episode Kelly opens up the three hires that taught her the most and what she would do differently at each one. The first one she hired too late and out of desperation. By the time she posted the job she was drowning so she took the first warm body who could pass a background check and told herself she would train the rest later. There was no later. There was just a full caseload and a clinician who had no idea what good looked like in her practice. The second one she hired too early. Demand looked strong for about six weeks and she read that as a trend. It was a season. She spent months carrying payroll for a schedule that would not fill and she made every anxious decision that comes with that. Discounting. Chasing referrals she did not want. Saying yes to patients who were not a fit just to justify the hire. The third one she got closer and the lesson there was different. She hired well and then failed to onboard. She assumed a good clinician would absorb her standards by proximity. Nobody absorbs standards. You have to write them down and teach them and check them. Kelly walks through what she built after all three. The demand test she runs before opening a role. What goes in the first ninety days of onboarding. How she pays and why she stopped competing on salary alone. And the honest conversation about what happens when it is not working and you have to say so. If you are anywhere near your first hire this is the episode to hear before you post the job. KEY TAKEAWAYS Hiring out of desperation guarantees a bad fit. If you are already drowning your judgment is not available for the decision. Six good weeks is not demand. Look for three consecutive months of turning patients away before you open a role. Write the standards down before the person starts. Nobody learns your clinical philosophy by watching you walk past. Onboarding is a program and not an orientation. Ninety days with checkpoints beats a good first week every time. Pay for the model you actually run. If you compete only on salary you will keep losing people to whoever pays more next year. Address the misfit early and directly. Waiting costs you the clinician the patients and your own credibility with the rest of the team. PULL QUOTES I did not hire a bad clinician. I handed a good one a job with no definition and then got frustrated she guessed wrong. Desperation is not a hiring signal. It is a warning that you already waited too long. Six good weeks felt like a trend. It was a season and I paid for that lesson for about eight months. Nobody absorbs your standards by standing near you. If it is not written down it does not exist.