- Hello, and welcome
to the Laramy-K OpticianWorks Training Center,
where today we are doing something a little bit different.
This is another video for the owners
and the managers out there, the folks that do the hiring.
Let me set the stage.
Over the last six months, maybe a year,
you have noticed that your staff is overworked.
They are overworked enough
that some costly mistakes are being made.
Your overtime hours are creeping up.
Scheduling is difficult.
Staff are fighting over vacation time.
And employee morale is just plain suffering.
- I don't like my job,
and I don't think I'm gonna go anymore.
- So you run an ad and you hire a new person.
Now, whether that new person is a seasoned veteran
of the industry or a new-to-the-business greenhorn,
you have just made a bad situation even worse.
(upbeat music)
You just admitted that your staff have been overworked
for the last six months or a year.
Now you hire someone new,
and they, your old staff are exactly
where they were six months ago or a year ago,
now with the additional responsibility
of training a new hire.
- If you could just go ahead
and make sure you do that from now on, that would be great.
- If you hire an experienced person,
you will need to train them on how you do things.
This often creates conflict
between the old staff and the new hire.
The new hire will not like
having their skill level questioned.
And the old staff will not like any changes
that the new hire brings.
You know, all the usual human emotional stuff
in reaction to change,
just normal human behavior.
If you hired the greenhorn, you will with good reason,
face even more hurdles.
For a wide range of reasons,
you may be forced to hire an inexperienced worker,
and you may even be better off doing so.
Still, let's face it, the less an individual knows,
the more that you and/or your staff will have to teach them.
So what is the answer to managing the problems
of training in the new hire?
(suspenseful music)
- 42. - There is no answer
to this problem.
You will as always, do the best you can,
and in time, things will settle, as they almost always do.
But please, let me give you a few no-cost tips
that will help you with hiring and training too.
And how do I know that these tips work?
Well, we followed them where I worked
in a mid-sized independent optometry,
and we had crazy low turnover
at two different locations.
Some free tips
for success when hiring someone new.
And again, this works.
So I would encourage you to try it out.
1A, involve your staff.
Ask them what they need.
You've decided you're going to bite the bullet
and hire someone else.
Well, talk to your staff. Listen to your staff.
You might be surprised about what they think
that the store needs versus what you do.
You may think that you absolutely
positively need another optician.
They may tell you what they really need
is a receptionist who can cross-train
and do the dispensing from 4:00 to 6:00
when the other optician is working as a tech for you.
Something like that.
Yes, these folks work for you.
Never forget that that new hire works with them.
So get them involved, really will help you out.
Explain why you're hiring someone new.
No one's job is in jeopardy.
You just admitted they're overworked.
You wouldn't hire someone new
if you didn't have enough work for that employee,
which means that your other staff has been doing that
for the last six months or a year.
Little overworked, you know, you understand that.
You're doing them a favor.
You're hiring someone new
because you recognize what they've been doing.
When it is time to write the ad for that new hire,
well, involve your staff.
Let the staff help you write the ad.
Set those job expectations.
Like I said, maybe it's a combo deal,
reception, dispensing optician kind of thing.
Set those job expectations so everybody knows
what to expect when that new hire comes in.
You run the ad,
and you have a person who looks pretty good on paper.
Have them come in, do a shadow day.
Have them just stand in the background, chitchat,
watch what you do.
Do half a day.
At the bare minimum, do a lunch.
Close the doors for 45 minutes.
Do a meet and greet with as much staff as possible.
This is a multiple Spidey-Sense opportunity on both sides.
Your staff may pick up on something in that individual
that you might miss.
They might know someone who knows that person.
Great way to gather more information
and make sure they're gonna be a good fit.
Wouldn't you have appreciated that
when you started your first couple of jobs?
It is also a chance
and an important chance for that individual
to decide if your place is a good fit for them.
So try to do those shadow days, half days, or lunches.
That person comes in, it's a good shadow day.
You're all feeling comfortable.
The person is interested.
It's time to call their references.
Well, do the LBJ, the Lyndon Johnson.
He said, "Always keep people talking
because sooner or later,
they're bound to say something they shouldn't."
Put your best talker on the job
and call those references.
Don't stop at one.
If you ask for three, call all three.
Put your best talker, your best gatherer of information,
probably your best sales person in your staff,
get them to make those calls.
Let them dig, dig, dig.
Keep those people talking,
and they may learn some very important things.
And last, in the new hire process,
30, 60, 90 day reviews.
The biggest mistake, I think,
made during the hiring process.
And everybody starts out with good intentions,
but somehow they tend to falter.
If you stick by it, put it in your calendar.
Do them, 30, 60, 90 days of reviews.
Think of them, 30, 60, 90 as the speed
for the off-ramp if it is needed.
If you're 30 days, and things aren't going that great,
by the time you get to 90 and you've been through 60,
it's pretty easy to say, "We talked about this.
We talked about this again, we really tried.
But you know what? This isn't working out."
Much, much easier than if you go for 90 days
without saying anything, writing anything down,
having a talk, a formal review process,
getting to this point and having to say,
"You know this isn't working out."
So much harder if you haven't done this and this.
Well, let me clear the whiteboard
and give you a couple of tips for training that new hire.
Working on the success of your new hire.
In other words, training, opticianworks.com,
the complete optician training program,
which is just $99 a year,
and includes the Optician Qualification Standard.
The best way to go, have do that.
Strongly encourage you to give it a try.
I'm mostly talking about the greenhorn here.
Somebody who you hired with little or no experience,
new to the optical business.
It all comes down to incentives.
Provide the training opportunities necessary
for that person to be successful.
Tie those opportunities to their pay.
Join the opticianworks.com program.
If they come to you with a certificate of achievement
for course one at 30 days, they get a 50 cent raise.
They come with a certificate of achievement
for course two at 60, just about the right amount of time,
they get a 50 cent raise, 90, the same.
Annual, they've worked through
the Optician Qualification Standard, a huge achievement.
That person will be a really competent
well-trained optician.
The annual, they get another dollar.
Tie it to pay, make it a stick and carrot.
Huge big red flag, pet peeve of mine
for training, find the time.
If that means bringing your people in early,
having them stay late,
doing a Saturday or a Sunday when you're closed.
You must find that time.
Make that time, huge red flag.
It never fails.
Mary is really strong in the lab.
She makes a great pair of glasses.
She takes a new hire.
She heads back into the lab, says, "I'm gonna take an hour.
I'm gonna show the new hire
how to run a basic, simple vision job on the edger."
More than two people walk in the door,
and Bob's running back in the lab.
"Mary, I need you on the floor.
You gotta come out on the floor!"
Okay, what a bunch of nonsense.
If Bob can't handle two customers
at the same time on the floor,
well, that's a separate issue that you need to take care of.
If Mary had called in sick or was out to lunch,
he would've managed.
Leave Mary and the new hire alone for that hour of training.
Incentivize the time for both the trainee and the trainer.
Okay, if your trainer is coming in on a Saturday...
- Oh, oh, and I almost forgot.
I'm also gonna need you
to go ahead and come in on Sunday too.
- So you're paying them their normal rate
and a half hour of PTO or something.
Consider incentives for everyone involved.
- Friday is Hawaiian shirt day.
So you know, if you want to,
go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans.
- If you are a small optometry
or a mid-sized optometry practice independent,
everyone working for you should be very aware
that the success of the business
is also their responsibility.
The business isn't doing well,
well, then they don't have a job.
And this is why we teach at OpticianWorks
that opticians are in business, not in healthcare.
If the new hire does actually work through the OQS,
Optician Qualification Standard about a year or so,
your staff has been working as the qualifiers,
the signatures for that,
it's a huge, huge moment.
It is time to celebrate.
By all means, track, track, track.
You've got your 30, your 60,
and your 90 day reviews written up.
You've got the certificates of achievement,
you've got the OQS.
They all work to track.
It's really hard to set goals
and monetary incentives if you don't track
and can't prove that these things have taken place.
Last thing, and this goes for both the greenhorn,
which might surprise you,
and the very experienced person as well.
Listen when a new hire has a suggestion.
Okay, the most dangerous statement in business may be,
"Well, we've always done it that way," right?
People from outside, people from a different perspective,
coming from other places,
then they may have amazing strengths in some way.
Listen when they make a suggestion
about how something might be done better or differently.
Follow those, and most important,
your business is gonna be successful.
Thank you so much for watching.
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And to learn more about the opticianworks.com
complete optician training program
and our Optician Qualification Standard,
head on over to the website.
I'll see you again next week.