Orthotown March 2020 - 22

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passed the commercial driver license test and now works as a truck driver. Instead of hiring
another full-time employee, I asked the second full-time employee to do more work and offered
her the same benefits (minus the start bonuses) that my office manager gets, and she's happy. So
I have only two full-time employees; the other seven are part-time chairside assistants who come
to work only on the 11 days/month that we see patients.
It's strictly confidential. Employees should not know how much their co-workers get paid. (I
don't allow my employees to talk about salary in my office.)
You can always say no when your employees ask for a raise. The office manager is the heart
and soul of the office. She is the only person who is worth keeping; everyone else can be replaced.
This is why it's important to be able to multitask. Whenever one of your employees quits, you
can jump in and do his/her work until you can find a replacement.
I prefer to hire employees who are not part-time students and who are not college grads because
they are more loyal and stay with you for a long time. The students usually consider their job at
your office a temporary job. When they graduate, they'll move on to better things. ■
10/14/19

LizzyOrtho
Member Since: 09/28/14
Post 9 of 9

It sounds like you absolutely have to hire this employee! She sounds like a great catch, and
someone who will really be invested in your office. And, yes, social media is huge and you can
absolutely get new patients that way, so hopefully she will be worth your while. It also sounds
like she may have the capacity/talent to grow and assume other roles as the practice grows (which
perhaps you could mention so she doesn't get upset when you add more to her job description-tell
her monthly health fairs, school visits, etc., etc.).
I like the idea of the bonuses-you can start with a monthly bonus and then compare it to
the previous year (because as you grow you don't want to trap yourself into paying tons of money
in bonuses). I would explain to the staff that your business has to grow for everyone to have a job,
and every month and every year the goals will change. It sounds like both your TC and this new
person will have to work together to get new patients through the door. I would bonus on starts,
because what if they bring in patients who have a very low chance of converting? You don't want
to waste your time on exams with people who aren't really interested in treatment. Then they
can work together on marketing and follow-up of exams. ■
10/18/19

Tell us how you decide staff salaries
Salary and staffing questions will bedevil practice
owners no matter how long they've been treating patients.
How do you decide the right level of staffing and what to
pay them? Share and compare your thoughts and advice
in the comments of this message board, which you can find
at orthotown.com/magazine.

MARCH 2020 // orthotown.com

OT0320_MB1_Salaries_AG.indd 22

2/25/20 11:29 AM

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Orthotown March 2020

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