Practice managers, receptionists, optical assistants and qualified optical dispensers all play critical roles in viable optometry practices in 2023. But for many practice owners, finding suitable people to fill these front-of-house positions has become increasingly difficult.
Not only does a shortage of front-of-house staff mean a reduction in the ability to manage practices and dispense glasses to patients, but it can also mean busy optometrists have to add dispensing duties to their often-overloaded days. This means less time for optometry appointments at a time when patients in some places are still catching up on caring for their eyes post-COVID lockdowns. Shortages of these staff make some practices even question their viability.
Last year, Optometry Victoria South Australia (OV/SA) was alerted to this issue by our members. This prompted a member survey to assess the extent of the issue and help determine our role in finding solutions, noting that workforce shortages were and are being experienced across multiple industries simultaneously in Australia.
At the time, 58% of respondents were having difficulty recruiting non-optometry practice staff.
The issue was affecting metropolitan practices more than those in regional areas in Victoria and South Australia, and since conducting the survey, we have been visiting practices in both states to ensure we continue to be well-informed about the reality of life for our members.
“Two of the primary reasons cited in the OV/SA survey regarding the workforce shortage was an insufficient pool of suitable workers, and the fact that the pandemic had changed how people feel about public-facing work.”
Part of the social context for these challenges is the great values re-alignment that many of us have embraced in the last couple of years; sometimes called the ‘great resignation’, large numbers of people have reconsidered their priorities in light of their values, which in turn has impacted workplaces.
When considering our role in the face of these challenges, we started to explore what we could offer our members that might give them a greater chance to find people for their front-of-house roles. Rather than using their usual channels to find people, such as Seek, we considered how we might be able to help practices reach people in their local communities in different ways.
Of course, we didn’t want them to find just anyone. One of the best-kept secrets across the cities and towns of Victoria and South Australia is the amazing opportunity to contribute directly to the quality-of-life of others by working in an optometry practice. This is why we are suggesting our members don’t use the frameworks or discourse of ‘retail’ when recruiting for these roles, which implies a focus on profits and sales.
Front-of-house staff aren’t just salespeople – they often need to have a general understanding of eye conditions and be able to identify patient requirements. Often, they also take on a role similar to a medical receptionist, managing and optimising practitioner patient books and being the first point-of-contact for the majority of the community, which goes above and beyond traditional retail roles. This ties into the orientation of optometry practices as places focussed on the wellbeing of our communities, giving optometric employees a chance to contribute to quality-of-life for hundreds if not thousands of individuals over time.
This is why OV/SA has launched our new, content-rich resource to support our members with this challenge of finding strong front-of-house staff. The resource was developed after speaking with people from a range of networks, and was then shared in draft form with some members and updated before receiving feedback from our State Advisory Committee, which is itself made up of a diverse range of members. We then field-tested with both practice owners as well as prospective front-of-house employees, and used this feedback to make final changes and ensure it would have the best chance of being useful for members.
The challenge of recruitment within the optometry sector is further corroborated by the recent creation of ProVision’s Optometry Recruitment Kit, and we’re pleased to find that OV/SA’s resource complements this kit. By utilising OV/SA’s resource in conjunction with ProVision’s Kit, we believe optometrists will be well-equipped to try some new approaches for recruitment of front-of-house staff, finding people who are motivated by a desire to serve, recognise the potential career paths with optical dispensing training, and are keen to learn all it takes to give patients the best possible experience.
About the author
Name: Ilsa Hampton
Qualifications: GAICD, MPH, Grad Cert Mgt, Grad Dip Ed, BA
Affiliations: Optometry Victoria South Australia
Position: CEO
Location: Melbourne
Time in industry: 15 months
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