How to Build a Dream Team: 5 Steps for Hiring & Retention
As a practitioner, you’re used to doing hard things: tackling long days, caring deeply for your clients, and solving the kinds of challenges that don’t come with a handbook.
But when it comes to hiring your first (or next) staff member, even the most seasoned entrepreneurs can feel stuck. Who do you hire first — an admin or a practitioner? How do you find the perfect candidate so that you're not compromising to fill the spot quickly? And once they’re hired, how do you make sure they actually stay?
We get it — and so does Nicole McCance. As a retired psychologist, business coach, and founder of a 7-figure practice, Nicole has been through it all. In her conversation on Radio Front Desk, she reflected on her journey from starting a solo practice to building a thriving 55-therapist clinic.
Here, she shares her very own step-by-step guide on hiring, becoming a leader, and what it takes to build your dream team. Let’s get into it!
Nicole’s Playbook for Hiring and Retaining a Great Team
Step #1: Your first hire should be a “Mini Me”
- Action: Ensure that your first hire is a version of you, especially if you plan on moving some of your clients to this practitioner.
- Why it helps: Your clients are used to a certain experience with you. Like with any brand, they expect consistency. Hire someone who has similar energy, personality and approach. Your retention will skyrocket!
- Pro tip: Once they’re settled in, consider raising your rates and shifting your focus to working on the business rather than in it.
Step #2: Only hire a “Hell yes!”
- Action: Don’t settle. This is a work marriage after all. When you leave the interview, you want to be impressed and hoping they will take your job offer! There should be zero doubt: a “hell yes!”
- Why it helps: Any red (or even yellow) flags during the interview process end up showing up as a bigger problem later.
- Pro tip: Ask yourself, “Would I go out for lunch with this person?” If not, don't hire them.
Step #3 You’re a baby boss, so hire baby practitioners
- Action: Early in your leadership journey, consider hiring practitioners who are still early in their careers (like interns or pre-licensed practitioners). It can be less intimidating, and you can grow together.
- Why it helps: Those early in their career tend to stay at clinics longer than fully licensed practitioners because they want training, and they aren’t ready to grow a solo practice yet. (Hello, retention!)
Step #4: Do it scared
- Action: Embrace your inner boss. Of course, you’re scared! I was scared, too. What helped me was focusing on hiring one person to start. And then, when you need it, hire the next person. Things feel less scary when you take them one step at a time.
- Why it helps: Thinking too far ahead can feel overwhelming. By thinking in bite sizes, you realize that you have control over how fast you grow and how much you want to take on.
- Pro tip: Hanging out with clinic owners who were also taking risks and making big moves really helped me!
Step #5: Hire Slow. Fire Fast. Use a 6-step hiring model
- Action: I created a 6-step hiring model and suggest that you don’t hire until the candidate has passed all 6 steps. This is how you find your perfect person:
- 1) Screen them over the phone
- 2) Give them a personality test
- 3) Interview them
- 4) Provide a working interview
- 5) Give them a strength assessment
- 6) Reach out to 3 different references
- Why it helps: You are creating a dream clinic, so be picky. Having many steps to pass through can help weed out the wrong fits. Why it helps: You are creating a dream clinic, so be picky. Having many steps to pass through can help weed out the wrong fits.
- Pro Tip: Get your admin to screen them and give them the personality test before you jump on Zoom with them. This way, you don’t waste your time interviewing someone who can’t meet the non-negotiables. I’d recommend either the Big Five personality test or the Kolbe personality test.
Want to learn even more from Nicole?
🎧 Listen to her full episode on Radio Front Desk
📘 Learn more about her business coaching services
📚 Book recommendation: The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle (one of Nicole’s go-tos on building team culture)
