Full-Time vs Part-Time Employees in Healthcare: What’s Best for Your Clinic?

Today, we’re diving into one of the most common questions I get from clinic owners: Should I hire full-time or part-time therapists? This isn’t about admin staff — we’ll save that conversation for another day. Today, it’s all about your therapy team.

The Risk Perspective: Why Part-Time Seems Safer

In the early days of running a clinic, many owners lean towards hiring part-time therapists. The main reason? It feels less risky. Hiring someone for just one day a week means you only need to fill that single day with clients. Then, as demand grows, you add another day, and another. It’s a gradual approach that seems to minimise risk and overhead.

And yes, in the short term, this can feel like a smart strategy. After all, hiring full-time means you’re committed to filling around 38 hours per week right from the get-go — which sounds risky if you’re not sure you’ll fill those slots.

Breaking Down the Numbers: When Do You Break Even?

Let’s get practical and talk numbers. Imagine you hire a therapist, let’s call him John. John earns $38 an hour (a fair rate for someone with some experience). If John works 8 hours per week, you’re paying him roughly $337 per week including super — about $17,500 per year.

If John sees four clients a week at $100 each, he’s covering his wage — maybe even making a slight profit for your clinic. That’s the part-time scenario.

But what if John works full-time? At 38 hours, you need him to see about 16 clients per week just to break even.

This is where it gets interesting: the overheads go up, but so do the opportunities for revenue — if you have the client flow to support it.

The Hidden Challenge: Managing Multiple Part-Time Employees

Here’s a big but often overlooked problem with part-time hires: the management workload.

Say you need 200 therapist hours a week. That might be five full-time employees (40 hours each). Or it could mean 10 part-time employees working 20 hours each.

Guess what? Managing 10 part-time employees is a lot more work than managing five full-time employees.

Why? Because every new team member needs mentoring, onboarding, and support to understand your clinic’s systems and culture — no matter how many hours they work. Whether someone’s on for 8 hours a week or 38, they need the same level of training and management effort.

Multiply that by double or triple the number of staff, and your workload as a clinic owner skyrockets.

Plus, in today’s job market, it’s unlikely that someone will start at one day a week and gradually increase to full-time with you. They’ll probably take other jobs instead.

Flip the Script: Hire Full-Time and Improve Your Systems

So how do you reduce risk without limiting growth?

Instead of easing into hiring part-time, invest in your systems upfront:

• Improve client acquisition so you have a steady flow of patients ready for your new therapist.

• Create strong onboarding processes that help your new hire get up to speed quickly.

• Train your team to deliver exceptional care so clients keep coming back and spread the word.

By focusing on these, you can confidently hire full-time therapists knowing your clinic is ready to support them and fill their schedules.

What’s Your Clinic’s Future?

When you’re next thinking about hiring, ask yourself:

• Where do I want my clinic to be in a year?

• What will managing multiple part-time therapists look like for me?

• Could hiring full-time and investing in better systems reduce my workload in the long run?

It’s a big decision, and while there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, shifting your mindset from “hiring to reduce risk” to “building for growth” might be the key.