Great to see that title got your attention 😉

Whether you’re a manager looking to hire an early career OT, or an OT student or new grad trying to work out what you should be looking for in your first or next job, this article is worth a look.

Strap yourself in for 10 quick ways to look after early career OTs!

1.       Know what referrals a new grad OT can handle

Unfortunately, new grads don’t come out of uni ready to take on any referral that comes their way. University teaches them to think like an OT, but it can’t prepare them for every scenario they may encounter once the start working. OT services are broad, and some of what we do actually requires specialised knowledge and skill, even if it doesn’t look too complicated on the surface to a non-OT. Before you hire a new grad OT, you need to be confident you can generate the right type of referrals, so you can afford to say no to the ones they shouldn’t be going anywhere near. If you’re in an NDIS caseload, things like complex home modifications, complex wheelchairs and seating, complex mental health presentations and SDA applications should be an automatic “computer says no” deal for a new grad. The “complex” part at the start of those examples is a bit of a give away 😉

2.       Have an OT on your interview panel

Sometimes in your eagerness, or desperation to hire an OT, you may be tempted to say yes to the first person who puts in an application. But this can backfire – for you, and the OT. You may end up with an OT who is not a good fit for your team, who isn’t really that interested in the caseload they’ve signed up for, and who needs a high-level of support to provide the OT services you were hoping to provide. One way to avoid this happening, is to have an experienced OT on the interview panel, and use some case studies to pick their brain and find out how they think. If you’re not an OT, it’s pretty hard to judge if they nail a case scenario or not. They may not ace the case study, but if you’re happy with everything else, you may still make an offer, but you’ll be going in knowing exactly how much support they are going to need.

3.       Don’t set the billable KPI too high!

This is an obvious one. Whenever there is a survey or poll about what is contributing to new grad burnout, high billable KPIs come up all the time. There’s no magic number you should be aiming for, but you do need to factor in how much admin support they’ll have, what the complexity of their caseload is and how many clients are on their books at once. You also need to grade the KPI expectation over time and prepare for the fact that they may not be on par with a more experienced OT for 6-12 months.

4.       Don’t set the billable KPI too low!

Yep, not a typo – don’t set it too low either. There are some workplaces trying a ‘no billable KPI’ approach and it’s working – this is fantastic. But my suggestion is if you’re going to do this, make sure it’s all or nothing. Set a reasonable KPI, or none at all. If you set one too low (like 2 hours per day after 3 months) you could start to encourage some bad habits. Instead of learning strategies for being efficient, they may over-think, dawdle or over-service and under-charge, all of which are bad news for long-term productivity. If now you’re really confused about what to do with billable KPIs, ask me for some help!

5.       Niche their referrals

What helps new grads become competent and confident? Repetition, repetition, repetition! This is why they do so well in new grad orthopaedic roles in a hospital – lots of hip replacements requiring a similar approach. Have a think about how you may be able to niche your referrals in your company. Even with a mixed caseload, can you give them mostly a certain type of referral to start with? Like all Functional Capacity Assessments? Or can you let them work with just one type of client population? Like people with physical impairments, or kids needing help with school readiness? If you can create opportunities for repetition of processes and skills, that confidence and competence will come much quicker.

6.       Have a plan for providing ad hoc support

Hopefully you know all OTs need formal supervision. For new grads it’s recommended to be one hour per week or fortnight. But don’t forget about the value of ad hoc support. Someone who can answer a quick question, so they don’t waste an hour trying to find the answer themselves on the NDIS website. Someone who can quickly read a paragraph in their report and confirm what to keep or delete so they don’t agonise over it for half an hour. If you don’t have a senior OT on your team this can be trickier to arrange, but you need a plan.

7.       Let them choose their mentor

You need to ensure they have clinical supervision. You’ll be doing even better if you can let them have a choice about who that supervisor is. If they can find someone whose approach matches their learning style, they’ll learn a lot quicker. Sometimes this is tough if you’re a small team, so consider other options like out-sourcing to an external supervisor. If this is not feasible, can you cover quarterly check-ins with a mentor of their choice at least. Let them be supported by someone they truly connect with.

8.       Have a written professional development plan

When new grads start working, they’re probably a bit nervous, but they are full of enthusiasm. We want to grab that enthusiasm and keep it burning bright. One way to do this is to have a written professional development plan where they can set goals they want to work towards, and plan what CPD and opportunities will get them there. It’s not a set and forget though. Revisiting it on a regular basis can help them reflect on the fact that they are learning stuff (even if it still feels like everything is new to them). If you go beyond a 12-month plan and include two and five year goals, you’ll plant the seed that you have a vision for keeping them with you and you can find out what you need to do to make them stay.

9.       Out-source your training – but choose wisely!

If you’ve got senior OTs you may be tempted to ask them to put together a new grad program with lots of tutorials, training and self-directed tasks for the early career OT to work through. But this isn’t as easy as it sounds. If your senior OT isn’t actually that keen on teaching, or they don’t have the skills to do it well, you’ll end up with dissatisfied new grads and a stressed-out senior OT, and you might lose both. Instead, you can outsource your training, but don’t just sign them up to any webinar in the topic area you want them to learn about. Dig deeper and find out about the presenter and the content – have they trained students or new grads before? Is the content suitable for a beginner level or will they be left with more questions? My hot tip if your grads have an NDIS caseload is to visit my Learning Library or send me a DM and I’ll tell you how my courses tick those boxes and more.

10.   Don’t promote too early

And finally, while you might feel you’re rewarding a new grad by calling them a ‘senior’ OT after a year, or promoting them to “Team Leader” after 18 months, the reality is you’re probably not doing them any favours. Giving them too many leadership responsibilities when they are still trying to consolidate their own clinical skills can backfire and make them feel like they don’t know what they’re doing. If they are in roles like that with only 18 months experience, they should feel like they don’t know what they’re doing. If they’re not, they probably don’t know what they don’t know, which could be worse. Instead give them small realistic projects or help them to supervise a student. Show them they are valued, and how those smaller opportunities will lead to bigger ones when they’re ready.

If you’d like to dive deeper into those tips, check out a recent webinar I ran with Angie Contreras and Nicole de la Perrelle called “Pathways to Success: Hiring, supporting and retaining early career OTs.” You can watch it for free on YouTube now!

For those still reading, hopefully there was something there that is achievable in your workplace. If you’d like more info about any of those tips, send me a DM. I offer one-on-one mentoring to help you make the right choices about supporting your OTs. You can also outsource a lot of your training knowing it’s been developed by an educator who understands how new grads think and how best to support them. Let’s chat more 😊

P.S. Are you still looking for ways to be a better OT that loves what they do? Here are 4 ways that I can help you:

·       Check out my Learning Library full of resources and courses

·       Sign-up for one-on-one or group training and support

·       Book a time for a chat to see how I can help

·       Sign-up for Your OT Tutor membership - coming soon - put in your EOI here!

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