The Official VisionWeb Blog

I would like to bet that if I asked some of the most successful practice owners what their most valuable practice asset is, they'd tell me that it's their people.

Your staff can make or break your patient's experience and the daily workload in your office. But, we also know that finding and hanging on to your practice's top performers can be a challenge.

As part of our Game Changing Moves for Your Optical Practice Series, we want to focus on some of the best advice when it comes to developing the team in your office. 

Is stress getting to you and your staff members? While the end of the year is usually a busy time for your optometric practice, it can also lead to an increase in stress. As the stress continues to build, mistakes can be made, and employee turnover rates can increase as burnout possibilities intensifies.

To combat the effects of mounting stress in your optometric practice, try some of the following group activities to decrease stress and improve employee satisfaction.

In some states, minorities are less likely to visit their eye doctor. Sometimes this is due to discrimination or lack of access. This imbalance is dangerous for the health of the community and there are a few ways ODs can account for it through creating a diverse practice.

Attend any diversity and inclusion seminars and you'll learn about how a workplace thrives through incorporating different perspectives, people of various backgrounds, and thinking beyond the scope of a single group's experience. This is why diversity is important in business and certainly healthcare.

There are a few ways you can create an inclusive and supportive practice. Keep reading to see how.

Uncertainty is tough on a practice owner. On top of taking swift action to preserve the financial life of your practice, optometrists need to boost the morale of their staff and work hard to retain existing patients. However, ODs don't have to navigate these challenges alone.

Actionable advice and stories from ODs with experience handling practice closures, lease changes, pandemics, abrupt change, and demotivated staff are invaluable to make your practice adaptable for any obstacle.

We include communication plans, staff management techniques, interviews with ODs, and possible growth opportunities in this new resource.

Especially for small businesses that don't have a human resources manager, it can become the office manager's responsibility to hire new employees, support the existing team, and mediate conflicts. 

We asked VisionWeb's Human Resources Manager, Erin Koop, to offer advice to optometrists and managers to make the hiring process go smoothly. Here's what she had to say:

Having the right people in place is the foundation of any business. You want to make sure you hire people that have the right skills (or at least the aptitude to learn the skills needed) and most importantly, the right personality for your team. Making a bad hire is a costly misstep. You not only have to pay for the job postings or recruiting fees, it also means you or someone in your practice is having to work even more to make up for the open position. Bad hires can also create morale issues for the rest of your employees, and that can have a lasting negative impact.