Struggling with New Clinician Onboarding? Try These 7 Time-Saving Tips!

As a group practice owner, you’ve likely gone through the process of hiring new clinicians, from recruiting to interviewing and finally extending a job offer. Once the new therapist or clinician has accepted, the next step is onboarding—but how do you make this process smooth without it taking up all of your time?

It’s crucial to work smarter, not harder. As a practice owner, you juggle many responsibilities and don’t have the time to spend hours each week on training. Still, new clinicians need proper guidance and support. Here’s a streamlined system to help onboard new hires without overwhelming your schedule.

1. Develop a Training Checklist Taking the time upfront to create a checklist will save you hours down the road. Before your new clinician’s start date, dedicate about 30 minutes to building a detailed list of everything they need to learn. Whether this is your first or fifth hire, a checklist will ensure you don’t forget anything important.

You can continue refining this list based on feedback. Ask recent hires what they wish they had known during onboarding, and adjust accordingly. Keep a master copy of this checklist, and create a shareable version for each new hire.

2. Delegate Training Responsibilities Your checklist may feel overwhelming at first, but remember—you don’t need to personally train your new hire on every single task. Delegate! If you have administrative staff or a virtual assistant, they can help. Often, they might even be more familiar with certain processes than you are.

By involving other team members, your new clinician will benefit from different perspectives, and you’ll free up more of your time. Ideally, aim to handle only about a quarter to half of the training yourself.

3. Record Non-Personalized Trainings Certain aspects of training—like reviewing policies, explaining benefits, or introducing your practice’s mission—don’t need to be done in person. These can be recorded once and used for all future hires. It may take some upfront effort to plan and record these sessions, but it will save you hours in the long run. Plus, the recordings don’t have to be perfect. Just be yourself and focus on delivering the key information.

4. Set Clear Expectations To avoid miscommunications, be very clear about your expectations from the start. Include as much as possible in the offer letter, job description, or contractor agreement. Make sure your new clinician knows what’s expected in terms of workload, client sessions, marketing responsibilities, and any provided materials or benefits.

Setting clear expectations early on makes it easier to have honest conversations down the line and can prevent misunderstandings.

5. Implement a “Buddy” System Consider asking a team member to act as a “buddy” for your new clinician. This person can check in with the new hire, answer basic questions, and provide support during the first few weeks. Having a go-to person other than you reduces your workload and ensures the new clinician feels supported.

6. Schedule Regular Check-Ins Even with delegation, you should still maintain regular communication with your new hire. Set up weekly or bi-weekly meetings during the first few months. This could be a quick end-of-the-week email or a more formal 30-60 minute meeting.

Determine who will oversee your new hire’s administrative and clinical management. If they’re receiving supervision from another team member, make sure the roles of administrative and clinical supervisors are clearly defined.

7. Conduct a 90-Day Review It’s helpful to implement a 90-day review system. Set the expectation that after 90 days, you’ll sit down with the new clinician to assess their progress and address any concerns. Whether this review is formal or informal, it’s an opportunity to check in and ensure everything is on track.

By following these steps, you’ll be able to streamline the onboarding process for future hires. With some upfront preparation, you can save time, reduce stress, and ensure your new clinicians feel supported and set up for success.