Hiring and Onboarding a Physiotherapist by Market

Hiring and onboarding a physiotherapist is mostly two jobs done properly: verify the person on the day you offer, and plan the first 90 days before they arrive. The employment rules differ sharply across the five markets, and the one most likely to catch a UK employer out is that the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months on January 1, 2027. There are no salary figures, award rates or notice periods in weeks on this page, and the last section but one explains why.

This guide is for practice owners in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It earns its place as practice management rather than as something people search for: every employer-side search phrase measured nothing, which tells you how little is written for the person doing the hiring. The documents named here were read on October 24, 2026. It is education, not legal or employment advice, and employment law is the area where a local adviser is worth paying for.

What to settle before you advertise the role

Write down the answers to these before the advert goes out, because every one of them turns up later as a disagreement.

The caseload you expect in week one, week six and month six, and the session length that goes with it.
The funding mix the new physio will work in: self-pay, insurer, public scheme, workers compensation. Each one brings its own paperwork and its own delay before money arrives.
Who clinically supervises, who they go to with a question at 4pm, and how often you will sit down together.
The pay you can afford, worked from your own cost per clinical hour rather than from a competitor's advert. The arithmetic is in the pricing guide.
The registration category you will accept, which decides whether supervision is a legal requirement or just good practice.
Employment type and hours, and whether the role is genuinely employment or a contractor arrangement. Getting that wrong is expensive in every one of the five markets.
What success looks like at 90 days, in words you are willing to show the candidate at interview.

A role described loosely attracts applicants who want something different from what you are offering, and the mismatch surfaces at about week five.

Checking registration, right to work and history

Verify registration yourself, on the regulator's own public register, on the day you make the offer, and keep a dated note of what you saw. Do not accept a certificate, a screenshot or a number read out over the phone. Registers show more than a yes or no: they show the category of registration and any conditions, undertakings or restrictions attached to it, and the category is what tells you whether this person may practice unsupervised.

The checks that belong on the list:

Registration status and category on the regulator's register, with the date you checked.
Any conditions or undertakings, and what they require of you as the employer.
Right to work in the country, by the documents your government requires.
References, including one that confirms clinical performance rather than attendance.
Criminal record or vulnerable sector checks where your jurisdiction or your contracts require them.
Professional indemnity and liability cover, and whether yours covers them or theirs must.
In the USA, payer credentialing. This is the one that catches new owners: an otherwise perfect hire cannot bill some payers until credentialing is complete, so start it at offer, not at start date, and plan the cash flow for the gap.

The United States: at will, non-competes and payer credentialing

Most US employment is at will, with no statutory notice period, which means the contract and your own written process carry the weight that statute carries elsewhere. Write the probation expectations down anyway, and follow them, because a documented process is what defends a dismissal in practice whatever the legal position.

Non-competes changed and then changed back. The Federal Trade Commission's 2024 rule banning most non-competes was set aside by the Northern District of Texas in Ryan, LLC v. FTC in August 2024, and the FTC removed it from the Code of Federal Regulations in a rule effective February 12, 2026, published at 91 FR 6507, which also revised the Negative Option Rule and withdrew the CARS Rule. So a non-compete in a physical therapist's contract is governed by your state's law and by case-by-case federal enforcement, not by a national ban. State law on this varies more than almost anything else in US employment, and no state's rules are described here.

Your state practice act and licensing board set requirements for supervision, delegation and what a physical therapist assistant may do, and this page does not describe them. The APTA Code of Ethics in effect since January 1, 2026 is the current version to hand a new employee. Name both in the induction pack and point at the authority rather than paraphrasing it.

The United Kingdom: the unfair dismissal change coming in 2027

This is the fact a guide written a year ago gets wrong. Section 25 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 reduces the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal from two years to six months, and Schedule 3 does the same for the right to written reasons for dismissal. The date is no longer a statement of intent: the commencement regulations have been made, and they bring section 25 and Schedule 3 into force on January 1, 2027. The Department for Business and Trade's factsheet adds that employees who already have six months' service at that date are protected immediately, and that section 124 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the cap on compensatory awards, "will also be removed completely".

The transitional rule in those regulations is the part to read twice, because it is where a clinic owner gets caught. What matters is not when you dismiss somebody. It is the effective date of termination. The new rules apply where an employee is dismissed before January 1, 2027 but the effective date of termination falls on or after it, and they do not apply where that date falls before. So a dismissal decided in December 2026, with notice running into January, lands inside the new regime.

On the cap, one number with a date attached, because the number is being abolished. The DBT factsheet states that the cap as of April 6, 2026 is the lower of either 123,543 pounds or 52 weeks' gross pay. That was read on October 24, 2026, and after January 1, 2027 there is no cap, so compensation rests on the losses the claimant proves. Do not quote the figure without the date. For scale rather than comfort, the factsheet also reports that of 646 unfair dismissal awards in tribunals in 2023 to 2024, the median was 6,746 pounds, and few awards reach the cap.

Already in force, and easy to miss. Tribunal time limits rose from three months to six on October 1, 2026, so the window in which a dismissal can come back to you has doubled. And fire and rehire becomes automatically unfair in most cases from January 2027.

What a clinic owner should actually do about it: make probation real before the end of 2026. That means objectives written down at the start, documented reviews at fixed points, feedback in writing when something is not working, and a decision made inside the probation period rather than drifted past. Day-one rights that already exist, including protection from discrimination and from automatically unfair dismissal, are unchanged.

Mind the edges of all that. This is the law for England, Scotland and Wales; employment law in Northern Ireland is devolved and none of these changes is described here for it. And Acas notes that implementation of most of the Act depends on government consultation, although the DBT factsheet says the Government does not intend to consult further on the unfair dismissal provisions themselves.

Australia: the award that covers the role

The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) is the modern award to start from. Clause 4 makes it an industry and occupational award covering employers in the health industry and their employees in the Schedule A classifications, and separately covering any employer engaging a health professional employee in those classifications. Its definitions clause defines a combined term for private medical, dental, pathology, physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathic practice, which it describes as the practice of any practitioner and names physiotherapy practice among them. So a private physiotherapy clinic is squarely inside it.

Clause 3 says the National Employment Standards and the award together hold the minimum conditions, and that where the award refers to a condition provided for in the NES, the NES definition applies. Termination of employment has its own clause, 37, and it is worth knowing what is in it and what is not, because the two halves come from different places.

Employer notice is not in the award. Clause 37 opens with a note pointing at sections 117 and 123 of the Fair Work Act, so when you dismiss someone the notice period comes from the NES. Employee notice is in the award, in its own table at clause 37.1, graded by length of continuous service.

The clause holds a couple of things a clinic owner would not guess. If an employee aged 18 or over leaves without giving the notice the table requires, the award lets you deduct from wages owing, capped at one week's pay, not available if you agreed a shorter notice period, and never where the deduction would be unreasonable. And clause 37.2 gives an employee you have given notice to up to one day off, paid, to look for another job.

No notice period in weeks appears here, because the award is varied often and the table is short enough to read yourself. Read clause 37 and the NES together, in the version current on the day. The consolidated text read for this page incorporated amendments up to October 1, 2026.

No rate, loading, allowance or notice period in weeks appears here. Classification under the award depends on qualifications and experience, the rates change with the annual wage review, and a figure copied from a guide is the fastest way to underpay someone. Read the consolidated award text and the current rates through the Fair Work Ombudsman's own pay tools, both on the day you set the pay.

One trap worth naming. Secondary summaries of physiotherapy pay in Australia, including material published by professional bodies, have been seen citing the superseded 2010 award rather than the 2020 one. Check the award code on whatever you are reading. If it does not say MA000027, do not use it.

New Zealand: the 90-day trial, and why most challenged ones fail

Trial periods have been available to all employers since December 23, 2023, whatever their size. Employment New Zealand sets out what makes one valid, and every element matters:

The trial must not last longer than 90 calendar days.
The employee must not have worked for you before.
The trial must be at the start of that employment, and the agreement must say so from the first day.
The employee must sign before starting work. Sign it afterwards, even hours afterwards, and it is invalid.
The employee should have a reasonable chance to get independent advice before signing.
If you dismiss during the trial you must give the notice stated in the agreement, or reasonable notice if none is stated, and either let them work it out or pay them through it.
Trial periods are not allowed for a migrant worker employed on an Accredited Employer Work Visa.

The agreement also has to say certain things in terms: that the trial starts at the very beginning of the employment, how long it runs, that you may dismiss during it, and that the employee cannot raise a personal grievance about that dismissal. An agreement that does not mention the trial period at all is a ground for invalidity on its own.

Now the number that should change how you handle it. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's regulatory impact statement for the 2023 extension reports that of the 90-day trial provisions considered by the Employment Relations Authority between 2015 and 2023, 133 of 178, which is 75 percent, were found to be invalid. The reasons it lists are all procedural: a general contractual failure with the agreement, the employee not actually being a new employee, including someone who worked a few days before signing, the trial provision itself being stated incorrectly, notice of dismissal not properly given, and other procedural error. A trial period is not a shortcut around a hiring decision. It is a clause that works only if the paperwork is right before the first shift.

If a candidate has worked for you before, as a locum or a weekend cover, a trial period is not available at all and a probationary period is the alternative. That can run for any length, can be used even where the person has worked for you before, and comes with different dismissal rules, which means you still owe them a fair process.

Canada: provincial standards and college registration

Employment standards in Canada are provincial, so notice, probation, termination pay and leave come from your own province's employment standards legislation, not from a federal rule. Registration is verified with the provincial college, and the colleges differ from each other on more than registration: advertising, billing and supervision standards are provincial too, and the Ontario Advertising and Marketing Standard that governs how you describe your new hire is not the Manitoba or Alberta one.

Only some provinces were read for this page, so Alberta here is an example and not a national rule. In Alberta, the College of Physiotherapists of Alberta is phasing out its Provisional Register: nobody has been admitted to it since September 30, 2026, including former registrants, and applicants now go straight to the General Register on passing the Canadian Physiotherapy Examination.

What that does not mean is that provisional registrants have gone. Anyone already on the register when it closed stays there, under supervision, until they pass the examination or reach the two-year limit, whichever comes first, and a break in registration means they cannot go back on. So an Alberta employer can still be handed a candidate on the Provisional Register with a supervision requirement attached, and can also be handed one whose two years are nearly up. That is exactly the kind of change that makes an offer letter wrong three months after it is written. Check the candidate's register and category with their own college on the day, ask how long they have left on it, and check what that category permits them to do unsupervised.

Does a new graduate need supervision?

Usually not as a legal requirement, if they hold full registration in the country where they are working. Formal supervision generally attaches to the registration category rather than to inexperience: limited, provisional, conditional or temporary registration, which is where an overseas-trained physiotherapist or a graduate still waiting on an examination usually sits.

Market by market, as far as the documents go:

UK. The HCPC says plainly that "preceptorship is not a requirement for HCPC registration", and its Principles for preceptorship of November 2023 are good practice rather than a condition. The HCPC also notes that a registrant working independently is unlikely to have an organizational program available, which is the situation most private clinics are in.
Australia. Supervision requirements attach to limited registration or to conditions on registration, and the Board's supervised practice framework has been in effect since February 1, 2022, setting out what is expected of supervisees, supervisors and employers. Where a candidate's registration requires supervised practice, the arrangement is a matter for the Board, so ask the candidate what their registration requires and confirm it before the start date.
Canada. Provincial, and tied to the register. Alberta's Provisional Register exists for applicants who passed the written component but not the clinical one, and they practice under supervision. It has closed to new entrants, as above, but people remain on it, so ask rather than assume.
USA. Supervision and delegation rules sit in the state practice act, which this page does not describe. Read your own.
New Zealand. Check the scope of practice and any conditions recorded on the Physiotherapy Board's register for that person.

What is true everywhere: no regulator stops you providing clinical support, and a new graduate working alone with a full diary and nobody to ask is a clinical risk whether or not supervision is mandatory. Supervision that is not required is still worth giving. That is a decision about safety and retention, not a compliance question.

What does a first 90 days look like?

Written down, and the same for every hire, so the quality of the induction does not depend on how busy you were that week.

Week one: no full diary. Observation, the clinic's documentation standard, the software, consent and privacy, emergency procedures, where equipment lives, how to book and rebook, and the referral routes out. Give them the red flags guide and talk through what to do when something in that list turns up on a Friday afternoon.

Weeks two to four: a reduced caseload with real time between patients, notes reviewed with them rather than behind them, and one scheduled conversation each week. Set the standard for a plan of care and for SOAP notes now, because a documentation habit formed in month one is the one you get for years.

Days 30, 60 and 90: a review each time, against the objectives you wrote before the advert went out. Caseload rising toward the target, outcome measures being used and recorded, rebooking and completion rates looked at without blame, and anything not working said out loud and in writing. In the UK after January 1, 2027, those three reviews are also your evidence that a probation decision was fair, so hold them even in a busy month.

Onboarding that does not run through the owner's head

Most small practices onboard by answering questions. It works until two people start in the same quarter, or until the owner is away.

What to write down once:

An induction checklist with a named owner for each item and a date it was done.
Templates: assessment, plan of care, discharge letter, referrer letter, standard patient messages.
The clinic's standard home exercise programs for the conditions you see most, so a new physio prescribes to the same standard as everyone else from week one. That is where home exercise program software earns its place, and where PocketPhysio fits: the exercise library and the dose are shared, so the program a patient takes home does not depend on who they saw.
A named buddy who is not the owner, for the questions nobody wants to ask the boss.
The routes out: who to refer to, when, and how, including urgent medical review.
How patients are followed up, which is where retention comes from. The patient retention guide covers what to measure.

If you are building a practice from scratch, the employment, registration and insurance groundwork is in the start-up guides for the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Why does this page give you no pay figure?

Because a wrong number here costs somebody money. Salaries, award rates, probation lengths and notice periods in weeks are all specific to a jurisdiction and a date, and the figure most likely to be copied is the one most likely to be stale.

Where to get each of them instead: in Australia, the award (MA000027) and the Fair Work Ombudsman's current pay tools; in the UK, your own costing plus the published NHS pay structures as a reference point for the local market; in New Zealand, the employment agreement and Employment New Zealand's guidance on minimum entitlements; in Canada, your province's employment standards legislation; in the USA, your state's law and your own cost per clinical hour. In every market, the floor is your own arithmetic: what an hour of clinical time costs you, how many hours can really be filled, and what is left.

The short version

Decide the role, the caseload and the pay from your own numbers before the advert goes out. Verify registration yourself on the regulator's register on the day you offer, including the category and any conditions, and in the USA start payer credentialing at the same moment.

Know your market's rule. In England, Scotland and Wales the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months on January 1, 2027, the compensation cap goes, and what decides which regime applies is the effective date of termination rather than the date you decide, so make probation a real process now. Australia's role sits under MA000027, whose definitions name physiotherapy practice; employee notice is in clause 37 and employer notice is in the National Employment Standards. New Zealand's 90-day trial works only if it is signed before the first day, and three quarters of the ones the Authority looked at from 2015 to 2023 were found invalid on procedure.

Canada is provincial for employment standards and for registration, and Alberta's closed Provisional Register still has people on it. The USA is mostly at will, with non-competes back in the hands of state law.

Then write the first 90 days down, review at 30, 60 and 90, and give a new graduate clinical support whether or not a regulator makes you.

References

Department for Business and Trade. Factsheet: Unfair Dismissal (Employment Rights Act 2025). Read October 24, 2026. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6970a03df88ad0be09b9ef07/unfair-dismissal-factsheet.pdf
The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 (S.I. 2026/559), regulations 3 and 4. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/559/made
Acas. Employment Rights Act 2025. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.acas.org.uk/employment-rights-act-2025
Health and Care Professions Council. Preceptorship for registrants working outside the NHS, including as sole practitioners. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.hcpc-uk.org/resources/information/principles-for-preceptorship/preceptorship-for-registrants-working-outside-the-nhs-including-as-sole-practitioners/
Health and Care Professions Council. Principles for preceptorship, including supporting information. November 2023. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.hcpc-uk.org/globalassets/resources/information/preceptorship/hcpc-principles-for-preceptorship.pdf
Federal Trade Commission. Revisions to the Negative Option Rule, withdrawal of the CARS Rule and removal of the Non-Compete Rule (16 CFR parts 425, 463 and 910). Final rule, 91 FR 6507, published and effective February 12, 2026. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2026-02866
Employment New Zealand (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment). Trial periods. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.employment.govt.nz/starting-employment/hiring/trial-periods
Employment New Zealand. 90-day trial periods extended to include all employers (in effect December 23, 2023). Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.employment.govt.nz/about/news-and-updates/90-day-trial-periods-extended-to-include-all-employers
Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Regulatory Impact Statement: Extending the Availability of 90-day Trial Periods. December 2023. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.regulation.govt.nz/assets/RIS-Documents/ris-mbie-eao-dec23.pdf
Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027), clauses 2, 3, 4 and 37. Consolidated text incorporating all amendments up to and including October 1, 2026 (PR814029). Accessed October 24, 2026. https://awards.fairwork.gov.au/MA000027.html
Physiotherapy Board of Australia. Supervised practice framework in effect (from February 1, 2022). Accessed October 24, 2026. https://physiotherapyboard.gov.au/News/2022-02-01-Supervised-practice-framework-in-effect.aspx
College of Physiotherapists of Alberta. Sunsetting of the Provisional Register (no admissions after September 30, 2026). Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.cpta.ab.ca/news-and-updates/news/sunsetting-of-the-provisional-register/
College of Physiotherapists of Ontario. Advertising and Marketing Standard. Effective May 1, 2025. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://collegept.org/standard/advertising-and-marketing-standard/

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-10-24.

Hiring and onboarding a physiotherapist: checks, contracts and the first 90 days