How can paying your team well be a strategic investment? How much smoother could your practice run if staff compensation matched both value and vision? What would retention look like if your payment structure created loyalty, not turnover?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok discusses how to figure out what to pay people.
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In This Podcast

* Why do people stay at practices?
* What you need to know about paying staff
* Adjusting existing staff payment structures

Why do people stay at practices?

When we think about employees, and say, “Well, why wouldn’t they just go and start their own practice?” These folks aren’t cut from that cloth … We want to find the people that are going to be awesome employees with you. (Joe Sanok)

There will always be entrepreneurs, and there will always be employees. Some people like leading and running the show, while others like doing what needs to be done behind the scenes. 
What is important is that the leaders and business owners dedicate themselves to taking care of their employees and contracors, so that their staff retention increases, saving the business time and money, and ultimately keeping clients satisfied. 
What you need to know about paying staff
First, let’s talk numbers: 

What are your average reimbursement rates across your private pay and/ or insurance?


Imagine you are getting paid $130 per session … Now, the formula that we typically want you to shoot for is this breakdown: about 40% goes to your clinician, about 30% goes to infrastructure, operations, all of that, and that remaining 30% goes to your profit margin. (Joe Sanok) 

These are rough numbers, and you can use this breakdown and tweak it depending on where you work (if rent is expensive), or whether you want to pay your staff more, or any other factor. These are simple guidelines that you can use, and adjust however you want. 

For anyone working 15 hours or under, consider hiring them part-time. What does that look like? 15 sessions a week on average x $52 (from the average reimbursement) which gives you $780, and with an extra added admin rate, that’s $930 per week. 

With the five non-clinicial hours, there can be some marketing or editing efforts made. 

We do want to have predictability for the practice, so we would say, “Okay, your hours are going to be on these days.” We want to hire for what we need. (Joe Sanok)


For staff working more than 15 hours on average are likely full-time staff. You do the exact same thing, but put the average at 25 hours.