Locum: what kind will you be?

We’ve created 3 main categories of locums that we think you may fall into. We’ve also added a bit of info on how you’d set this up in Lokko.

  1. The extra cash locum (Wanting to do an occasional after hours shift in addition to your 9-5 job) – Most likely you would want to see shifts that are local only to you in this instance so the first step would be to add the location of where you reside and adjust the radius to reflect the distance you are willing to travel. Presumably, you want to earn a certain hourly rate so you might set your minimum rate to $55 to only see shifts with this rate or higher. Lastly, you’ll need to set the time parameters for when you are available to only see shifts that fall in this time. EG. Saturday 9-1pm, Thursday 6pm – 9pm. This way you will only see shifts in your area, over or equal to $55 per hour and Saturday morning or Thursday evening.
  2. The Lifestyle locum (wanting to travel and work and have a diverse range of work in your field) – You want to see shifts all around Australia/your country and are happy to travel wherever needed. You probably still have a minimum hourly rate you want to achieve so you can adjust that in the notification filter. Set the location as your country and increase the radius to the maximum. Leave the hours available as available anytime or within Monday -Friday if you prefer or detail your preference.
  3. The local Lokko’er (using the app full time or part time in your city) – You want the flexibility that comes with being a full or part time locum so you use the app when you want to work and keep yourself unavailable when you don’t. Set the location to your local area and set the radius to how far from that area you are willing to work. Set the hourly rate to what you are willing to work for and adjust your available times to reflect when you want to work. Want a day off to run errands, hang with your kids, go surfing, take the dog to the park, hang at the coffee shop all day working on your side project, play golf or work at a charity this is for you!

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Resume improvements that are easy

To sign up as a practitioner to Lokko there’s a few things you’ll need to stand out. Here are our tips for improving your resume to increase your likelihood of securing a shift.

  1. Focus on the most recent and the most relevant – employers are looking for recent experience in similar or the same field of work. Have the position description from the job advert next to you when you are editing your resume and make sure you are ticking all the boxes.
  2. Build a summary at the very start that stands out – remember for some roles there may be dozens of applicants or more. Its important to stand out early. The first paragraph of a resume needs to be a summary of why they should hire you. Not why you want to work for them. Use relevant words, terms and wow them in the first paragraph.
  3. Trim the fat – 3-4 page resume not only don’t get read but are a complete waste of your time and an indicator that you struggle to be efficient. Keep to a few key rules like, only describing in detail your last 2 roles and summarise the rest in a simpler format. If you are applying for the CEO position at Microsoft you probably don’t need to include 9 months at Pizza Hut you worked when you were 16.
  4. Make key points stand out for skim reading – Make sure when you read it back the key points stand out. And what are the key points? Focus on the selection criteria and make an effort to separate them from big chunks of text
  5. Put some effort into the layout and design – This is probably an obvious one but keep in mind you need the design and layout to be aligned with the industry you work in. If you’re an account you prob don’t need to create and artistic masterpiece.

Virtual receptionists: what to ask and what to know

Whether you are just starting out in private practice, you work mainly remotely or provide predominantly offsite services, finding a solution to your growing business that is scaleable is becoming increasingly important. Having available reception that means your clients will have support all day everyday is a huge plus and can have some great upsides. Here’s a few tips to help avoid potential downside to engaging a virtual receptionist and some key questions we think will help you get the best possible solution.

  1. During what hours will calls be answered? It’s important to have a clear arrangement on this so that you understand and can communicate to your customers when customer service and support will be available to them.
  2. What experience do you have with my practice management software? It’s obviously something that people are capable of being trained on but don’t underestimate the importance of previous experience with practice management software. There’s always a learning curve involved with new software and having someone thats already up to speed will reduce training time and mistakes.
  3. How do you handle questions around practitioner experience and services provided? Whoever answers your phone is an integral part of and the first contact point of your business. Consider that any admin staff whether they work for you or an external agency will need to answer basic questions about you, your staff and the types of patients you treat. It will be impossible for these questions to be pushed aside or left unanswered.
  4. What kind of training will I need to provide? The commitment from you to hiring a virtual receptionist extends well beyond the dollar value associated with the service. Keep in mind you may spend a lot of your spare time training these staff in the beginning and as you have no control over their staffing schedules and turnover you may be doing this frequently if you don’t choose the right company.
  5. Will I have one or multiple receptionists handling my clinics work? This is were communication and transparency with the agency become more important. Ensure you understand fully how the company operates with their staff and what schedules look like and how leave is covered. You may have a day where the person answering your phone knows nothing about you or your business.
  6. Plan the work and time tasks – We cant stress enough! know how long each task takes and how long a full days worth of tasks (further to incoming calls) will take. It’s important to make the virtual receptionist accountable.
  7. Ensure you have systems that work and are easily followed – You’ll need to figure this out as a first step. They are not there to fix whatever isn’t working in your current admin systems. You’ll need to work out all systems and provide clear instructions to follow as the person handling your account may well be working across numerous clinics.
  8. Organise regular catch ups – Communication helps break down barriers. The more you can speak to the person/s handling your account the less likely there will be road blocks to them completing the tasks you have assigned them.

 

 

Managing temp, contract and locum work payments

It’s important to firstly recognise that income and tax laws will vary in each country when it comes to contract or locum work. We’ve compiled a list of 8 things to tick off when starting out as a locum. For more information contact your accountant who will be able to guide you through the process.

 

  1. Researching the laws that govern locum work in your country – Obviously, working as a locum in each country may have certain differences you need to be aware of. Our recommendation would be to check with your professional body to see what these my be in the country you work.
  2. Setting up the appropriate working structure – There are a number of different tax structure available across the globe and its important to work with your accountant on the most suitable set up for you. Depending on how things work in your country it my be beneficial to work through a company, a trust, as a sole trader or other strucutre available to you.
  3. Understanding what ongoing tax obligations you have – It is very important that you know when and how to make tax payments. Often this will vary from country to country so we also recommend discussing this with your accountant.
  4. Understanding ongoing retirement obligations (EG Superannuation, 401K) you have – In some countries these obligations are mandatory and you will be required to make regular payments. Another question for your accountant.
  5. Having systems in place to be paid on time – Certainly one of the most important things to think about. Getting paid on time! We recommend firstly, understanding how you will be paid by the companies you will be providing work to. There are a number of cloud based accounting solutions that will allow you to invoice directly. That being said there may be other methods you will need to employ between organisations.
  6. Plan for leave and other entitlements – Remember you will be paying and organising for these yourself. This means planning out and saving for annual leave and sick leave. Which leads us to the next point.
  7. Develop a budget for your business – Its important to understand not only the revenue you have coming in but what additional expenses you will incur as a locum. Generally this shouldn’t be high but keep in mind professional registrations, insurances etc which you may have had paid for by your employer previously will now be your responsibility.
  8. Cover your backside – Insurance is your best risk mitigation strategy and fail safe in case something goes wrong. There are a number of insurances to indemnify yourself against potential issues in practice but other insurances like personal injury insurance that will help you keep income if you are injured.

 

 

The party liaison: people and culture

So this is one for the practice owners and hiring managers of the group.

Culture is difficult to define, create, implement, plan for and change. Its kind of like fun. What is fun? How do I create fun? How do I plan for and implement fun and if there is no fun how do I change this no fun environment? You see the perplexity of fun is that the more we enforce it and standardise it, try and build it into our daily lives the less fun, fun becomes. Just like with fun, culture is about creating an ecosystem for it to exist. And creating that environment takes time, it takes changing beliefs, letting great people define the culture not you telling them that the culture of your company is a certain way. Because the reality is they probably see it differently to what you’ve tried to design.

We are going to show you two things that will help you on your culture changing or culture building journey. 1. 3 great examples of company culture and how they did it. 2. Our top tips for creating an environment in which an awesome culture is able to exist (giving you an insight to the Lokko workplace wink wink).

Winning cultures

Salesforce

From zealous encouragement of employee philanthropy to dedicated “mindfulness” rooms and entire floors celebrating the company “Ohana” (Hawaiian for “family”), Salesforce has forged an unusual corporate culture from the beginning.  It got there by offering rich rewards, both monetary and intangible. Many companies pay bounties to employees who refer new hires; Salesforce has paid out $5.5 million worth of them. The company also ferrets out strong performers who have gone 18 months without a promotion to help them find new challenges. And employees get paid 56 hours a year to volunteer in their community.

Wegmens Food Markets

Company loyalty runs deep at this more than century- old grocery chain, which spent $50 million on employee development last year (plus $5 million in scholarships) and filled half of its open positions internally. Staffers say “fulfilling” work gives them a “sense of purpose,” thanks to Wegmans’ mission of “helping people live healthier, better lives through food.” The civic spirit helps too: The chain reclaims millions of pounds of food every year to feed the hungry.

Ultimate software

“The benefits are unreal” at this publicly traded HR software company that man- ages to still feel like “a small family business.” Ultimate matches all employee 401(k) (or retirement savings – Superannuation in Australia) contributions at a rate of 40%, and pays all medical and dental costs. The “reward trips” to places like the Bahamas and Disney World don’t hurt either.

Perks, incentives and philosophies

1. Time off each month for personal development, family, side projects, hobbies.
2. Better annual leave than the minimum
3. CPI + merit increase annually with salary
4. Performance incentives
5. personal development allowance and study leave
6. Flexible work – 2 X optional work from home days per week, adjustable and flexible hours
7. Mental health days on top of annual sick leave (no questions asked) + company paid psychology consults
8. Company paid lifestyle services – Gym, dietitian, exercise physiology, physiotherapy.
9. Private health insurance
10. 3-4 months paternity pay
11. 80-100% pay maternity for 6 months + child care subsidisation + 12-24 month reintegration to the workforce strategy
12. Up to 25K interest free personal loan
13. ESOP – Employee stock ownership plan
14. Employee innovation investment fund – Funding great ideas of employees side projects
15. Managing employees hours and avoiding burn out
16. Empowering staff with autonomy and recognition

 

The importance of physiotherapy: Injury prevention and management in sport

Why is physio important for sports teams?

There is extensive research that concludes injury prevention is a key-contributing factor to success of sporting teams. Physiotherapists are the leading providers of injury prevention and management in sport and are able to help your team reduce injury rates and decrease time to get back on the field. Check out research paper summary here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23645832 that shows decreased injury rates improve overall team rankings.

How often do we need a physio?

This is a highly subjective area and many professional teams get by with part time and short-term physios. The best advice we can give is that having someone on game day is always a plus and some form of injury management and prevention during training days can be additionally helpful in reducing overall injury rates.

How do I pick the right physio for our team?

Like most jobs you want to choose candidates that have the highest level of skill and experience for that particular role. In the Lokko app you are able to see the work experience candidates have had using the app and their up to date resumes. Obviously having experience in the sport you are hiring for is great but most physios have experience in treating athletes whether at university during compulsory rotations or after they’ve graduated from uni.