Calculating Pay Raises for Pediatric Practice Staff

To calculate pay raises in your private practice, you need to think about what your ideal employee is like. If you don’t have the concept of your ideal employee clearly in mind, you might get subjective or emotional about calculating pay raises. If you measure a staff member’s performance based on how favorably they compare to this ideal, you’ll have an easier time making a decision and the raises will be distributed fairly. 

How to Identify Your Ideal Employees

I’ll quickly outline the kind of criteria I use to determine who my ideal employees are.

Arrive at work on time. Really, they should get to work a little early. Whatever time they arrive, they should be ready to get their first patient right on time. It’s their choice what time they arrive but getting that patient on time, that’s essential. For most staff, they have to arrive, boot their computer up, put their lunch in the refrigerator and use the restroom. They’ve got to hang their coat up and say hi to their colleagues. If it’s Monday, they might want to know how other staff’s weekends went. Those are common morning routines. I make sure they know my criteria: “I want you to get there and be ready to go for Johnny at your first eight o’clock. You’re picking Johnny up at eight o’clock, right?” 

If they arrive at eight and they go through this routine, they shouldn’t start the patient until 8:15. In my practice, we start the patients at eight. If that employee wants to start their patient at 8:15, that’s fine, but that eight to 8:15 is unpaid time. We’re going to be building their 40 hours in some other way.

Meet appearance standards. A Private Practice Owner must establish appearance standards for their staff. The standard might be that they come to work looking nice and professional. The owner can set standards for hair and makeup, clean clothes, not old clothes and so on.

  • Prepared for appointments. Is their computer fully charged so they are not flying by the seat of their pants during the appointments?
  • Good care of facilities. Are they cleaning up their treatment rooms? Do they sign out treatment rooms properly?
  • Personal growth. Are they growing as practitioners and expanding their clinical skills?
  • Helping students and colleagues. Are they mentoring new hires, recent graduates or students? If the Student Clinical Instructor calls in sick, do they say, “I’ll take the student”? Are they mentoring their colleagues so they have the confidence to take students? We want students in our practice. That’s how we find new staff.
  • Stepping up as needed. An ideal employee will step up and do what needs to be done. They might be emptying the garbage or changing the toilet paper. If the front desk person is delayed, they’re checking patients in.

If they’re going above and beyond in these and many other ways, these are your ideal staff. These parameters can help you define your criteria for awarding raises in your practice.

Improving Your Ability to Guide Your Staff

It might be a little challenging for you to set these criteria and hold the line on them, day after day. If you find that taxing, a little Peds-A-Palooza training can go a long way. Go to our Lemonade Library with webinars on just about any topic you can think of. Start tuning into these Lemonades frequently and find your own confidence and leadership improving!

About Diane Crecelius

Diane Crecelius is a physical therapist and founder of a multi-million-dollar, multi-location practice with well over 3,000 visits per week and 200 staff! In the past several years, Diane has worked tirelessly to support Peds-A-Palooza® Community & Conferences and the success of Private Practice Owners. Diane has presented at nearly every Peds-A-Palooza live and virtual conference since the first sold-out conference in 2018. Her extensive knowledge derives from her decades in practice and from being trained and consulted by Survival Strategies, Inc. She uses this training to help Private Practice Owners learn how to thrive and expand while keeping their stress low.