A Team effort

Proven strategies for amassing the right workforce

Hiring and retaining the right staff for your optical practice is no easy feat, but it ensures your profit and success. "The average patient visit to a practice is between 70 and 90 minutes," says Bill Nolan, vice president with the Williams Group (www.wcgweb.com), a practice management consulting firm. "Of that time, the patient will only be with the doctor 25 percent of the time. The rest of the time they are interacting with the staff, which is why your staff is so critical."

Today, in the information age, the quality of your staff and their ability to deliver excellent customer service is even more crucial. "About 75 percent of all business comes from referrals and it all starts with good people who are friendly and engaging," says Daniel Abramson, CTS, president and founder of StaffDynamics (www.staffdynamics.biz), a consulting firm focused on workforce performance strategies. "If you do a good job, you'll get referrals. If you don't, people get onto the blogs or Facebook and complain. All those comments come up when a prospective patient googles you."

Following a few, focused strategies outlined by staffing pros can help ensure you have the right team in place. From hiring and training to retention and calculating productivity, this guide covers the basics for any eyecare business.

STRATEGY: Hire Intelligently

How can you find great candidates? Staffing-savvy ECPs and industry consultants agree that the first place to turn to is not your newspaper's "Help Wanted" ads. "It's your own patient base," says Nolan.

Others look to service industry employees, such as bank tellers, waiters and waitresses, and clothing store employees, for candidates. "Restaurant and retail employees at places like The Gap, Banana Republic, Starbucks, and Panera Bread have been well trained," says Abramson, who suggests giving talented people your business card. "These people are excellent because they are used to working nights and weekends."

Other resourceful ways to find good people include getting referrals from your reps and employees plus posting your position on online job sites such as CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, and Craigslist.org. When it comes to interviewing, Abramson recommends bringing the best candidates in for two to three interviews. "Also, have someone else in the office interview them as an acid test," he notes.

STRATEGY: Hire on Attitude vs. Experience

When your hiring decision boils down to a candidate with a great attitude versus one with good experience, experts say ECPs should always go for the attitude. "You want to hire for personality style as opposed to looking at someone's résumé," says Jerry Hayes, president of Hayes Consulting (www.hayesconsulting.com).

How can you be sure your candidate's attitude fits in with your office culture? "My advice is to test them with employment and personality profiles like Meyers-Briggs or the Kolbe Test," adds Hayes, whose business also sells a version called Know Your Staff.

Typically, a person with an extroverted personality will work well in a front-line office position. "An extrovert will focus on the people, where the introvert will be more focused on the technical or bookkeeping work," says Hayes. "Also, an introvert will wear down if they are in a position where they have to face the public all day long."

STRATEGY: Train new Employees Thoroughly

The challenges of managing patient flow, keeping up with the changing face of insurance, and remaining competitive in today's economy often impact the time slated for employee training. Still, this task is an extremely important step in creating a strong staff.

"Most optical practices are small, with less than six employees and the doctor doesn't have time to train," says Abramson. "Instead, you have to designate a mentor for new employees. During the first week, the new employee should shadow the mentor for the first three days and then the mentor should shadow the new employee for the next three days."

How long does it take to get a new employee acclimated? While some experts say most hires will begin to feel comfortable with processes and procedures in about two weeks, it could potentially take anywhere from six months to one year to fully bring someone on board, especially if they don't have a lot of experience.

STRATEGY: Calculate Employee Productivity

Once you've selected the right staff and trained them thoroughly, you can follow through by monitoring each employee's productivity and their ability to excel in their job. The first step is to ensure you've formally placed their job description in writing to have something to monitor against. "Have it in writing, have both supervisor and employee sign off on it, and evaluate the employee against the specific items in the job description," says Hayes.

Abramson suggests that employees be evaluated twice a year—once for performance and once for salary. "I recommend a 360-degree review where the employee and supervisor both complete a review form and have a discussion about how the employee is doing," he says. "Then you can both develop a checklist for development and sign off on it." Abramson offers free forms to help ECPs with this process (call 877-568-2222 for more information).

Areas to focus on during the performance review can include people skills, selling skills, knowledge of the latest trends in optical products and style, and proper problem solving.

Today, most practice management software will enable you to also track the number and dollar value of sales each dispensary employee is making. This useful information can help you pinpoint the employees who may need some extra training on the art of upselling and selling second pairs.

STRATEGY: Retain Great Staff

Once you've invested time and money into developing an excellent staff, they will be a resource you'll want to retain. "The average staff person turns over once every three-and-a-half to four years," says Nolan. "But if you can create a culture where people feel recognized, challenged, and properly compensated, you will keep them over time and your practice will grow and develop."

While Nolan says, "People work for praises not raises," you'll want to ensure your compensation is competitive. Websites like Salary.com, which allow you to type in your zip code to review local compensation benchmarks, can be helpful.

Company culture, however, is an even better retention skill to develop. "This is the magic bullet for retention," says Abramson. "Southwest Airlines has a four to five percent turnover rate—they don't pay on the high end, but they create a great working environment and people don't leave. As an ECP, make sure to pay your people competitively, have daily huddles and weekly meetings to increase communication and camaraderie, and bring pizzas in once a month."

Ongoing training for veteran employees is also a key point for retention. ECPs will benefit in the long run by paying for their employees' CE credits (within reason). Additional training seminars are excellent for employee morale. These can range from new product information from reps to education about new office policies and procedures.

In the end, everything you do on this front will help create an office culture that will make your key staff members enjoy coming to work—and think twice about leaving.

CONSULTING 101

Can an optical consultant really help ECPs amass a better staff? "A good consultant has seen 50 to 100 practices and they can quickly analyze if you have an effective and efficient staff," says Jerry Hayes of Hayes Consulting. "The big value is that perspective."

ECPs in the market for a staffingfocused consultant can look to their peers for recommendations as well as classes at shows like Vision Expo.

Will the cost of hiring a consultant be worth the return on investment? "A well-trained hiring consultant can save you money in the long run while helping you increase productivity and decrease costly turnover," says Daniel Abramson, CTS, president and founder of StaffDynamics. "The bottom line is that happy patients generate more referrals to your practice."