We know staffing your eyecare practice can be one your biggest challenges. Today, we have a special guest post from Matt Geller of CovalentCareers. Matt discusses how some of the most successful practices recruit talent for their team, and how you can apply those same techniques in your practice.

Building The Strongest Team of Staff for Your Eyecare Practice

There are only a handful of companies that have the ability to attract the best talent in the world. They
look at the success of their organization as a function of the people they can bring into their organization. 

"A company should limit its growth based on its ability to attract enough of the right people."

- James C. Collins, Good to Great

Great businesses know that attracting great talent comes with
more than great benefits, salary, and hours. In fact, those things are ancillary, especially for the millenial generation. Attracting great talent starts with having the best possible organizational culture, ethos, and purpose.

So many eyecare practices fail in this regard. In fact, they all seem to have the same ethos - "provide exceptional clinical care." 

• Why do job seekers choose to work at one eyecare practice versus another?
• How do you market your practice to a young millennial who is not only talented but can bring your practice to great heights?

If you think you can just provide a decent salary, hours, and health benefits, you are not going to attract the people who will increase revenue, sales, and bring your business to new heights. Instead, you will attract average and get average. 

In our research at CovalentCareers, we found that the most successful eyecare practices recruited talent year round. They didn't post an ad a few weeks before they needed a new optometrist and then take the best resume. They passively recruited, non-stop, and when they found a talented individual, they snatched them up immediately. 

The best practices hire people who boost profits. Profits in an optometry practice can be boosted if an employee brings in new revenue through new verticals, creates efficiencies which allow for free time in which new efforts can be put to work, or by cutting costs by utilizing new technology or new processes.

Considering recruiting year round by using free platforms like CovalentCareers and breezy.hr. Just because you have an advertisement live doesn't mean you need to hire the person. Be kind and let them know you're screening applicants year-round. Screen only the best applicants and if the right person comes along, take them immediately and hold them accountable for bringing in new profits. 

Don't forget to look at what the best companies do to attract and retain talent. The most talented people want to work at the best companies. 

Watch this short video I filmed the other day. It provides some tangible things you can do today to improve your brand and attract the best eyecare professionals for your practice. 

Matt Geller, OD is a SUNY Optometry 2013 graduate and an optometrist at Lakeside Eyecare, a private practice in San Diego, California.

Matt is the founder of several online healthcare companies including OptometryStudents.com and NewGradOptometry.com, the leading online publications for optometry students and new graduate optometrists.

In addition, he recently co-founded CovalentCareers.com, a technology company that helps healthcare workers find jobs and opportunities in their healthcare field. Matt is an active consultant for healthcare companies and helps architect solutions to help these companies communicate authentically with the millennial generation.