Tag: staffing

5 Ways to Reduce Optical Staff Errors when Collecting Fees for Sublease ODs

Human Resources, NextGenOD

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Being an optometrist isn’t easy as there are so many things to look after, primarily when you are subleasing and don’t have control of the optical staff. Subleasing has plenty of benefits to offer, including having trained staff who work under your wing and assist you in your daily operations via your contract.

So, what happens when your staff makes errors and makes it difficult for you to run your practice? Such errors include not collecting payments on time from patients.

This isn’t beneficial for your practice and can result in significant losses. So, what should an optometrist do in such a situation? Let’s find out:

Collect Payment Before Treatment
This practice may not be allowed in some jurisdications, which is why it’s crucial to check before implementing . When you collect payments from your patients first, it can help you have clarity whether the patient has paid or not.

If your optical staff fails to collect payment from the patients after the treatment, you’ll be looking at a loss. You would have provided quality treatment to the patient and would note  even get paid for it. See if you can collect payment first.

Hire Your Staff
When you sublease space to run your practice, you will likely have to work with the existing staff. However, it can become problematic once the optical staff makes enormous mistakes. I

In such a situation, you should hire your staff. You can interview yourself to see their potential. When you have the right people for the job working under you, you’ll experience fewer errors and more ease.  Interview potential candidates thoroughly before appointing them, and have a much smoother experience at work.

Set Up Online Payment
If your staff forgets to collect payment from the patients, one thing you can do is ask them to call those patients, apologize for the oversight,  and ask for the payment.

Since your staff made the mistake of collecting payment, they should be the ones who make the call. Also, another suitable way to collect payment would be to set up an online payment option where patients can pay before getting the treatment. This way, you’ll receive the amounts, and your staff wouldn’t have to go after the patients regarding payments.

The Paper Trail
There should be paperwork for everything, including collecting payments from patients. You should have access to the invoices stating that the patient has paid a certain amount of money to receive a particular treatment.

Once you have all the documents, you’ll have proof that the patient has paid, and your staff didn’t forget to ask for the required money. Also, if there’s an invoice missing, you’ll immediately know that your employees failed to fetch the payment.

Do it Yourself?
This isn’t your job as an OD, but if your staff is not on top of things, you’ll have to step in. If you want to ensure your patients pay you the money you’re entitled to receive, you should collect it yourself at the end of the treatment. This way, you won’t have to run after optical staff to do so, and you’ll have your dues as well.

MARIA SAMPALIS

is the founder of Corporate Optometry, a peer-to-peer web resource for ODs interested to learn more about opportunities in corporate optometry. Canadian ODs and optometry students can visit www.corporateoptometry.com to learn more.

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Fact or Fiction? We need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – We need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers.

Maybe, but research and experience show that pay and benefits are among the weakest ties to an employer.

There’s no question that you need to offer an attractive package, but if these things are generally aligned with industry standards, other factors become much more important in attracting and retaining star employees.

The Four Fits
The factors that attract the right candidates and keep them focused and productive are what researchers refer to as the four critical aspects of fit.

Fit with manager is the most important – it’s crucial. The others are fit with the job, fit with the team, and fit with the company.

It’s surprisingly easy to filter people into a conversation with you based on these aspects of fit, and yet remarkably few organizations have figured out how to do it reliably. There are reliable and proven tools to do so (and intuition is generally unreliable.)

It’s Fiction. You don’t need to offer top pay and benefits to attract and keep top performers. Align your offer with the industry standards and hire (and retain) for FIT!

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? First impressions are everything. A candidate needs to impress me in the first five minutes.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – First impressions are everything. A candidate needs to impress me in the first five minutes.

Fact: Sure, impressions are important, and statistics do show that most managers decide at an unconscious level whether they want to hire a candidate in the first three minutes of the interview!

The rest of the time together is essentially an opportunity to gather information to support whatever decision was already made.

You are Good, but…
Really good managers are aware of this and work hard to counteract it. One important way they do this is to understand their ultimate objective.

They want a top performer, not a top candidate. The difference is critical. Top candidates may have a great résumé, show up on time, look the part and have a great handshake. All these cosmetic factors have no bearing on how long they will stay with your company or how well they will work out.

  • Top performers share a very distinctive set of attributes and attitudes
  • They learn fast
  • They take responsibility
  • They build solid relationships
  • They think differently, act differently, and fit differently in your practice.

Flagging these things can’t be done by résumé or even interview alone. Fortunately their are proven techniques that improve your odds and give employers and hiring managers a deeper look into the true character of the candidate.  You might not be using these techniques but the smartest of your competitors are.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any practice is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

First impressions are everything!! – definitely Fiction.

That’s the Fit First philosophy.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? Finding the right person is a numbers game.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – Finding the right person is a numbers game. To improve the odds, the posting needs to be broadcast using big recruitment boards, niche boards and other offline media like papers and publications.

Fact: At any given time only about 20% of the workforce has an up-to-date résumé and are actively looking for work. These are likely not the top performers you are looking to attract.

Quality versus Quantity:
There is a huge difference between quantity and quality of candidates, and as Mies van der Rohe says, less is more.

The best job candidates are usually not actively looking for work. They don’t hang out on the job boards, but 60% of people who are not actively looking and don’t have an up-to-date résumé to whip out in a moment’s notice may not be in love with their current job.

Often the résumé is a barrier to finding the right talent for your business. Making it only one piece of the puzzle and focusing on finding the right fit, candidate quantity may decrease, but quality, like cream, will rise to the top.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer.

The Verdict:
Finding the right person IS a numbers game! And that number is ONE.

Objectively vetted and matched to fit the role and your practice, one new star employee is all that really matters. Having a handful of candidates or a hundred, in the final analysis, doesn’t really help if you don’t hire for fit.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? A solid résumé and a personalized cover letter define the perfect candidate.

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Fact or Fiction?  – A solid résumé and a personalized cover letter define the perfect candidate.

Most assuredly FICTION!

In today’s world, most candidates don’t even write their own résumés … and then factor in the embellishments or even sometimes, unfortunately, outright falsifications.

In fact, it’s hard to believe that we are still accepting these documents as the primary admission ticket into any credible organizations’ hiring pipeline. Astute interviewers will be able to recognize an applicant’s overreach, but even professional recruiters are often fooled.

The glitzy slick resume and expertly crafted resume might well make it through your selection filters, but by then, you have already wasted valuable time and energy, and perhaps even overlooked a true superstar for your team.

FACT:  There’s no real correlation between what’s in the résumé and how well people will perform or how long they will stay in your practice.  None. Nada.

In fact, relying on just a résumé to find your next superstar associate gives you about the same odds as buying a lottery ticket.

The difference is that hiring the wrong candidate will cost you a whole lot more than a $1 Powerball. It costs time and money and causes a great deal of aggravation. In fact, a bad or toxic hire will have an infectious impact on your practice – and not a good way, potentially even leading to some of your true stars to leave your practice.

All hiring managers, whether it be the practice owner or a trusted manager, need to  use the résumé as only one piece of the puzzle and screen for things that are actual predictors of retention and productivity.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer. The good news is that there are better ways.  Many of Canada’s leading eye care employers deploy sophisticated algorithms in their screening process to stack the odds in favour of getting that star candidate.

Fit First Philosophy starts with this premise. Hire for Fit, and then train as needed.  Save yourself time and money.
This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Fact or Fiction? I Can Only Afford to Hire for Experience

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

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Hiring Fact or Fiction – I can only afford to hire people who have experience.

The fact is that is most organizations find themselves hiring for experience and then firing for fit.

Associates are more often than not brought into an organization because they have the right blend of education, credentials, and work experience on paper.

They may even be a qualified Optician or and Optometric Assistant or have experience as a frame stylist in a practice or optical.

Many of these hires ultimately move on because they don’t jive with their coworkers, your clients or the practice owners and they just don’t fit the practice culture that you have been working hard to create.

FACT:  Save time, effort, and resources. Decrease staff churn. Hire for fit.

It is far better to find people who fit. People who can work productively with your people and can learn what they need to know quickly.

Most often the reason for short circuiting what might seem like the obvious is the practice does not have a training plan and process in place or doesn’t have the time (or the skills) to train the person for a particular job.

Particularly in this swirly job market, hire for fit, then teach them what they need to learn. Only hiring for experience can lead to an endless churn of staff, which in the long-run, costs you more and can be disruptive to the practice and to the great employees you already have.

The most valuable competitive advantage for any business is to staff with star employees who perform better and stay longer. An eye care practice is not an exception.

I can only afford to hire people who have experience: FICTION. 

This post is sponsored by EyePloyment.com and Fit First Technologies

Learn more.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Staffing Challenges – They Aren’t Going to Disappear

Human Resources, Managing Others, Talent Acquisition

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people management

We always consider the staff an important factor when valuing a practice. Optometry, much like many other sectors of the economy, is facing severe workforce shortages in all facets of their team.

These challenges can be found throughout the country. Whether it is a shortage of optometric assistants or lab technicians, and unrealistic salary expectations from new hires, or the threat of staff leaving due to offers of significant wage increases, the situation is the same no matter where you are.

HR was always a challenge for many owners, but no one can argue that it has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Adapt a Proactive Strategy
Staff turnovers and shortages will continue to be a serious issue; therefore, owners need to create a two-prong strategy that enables them to be more proactive instead of reactive. Like the old expression goes, “best defence is a good offence”.

I would suggest that the first prong include the change of recruitment and hiring techniques. Consider widening your pool of potential candidates.

Traditionally, optometrists looked to temp and recruiting agencies which makes sense because ideally, candidates have qualifications and training. However, if these people cannot be found, why not be creative and expand your potential list.

A key and valuable employee in any service business is one who has excellent communication and customer service skills. Therefore, think about people from other industries that can be trained to work in a dental office.

Another suggestion is to energize your interview process. We can all agree that the interview, offer, negotiation and onboarding process often takes far too long. It is amazing how many people do not craft questions based on the culture of the practice. Many go straight to the tasks and duties that the candidate will have to perform.

While this is important, identifying key traits in an individual is truly beneficial. Remember, using old patterns in these challenging times may cost you a strong candidate. It is worth noting that in this market, you can assume that candidates are interviewing with multiple employers, and an efficient and thoughtful hiring process can help you stand out.

Focus on Retention
The second prong strategy must be to focus on retaining the employees you have. Given the competitive landscape, it may be worth more to invest in the employees you have rather than look for new ones.

Think about offering better financial and educational incentives. The goal is to keep your employees feeling valued and motivated. Employees will be more likely to stay with you if they believe they cannot find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Make it a priority to make sure this is true. Studies have shown that employees stay committed to their employers when they are involved, mentored, paid well, empowered, appreciated, listened to, understood, and valued.

Owners must do an assessment and see if they encourage these traits and adjust appropriately if not. Remember, an owner’s biggest responsibility aside from patient care is to manage and motivate the team.

Your employees are the ones that will go the extra mile for your patients. Unfortunately, if a team member does not feel valued, appreciated, or challenged at work, they stop focusing on taking care of patients and unfortunately start to focus on themselves.

It’s Your Responsibility to Lead and Nurture
It is the practice owner’s responsibility to hire talent, train accordingly and applaud employees for their efforts in having a healthy work environment. Employees who are confident, knowledgeable, and respected in their profession will have a higher likelihood of staying committed to their employers.

Your job as the owner is to be committed to developing a high-quality optometry practice management system that nurtures your team and leadership growth. It is so critical for an owner to listen to their employees.

You must have enough humility to do this. Remember to give positive feedback – point out what is working out well. Praise employees for their hard-work and commitment.

Remember to treat your employees the way that you treat your patients. Both can truly destroy a practice if you are not taking care of them. Your employees need to know that they are part of a team.

Whether that means offering to get them coffee when you are out, bringing in Taco Tuesdays, or taking them axe throwing to build relationships with each other. You want your team to enjoy being together and working toward the same goals.

If you like the people you work with, feel respected and listened to, can grow as a professional without a micromanager breathing down your back, the stress will decrease. If doctors let their teams support them, the employees will stay because they love where they work, and your patients will be happy because there is no turnover.

Jackie Joachim, COO ROI Corp

JACKIE JOACHIM

Jackie has 30 years of experience in the industry as a former banker and now the Chief Operating Officer of ROI Corporation. Please contact her at Jackie.joachim@roicorp.com or 1-844-764-2020.

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Summer Staffing with OD Students is a Good Thing!

Practice, Resources

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We are finally approaching the well-loved and relaxing season of summer. Life seems a bit easier; you can get out the door with less layers t and you don’t have to worry about snow-induced traffic delays. Summer vacations and trips to the cottage are coming.

Of course, when you are running a small business, summer time can also present challenges, specifically around staffing.  Luckily, there are often university students who are currently registered in Optometry School looking for summer work. They are really ideal candidates to hire for the 4 months they are available. They are committed to the industry, they want to learn as much as they can and they are eager to do well.

In our experience, having this additional staff member has more than paid for itself. During the weeks when you are fully staffed, the summer student can tackle jobs that have been on the back burner; organizing the CL trial room, reviewing frame pricing, doing an inventory, price comparisons, the list goes on.

Further, many staff take summer vacations, and with an extra member on your team during this time, you don’t have to go short handed. The reality is, you want your patients who visit in the summer to have the same great experience in your office now as they would in the winter with a full compliment of staff ready to serve and assist.

Another advantage to hiring an OD student for the summer is the potential for grooming an associate for the future. Working in your practice, they will become very knowledgeable about the front end of your business. Understanding the flow from appointment booking to retail sales will make this associate a valuable member of your team very quickly.

It is tempting to consider going short staffed for the weeks different members are off on vacation.  This, of course, is not ideal. Not only will the patient experience be compromised but it will likely also have an impact on your Revenue per Patient (RPP) – the two are intimately related. Are patients receiving additional testing to improve their health care outcomes, are they finding glasses that they want to purchase, are they leaving with drops and vitamins for preventative measures? Discussing these solutions takes time and energy. Tracking and reviewing RPP will give you some reassurance that maintaining a full compliment of staff is in the best interests of both your patients and your business.

KELLY HRYCUSKO

is the co-founder and managing partner of Simple Innovative Management Ideas (SIMI) Inc. and expert Practice Management contributor for Optik magazine. She can be reached at info@simiinc.com.

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