Braces, splints, artificial limbs and custom supports are measured on a person and built to fit them. Here is how to run the clinical and workshop sides together.
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Share your requirementsAn orthotics and prosthetics business makes and fits devices such as artificial limbs, calipers, spinal braces, foot orthoses and supports for people with injury, disability or long-term conditions. The work has two halves. Clinicians and fitters assess the person, take measurements and casts, and carry out trial fittings and follow-up. Technicians in a workshop shape, laminate, mould, assemble and finish each device, which is usually made one at a time. A device that does not fit hurts the patient, and many need repeated adjustment over months. Patients may be elderly, children, accident survivors or referred through hospitals and charities, so empathy is part of the job. Qualified people are few. See also HR for pharma and life sciences.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
Trained prosthetists and orthotists are few, and one vacancy at a centre means longer waits for patients and a heavier load on the rest.
Technicians rarely meet the patient, clinicians rarely see the bench, and fit problems bounce between them with no agreed way to resolve them.
Adjustments, repairs and reviews are tracked in personal notebooks, so a patient is lost when a clinician or fitter leaves.
Camps in towns and villages need clinicians, technicians and equipment away from base for days, which leaves the centre short and is hard on staff.
Staff meet people in pain or grief every day, often with little training in how to speak and listen, and burnout shows up as absence.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Employee Engagement and Experience; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for pharmaceuticals and life sciences, not in general.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a orthotics and prosthetics makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Who measures, who fits, who may adjust and who signs off, with the training each role needs.
What this coversHideWho measures, who fits, who may adjust and who signs off, with the training each role needs. Confirm professional registration and scope-of-practice rules with a qualified professional. See role design and job descriptions.
A regular joint review of fit problems and remakes, with technicians seeing the patient where possible, so feedback improves the next device.
What this coversHideA regular joint review of fit problems and remakes, with technicians seeing the patient where possible, so feedback improves the next device.
Fitting dates, adjustments and follow-up due, stored in one place that any clinician can read, so continuity does not rest on one person.
What this coversHideFitting dates, adjustments and follow-up due, stored in one place that any clinician can read, so continuity does not rest on one person. See HR documentation process.
A calendar of camps, a fair rotation of who travels, recorded hours and cover at the centre.
What this coversHideA calendar of camps, a fair rotation of who travels, recorded hours and cover at the centre. The attendance, shift and leave process supports this.
A short programme on listening, explaining and handling difficult conversations, plus a way to share the load.
What this coversHideA short programme on listening, explaining and handling difficult conversations, plus a way to share the load. See communication skills.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Clear clinical and workshop roles, with sign-off points that suit your scope and registration needs.
Searching for scarce prosthetists, orthotists and technicians through professional networks.
Understanding why qualified staff move on, and how to keep them.
Practical training for staff who talk with patients and families every day.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in pharmaceuticals and life sciences, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why people leave pharma and life sciences roles, and how to ask about qualification, shifts, territory and quality culture in an exit conversation.
7 min readRead article
Candidates who accept and never arrive are usually lost in the silence between offer and joining. What actually causes it, and a contact plan that closes the gap.
8 min readRead article
Eighty per cent responded, the report was thorough, and six months later trust was lower than before. What went wrong between the survey and the silence.
8 min readRead article
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Approach training institutions, professional bodies and networks early, consider sponsoring trainees and be ready to explain growth and the mission of the centre. Expect a long search.
Set up regular joint reviews of fit issues, let technicians observe fittings and agree who makes the final call on changes.
Rotate who travels, record hours and rest, arrange cover at base and recognise the effort. Plan camps well ahead so staff can arrange their own lives.
Requirements for credentials and the work each role may do depend on your location and services. Confirm them with a qualified professional.
Train them in difficult conversations, share caseloads fairly, provide time to talk after hard cases and watch absence for early signs.
We would start with your clinicians and technicians, how long each has stayed, and where the bench and the clinic lose touch, for example when a remake is needed. Follow-up records and the days people spend away at camps would come up as well. A good first piece of work is clearer roles plus a shared patient record routine. Scope is agreed in writing afterwards.
All 8 business types in pharmaceuticals and life sciences · Find another business type
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