onboarding: Building blocks for staff and how to do it

Starting a new staff member can be tricky and a time consuming exercise. Its a rewarding experience bringing a new person into your team if done right and is a daunting experience for the individual starting the role. We have a few tips to help you create a consistent streamlined approach to onboarding and to improve the overall experience for the staff member.

  1. Find an onboarding tool that works for you – It may seem pretty obvious but again there are a multitude of software solutions that will make creating an onboarding experience easy. Some of the tools available can easily create a step by step pre start date and ongoing onboarding program that allows documents to be completed, training to be modulated and other material such as videos watched easily. Check www.enboarder.com for one of our favourite tools.
  2. Give them contact time for the first few days – Isolation and loneliness can be a killer for any new employee in the first few days and weeks of a new job. It’s important that you schedule regular contact to touch base with new employees and ensure they have everything they need.
  3. Teach them what the company does – Obviously, they’ve come into the role understanding the companies core business and objectives but they probably don’t have a complete understanding of all the moving parts of the business. Having team members from different departments (or in smaller teams different roles and responsibilities) give a bit of an overview of what they do will give the new employee a greater appreciation for other employees and help them understand who to reach out to when they need something.
  4. Check in and get feedback – A great way to tell whether or not the employee has felt like the onboarding process has been a positive experience is to ask them. Make a time to sit down with them after 2-3 months and get some feedback on what could be improved and what is working

Performance management: Tips and tricks in creating a great experience

It can be tricky managing staff in a healthcare business. Whether you work in aged care, private practice, hospital or the community there are some distinct challenges in managing a team in healthcare. Possibly, you work in a patient facing role too and managing your own case load and staff can be a balancing act. We’ve put together some key tips that will help you be more prepared and organised for creating and managing a great performance management infrastructure.

  1. Clear communication – The first step in aligning your team with company goals is clear communication to them around what these goals are. Once you have this clear communication set out and all staff understand the objectives of the company you are able to move into building a performance management plan that reflects the companies goals. Regular catch ups or check ins tend to help keep the message alive and front of mind for staff. We believe even having the companies goals clearly displayed either on a dashboard or on the office walls can help.
  2. Use effective tools – Having effective software tools to help manage staff performance is a huge time saver and can help you manage the workload when you may have a million other things to think about. Try a number of the HRM software packages available online and figure out which one is most suitable for your business. As is with most software solutions the time saved in administration and potential double ups is invaluable. Further to this, in most products staff are able to ad notes to their performance goals in real time.
  3. Give feedback more – It’s no secret that staff maintain motivation if communication is free flowing. Feel free to give feedback and ask for feedback whenever you think it might be warranted. Keep conversations about the positives and if there are holes to fix then provide solutions on how you think this can be done together. Engaging staff in these conversations more often will help them understand that you want them to be the best at what they do.
  4. Recognition – Managers can sometimes get into a trap that if the company as a whole isn’t meeting objectives then individuals are not rewarded for their great performance. One of the key takeaways is that each individuals performance needs to be evaluated and recognised if they are performing well irrespective of other environmental conditions.
  5. Set and keep reviews at regular intervals – Often a failure of managers is to set consistent intervals and constantly changing the way evaluations are done. This might just be another job that you need to do but you are effectively talking about the person and their career. For them this conversation is important, constantly changing or not keeping these review dates can discourage and demotivate staff severely.

 

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!

lokko.work

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.

 

Olympians: Top 7 Australian Physios that are also

Although a whole bunch of your peers headed to the Olympics as to help keep athletes fighting fit, here’s 7 physio Olympians that have competed at 1 or more Olympiads as athletes.

7. Samuel Beltz

Is a former lightweight rower and 15 time national champion. Samuel competed across two summer Olympic games in 2008 and 2012. After winning gold in the 2011 lightweight mens four Beltz finished 4th with his crew in London 2012. Samuel is the Director/Workplace Rehab Consultant at Total Workfit Solutions.

6. Fiona Milne

Australian based physiotherapist originally from Canada, Fiona competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and again in 2004 in Athens as a Rower for the Canadian team. she now works as a physio for Spinrg Physio Gym in Malvern Vic.

5. Krystal Weir

A late bloomer to sailing Krystal fought her way to the top and 7 national titles later managed to compete at the 2004 and 2008 summer Olympics. Krystal is now the director of K2 Health Physio and Pilates  in Brighton Vic.

4. Jessica Trengrove

Nicknamed Trenny, Jessica was born in Naracoorte, SA where she also attended primary school and high school before attending Annesley College. Jessica has competed for Australia in distances from 5000m to Marathon and competed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic games. Jess works as a physio in Adelaide at Physio Smart.

3. Rachel Neylan

Professional road cyclist and 2016 Rio Olympian, Rachel is a former world road race silver medallist. In 2007 as a 25 year old Rachel was working as a phyio for the Australian rowing team when she realised that she too wanted to chase the dream of becoming a professional athlete. She move from Sydney to Adelaide immediately and 5 years later was on the world championship podium.

2. Anna Wood

Anna is a dutch born Australian Sprint Canoeist who competed in an astonishingly high number of games including 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000 summer Olympic games. Anna won bronze in the K2-500m events at both Seoul (1988) and Atlanta (1996). Anna works as a physio in Tugun QLD and as an AIS coach for the canoe kayak program.

1. Alicia Quirk OAM

Olympic gold medallist and professional 7s rugby union player Alicia Quirk tops the list of Olympian physios. After a strong campaign in the rugby 7s debut competition in Rio, the Australians managed a hard fought win over the New Zealand team in the gold medal match. The team was one of only eight Australian gold medal winning teams or individuals at these games. Alicia studied Bachelor of Physiotherapy at Charles Sturt university, Albury-Wodonga in 2013. Alicia currently works at Eastern Suburbs Sports medicine centre in Bondi Junction, NSW.

 

www.lokko.work

Fasciitis Fighter: Fighting For Balance with Hamish Vickerman- Hamish The Physio, innovator and father

Today we chatted to physiotherapist, Fasciitis Fighter creator, father of one and absolute legend Hamish Vickerman about work life balance, innovation and changing the way physios work.

Q – Tell us a little bit about what your current work week looks like?

Hamish – At the moment I’m working 4 full days treating clients and have Wednesdays off to spend time with my daughter Nina. I also work some shifts as a locum in orthopaedic rehabilitation on a regular basis. I spend most of my time between clients, working on the Fasciitis Fighter and on social media sharing relevant, up to date content for likeminded HCP’s (Health Care Professionals).

Q – We used to work together in a private practice, what made you want to take the next step into doing your own thing?

Hamish – The flexibility to be able to live a life that I enjoy was certainly a key driving force behind it. I was confident I could get out of the 9-5 (physio world 8-7 grind) and still make the same money as a full time physio so I jumped into it. I have been lucky enough to have the time to focus on developing the Fasciitis Fighter, which was an idea of mine from a few years ago that I’ve finally been able to commercialise now that I have the time.

Q – Speaking of the Fasciitis Fighter, it’s been wildly popular since you launched it only a few short weeks ago with huge uptake and support from some of the most renowned health professionals on social media. How are you handling the uptake? I notice you are already out of stock it must be a wild ride?

Hamish – It’s been great with support from Whiteley Healthcare and Briggate Medical in Australia with distribution and huge support from health professionals around the world. Its crazy seeing my product reach all corners of the earth. I’ve recently sold a bunch to an NBA team in the US and NRL team in Australia too, which is fantastic. I have a great supply chain and manufacturing partner and we will be getting the Fasciitis Fighter back into the hands of clinicians early next week. I definitely did not expect there to be such a demand so quickly but am grateful that it has been. Ultimately, selling too much stock is a great problem to have.

Q – It’s great to see you’ve been able to accomplish so much with this work flexibility. What do you think the future holds for you?

Hamish – I love helping people, solving issues and connecting with like-minded individuals around the world through social media. Whether it’s seeing clients in clinic, helping people improve their foot pain around the world with the Fasciitis Fighter or working to see the physio profession grow, I’m confident I’ll still be in this industry for years to come and hopefully enjoying it more than ever.

What a pleasure it was speaking to the man himself. Make sure to follow Hamish on he’s social media handles through the links below. Keep an eye out for our next weekly interview at Lokko.

Instagram.com/hamishthephysio

Instagram.com/fasciitisfighter

Facebook.com/hamishthephysio

Fasciitisfighter.com.au

Hamishthephysio.com.au

The lifestyle physio – The rise of part time, freelance and contract work

There’s something special about waking up every morning knowing that you will be helping someone today. Out of all the hundreds of fields you could have studied in, you chose physio. You are inherently a person that enjoys improving the wellbeing of others and you have empathy.

But after 8-10 years of worrying about everyone else, the creeping realisation that you may be stuck in a career that is failing to look after you like you are looking after your patients starts to burden you. Your thumbs and your back are becoming tired and you hate yourself for not putting in the same effort as you once had. According to research the highest rate of physiotherapist attrition is between 5-15 years post-graduation. So strangely from an outsider’s point of view this seems weird (study 4-5 years to drop out of the profession in almost the same amount of time). But digging a little deeper its easy to see the industry is riddled with false promises, underpaid (sometimes illegally) staff, dead ends and burn out.

Beneath all the altruism and empathy is a person, a professional in need of something more. career goals and ambition outside of merit increases and promotions by length of stay not level of performance. And a resultant vector (if you will) is the absolute and total saturation of private practices in the community. In most parts of Australia there are as many private physiotherapy practices as there are GP practices. So, we are left with what? An oversaturated market with overcapitalised business owners, hardly any consumer demand and high level of confusion in the difference between a highly trained evidence-based practitioner and their non-category competitors like Osteo and Chiro.

And all physios, sort of know that this is the case but continue the cycle and buy into this struggle of a life as a physio and then, as it seems, drop out and start something new. My biggest question to you today is what are you doing about it? More often than not we like to accept life as it is and the market dictates our behaviour. The average wage for a physio in Australia is $64 000 annually and the top 10% only are making over $90 000 per year (payscale.com). Let that sink in for a little bit.

Now I know that we don’t do everything for just financial reward, but we also need to put food on the table, pay the mortgage etc. As a physio there are plenty of ways to make more if that’s really what you want to do and to be fair most full-time jobs in other industries aren’t exactly 9-5 so you could do overtime, work weekends etc. But what if you could dictate the terms of how you work in this landscape? What if you didn’t need to get stuck in a system of brutal billing targets every single day of the year? Or fight for a spot at a hospital to then realise your 4-5 years of training really doesn’t put you anywhere on the food chain? What if you could completely redesign the experience of working as a physio? What if you could make the same money, work less and learn more than you ever have or will across multiple workplaces?

Introducing you! The Lifestyle Physio. Reimagine yourself waking up now, but instead of thinking about how quickly you need to throw on your polo shirt and running shoes to get to the private practice (where you are clearly underpaid), think about the long breakfast you’ll have with your son, your daughter, your husband, your wife, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your dog, your pet mouse. Think about how good the surf is this morning and that you’ll be out there. Think about how good it feels to be at the top of the mountain after a long morning bike ride. Think about how good it is to sleep in after whisky tasting night at the hipster AF bar you went to last night. Think about how great it is that you are waking up in another city because you are travelling Australia (and potentially the world) working as a physio. Think about the days you’ll have free to spend with family, work on yourself (professionally and personally), design that physio product you think needs to exist, arranging bouquets or baking wedding cakes because that’s your absolute love and passion. Think about how you’ll constantly be engaged working across multiple fields and will always be learning. Think about that, just for a second, and download the Lokko app. You will not look back.

Also check out our other platform:

www.med.estate