Treat leadership as a skill you invest in

What we covered

• A busy recruitment market despite reform noise, with Chris saying Rebel has hundreds of jobs open and OT jobs on SEEK near 3,600
• Why mid-year is the best time for candidates to look and why employers should finish onboarding new starters before the end of October
• Businesses becoming more selective with new grads, and the trade-off between salary, support and billable targets
• Redundancies in non-clinical middle management roles and what it takes for a team leader role to pay for itself
• The gap in leadership training in Allied Health and the case for separate clinical and operational career paths
• Buying and selling Allied Health businesses, therapy assistants and the award changes starting 1 October

Key moments

“I think it’s actually better to have time looking for work now because there’s more options, which means you get more chances to leverage your offers.” (Chris)

“So just because it’s less billables doesn’t mean it’s better.” (Chris)

“A fantastic team leader, operation manager, whatever, is worth their weight in gold. But… There has to be enough margin generated by the revenue generators, the clinicians with full caseloads to cover that role…” (Trystan)

“Basically, you should be trying to have a sellable business anyway, because a sellable business is a good business.” (Trystan)

“…if you’re struggling for work, go drive a couple of hours outside of a major city.” (Trystan)

If you run an Allied Health business

• Recruit in Q3 so new starters begin before the end of October, ahead of the quiet referral period and shutdown
• Avoid paying top of market and put the difference into team leader support, supervision and CPD, which Trystan argued can be a better return than an extra five grand in salary
• Make sure clinician margins can cover any non-clinical role and keep team leaders off admin; Trystan described running one team leader to 20 clinicians at about a 60% caseload
• Check what you pay anyone who supervises students, therapy assistants or other staff against the award changes from 1 October, which Trystan said set a level two base of about 101K

If you are a clinician

• Chris said the middle of the year gives candidates more options and more room to negotiate salary and benefits than the start of the year
• Ask at interview what sits behind a billable target, such as admin load, travel and support, before comparing offers on salary or billables alone
• Trystan’s advice for new grads with 40 years of work ahead: consider a five grand haircut to work somewhere far more supportive
• If you step into operational leadership, invest in leadership supervision, training or a mentor as seriously as clinical CPD

Questions from the chat

• How would you advise a seller trying to maximise value versus a buyer looking to buy
• What advice would you give someone setting up a talent acquisition function in a scaling business
• Which Allied Health profession is the most annoying or precious to recruit, and why
• What is one piece of advice for someone early in an operational leadership career