Planning Your Hiring Strategy for the Future

Feb 144 min read

Hiring is one of the most critical decisions you make as a practice owner. It’s not just about filling open spots on your team—it’s about planning for sustainable growth, managing attrition, and making sure your practice thrives for years to come.

Whether you’re building a team for the first time or scaling an established group practice, having a clear hiring strategy can make all the difference. Let’s break down how to plan for success.

Budgeting for Hiring: It’s Just Math

Before you even start posting that job listing, it’s important to think through the costs associated with hiring. Many practice owners underestimate how much it takes to find, onboard, and maintain a new team member—and that can lead to financial strain down the road.

Here’s how to budget effectively:

Pre-Hire Costs

How much does it cost to find qualified candidates? Think about:

Applicant Volume: How many applications do you need to get one solid hire?
Advertising Costs: How much does it cost to post job ads or market the position to get the number of applicants needed for one good hire?
Your Time: Screening resumes, conducting interviews, and narrowing down candidates takes time—and your time isn’t free.

Onboarding Costs

Onboarding is an investment in your team’s future, but it’s also a cost you need to plan for. Consider:

Credentialing and Licensing: Fees and administrative time.
Marketing: How many new clients will your practice need to get your new hire to full capacity? If your call to client conversion rate is 70% and you’d like to have 10 new clients for your new team member their first week, then you’ll need an additional 14-15 inquiries. How much will that cost in ads? If your cost per lead is $50, that means an extra $750 in marketing spend.
Training: Your time, your team’s time, and any materials or software required for training.

Pro Tip: Have 2–6 weeks’ worth of the team member’s wages saved before their first day. This ensures you’re not financially strained while they ramp up.

Maintenance Costs

Once your new hire is onboard, what will it take to keep their schedule full and ensure their success? Think about:

Intake Costs: How much do you spend on ads or referral sources to generate enough intakes to keep your new clinician full?
Systems: What tools, processes, or additional support do you need to make sure they stay engaged and productive?

Planning for Growth vs. Attrition

Here’s the hard truth: If you’re planning to grow, you can’t just focus on adding new team members—you also have to account for the people you’ll lose.

Growth Planning

Let’s say you want to increase your practice’s session count by 100 sessions per week. Depending on your clinicians’ caseloads, that means:

If clinicians see 25 clients/week, you’ll need 4 new hires.
If clinicians see 20 clients/week, you’ll need 5 new hires.

Simple, right? Well, not quite.

Attrition Happens

Even with the best culture and team environment, clinicians don’t stay at group practices (or anywhere) as long as they used to. Some will move on to self-employment, others will make life changes, and that’s okay—it’s part of the reality of running a group practice.

If you’re only planning to hire based on your growth goals, you’re likely to fall short. Why? Because you WILL lose team members throughout the year.

To plan effectively, account for attrition. For example, if your goal is to add 4 clinicians, plan to hire 6. This allows you to cover inevitable turnover while still meeting your growth targets.

All Ships Must Rise at Once

Your practice is only as strong as its weakest link. For your business to thrive, all areas need to work in harmony:

People: You need enough qualified therapists to handle your client demand.
Systems: Your operational processes must be smooth and efficient.
Space (if applicable): You need adequate physical or virtual capacity to support your team.
Clients: You must have a steady stream of intakes to fill your team’s caseloads.

When one area is out of balance, the whole practice struggles.

Example Scenarios:

You have great therapists, great systems, and plenty of space—but not enough clients.
You have plenty of clients and space, but not enough therapists.
You have great therapists and clients, but your systems are broken.

In every case, the outcome is the same: struggle.

As you plan your hiring strategy, think about how all parts of your practice work together. Strengthening one area while neglecting another won’t get you where you need to go.

💡 Want to avoid the most common hiring mistakes? In my free webinar, I share the 5 most common hiring mistakes group practice owners make and the compensation framework I use to hire profitably. Don’t miss it!

👉 Register here

Final Thoughts

Building a strong, sustainable practice requires more than just hiring therapists—it’s about creating harmony between your people, systems, and resources. With a clear strategy for budgeting, growth, and attrition, you can set your practice up for long-term success.

This article is designed to provide information only and should not be considered legal or tax advice. Because of the complexity of the law and the variables in your own personal tax situation, you can’t rely on our advice specifically related to your unique circumstances. In order to get the best tax savings and legal advice available to you, you should consult with your own accountant, attorney, or advisor regarding your particular facts and circumstances.

GreenOak Accounting specializes in working with counselors and therapists in private practice. For more information on our services, visit our website.