Maybe you have noticed that there is not an abundance of certain vital resources—like competent staff. So what are you, the owner or manager, to do when you can't find the personnel you need? If you are smart, if you want your practice to grow, you will train your personnel to be as good as you need them to be.

A survey of optometrists across the United States, conducted this summer for Vision Practice Management Inc., showed staff as one of the profession's greatest concerns, extending from how to hire and retain the best staff to how to get them to be productive.

Learn through experience

In my practices, my staff is my greatest asset—but, it wasn't always that way. Since I have been practicing for 29 years and currently have five busy practices, I've probably experienced more staff problems than anyone you know.

As a result, I've found principles that have helped make my life easier and allowed me to take lengthy vacations without sacrificing levels of patient care and income. In fact, I recently made a CD titled "Why Not Learn from My Mistakes?" which you can obtain at no charge from the Vision Practice Management Web site at http://www.vision-practice.com/.

Dr. Brinkley trains a new staff member. (Photo provided by Vision Practice Management Inc.)

Because practices vary in sophistication, I'm going to offer a variety of proven ideas. Some or all will apply to you. I hope that they will work as well for you as they have for me.

There are two subjects in which your staff needs to be educated. The first and most important is how to be a good optometric staff member. The second is how to carry out special duties assigned. You should invest your time and funds in specialized training only after a person has demonstrated that they grasp what you expect from them as a member of your team. What benefit would you get from training a tech or optician whose customer service is pathetic?

Basics of effective training

When your objective is effective training, your first duty is to discover the right ways to do the activities in your office. There is not one duty in your office at which you should not be proficient. This is the foundation for being able to manage your staff. When you know what can and can't be done, the way it should be done, and the desired results, others can't pull the wool over your eyes.

Your next duty is to get your staff to fully understand what you expect from them—and ensure that they do it. This is not accomplished by giving streams of orders, something that will quickly exhaust you and may not result in a competent staff.

Elements of training that have proven effective in my offices:

• Prepare ahead of time. Acquire or put together training materials. Over the past 15 years, I've done this for most positions in optometric offices. For example, I compiled a 220-page manual on how to run the front desk of my offices, including a glossary of terms so that someone new to optometry can easily become proficient in a short time. We can quickly train someone to competently replace a vacationing or departing front-desk person.
• Train from written materials. That way, you don't run into "But you said . . ." and progressive errors as one person mistrains the next person on things they never got right to begin with. I keep these materials at the appropriate work stations so that they can be reviewed.
• Set a definite time for training. Expect people to show up ready to "work." They are on the clock and so is the trainer.
• Have an individualized training program for each person in training. It may include outside training or seminars and take weeks or months to complete. Begin training with the purpose of staff completing the training and becoming fully competent.
• Train in sections and make sure they learn each part of their job well. For example, no one is allowed to answer the phone in my office until they're fully trained on it.
• Keep them winning. That will keep you winning.
• Don't train someone who is sick, medicated, or intoxicated. Don't train someone who doesn't really want to be there. A report needs to go in the personnel file for any one of these situations.