Six More Hiring Myths That Cost Your Practice Money

In this two part series, Jan van der Hoop and Tim Brennan of Fit First Technologies bust popular hiring myths to help you avoid making costly mistakes. View part one here.

Myth #6: To really get to know a candidate, you need to rely on a good set of behavioural interview questions. Past behaviour is, after all, the best predictor of future performance.

The concept of asking behavioural questions was a tremendous innovation that improved the value of interviews almost overnight. But that was 25 years ago. Since then, candidates have become very well rehearsed at answering these questions… often to the point where they are better prepared for the questions that the person interviewing them. Add to that the fact that we all have a natural inclination to answer those questions from the perspective of what we know the interviewer is likely to want to hear, and you have a recipe for disaster. What we know we ‘should’ do and what we actually do when no-one’s looking are almost always very different.

The best way to understand how a potential employee is actually going to behave when no-one’s looking is to ask a completely different kind of question… we call it a tertiary-level question. In this case the objective is to ask questions that go beneath behaviour and have the candidate tell you stories about what worked for them and didn’t as it related to other people, jobs and situations. In so doing, you gain insight into their core – the attitudes, beliefs and values that drive them. These are the things that will predict the behaviours that are exhibited when nobody’s looking… and that will give you a clear and reliable indication of how the candidate will fit in your business, in the job, and with co-workers and clients.

Myth #7: There’s no point in investing any time or effort in training and keeping these pesky Gen X and Gen Y kids. They’re too disruptive to our business and won’t stay for more than a year anyway.

There’s no question that having up to four generations at work all at the same time can be a big challenge. There’s also no question that those born after about 1980 have very different attitudes about work than those who came before them. The answer is not to find more people our age to staff our business… that’s a dead end road. Literally. The real challenge is to help our managers figure out how to create a workforce that harnesses the energies and talents of all our employees and converts those energies into profits.

Contrary to popular belief, these ‘kids’ are generally not flighty and they do not want to skip jobs every year or two. In fact, research continues to show that, like most of us when we were their age, they want nothing better than to find an employer where they can do meaningful work, see the value of their contribution, learn, stretch and grow… and put down roots for a long time. Unfortunately for many organizations, these kids also have a lower tolerance for BS than we do, and they are more likely than we were to move on when they encounter it.

Myth #8: The quickest and surest way to gain an advantage over my competition is to hire away their top performer. Their loss is my gain.

True, high performers share a set of characteristics and core attitudes… but so much of their performance is tied up in other factors that are external to them. These factors can be summarised into four primary categories – fit with the manager, with the critical aspects of the role, with the people around them, and the organization’s culture and systems. Most often, poaching talent results in three losers – you, your competitor and the fallen star.

Change any one of those things, and performance will be impacted. The fact they are a consistently top performer in another organization, even in a similar role and industry, is no guarantee that they will be even an average performer in your organization. A far more effective strategy is to identify people who have the capacity to do well in the reality you present. When you find candidates who are at their best in the management climate you offer, who are drawing from their natural strengths and talents in the roles you offer, who engage easily and productively with the rest of the team and your customers, and who are proud to contribute to the organization… you have a winning combination.

Myth #9: Low turnover or no turnover is a good sign we’re doing a lot of things very well. Why rock the boat?

To people in some industries that are traditionally turnover-prone and where double-and even triple-digit turnover rates have long been regarded as just a cost of doing business, the notion of no or very low turnover must seem like an impossible dream. But there are times when very low turnover can also carry a hefty price tag.

The important question is not ‘how many of my people are we keeping’. The far more valuable question is, ‘what is the quality of the people we are keeping’. All too often organizations find themselves in a rut where people aren’t leaving because they are comfortable. And they are comfortable because things are pretty easy – the bar’s not set too high, standards are pretty lax, and mediocre performance is tolerated.

Comfortable employees will choke a competitive business.

Myth #10: Investing in employee satisfaction makes good business sense.

Many organizations believe that satisfied employees are profitable employees… and so they invest heavily in perks they think their employees will appreciate – everything from elaborate cafeterias to on-site concierge services, generous benefits and perks through day care. While those features may add to buzz and ‘cool’ factor, they are expensive and generally have very limited if any ROI.

The truth is, there is no documented relationship between employee satisfaction and business performance. A happy workforce is not necessarily a more productive workforce.

The factor that is a predictor of performance and productivity, and it is in fact the most reliable predictor, is something called engagement. Engagement is all about how focused and committed your people are to hitting and exceeding your shared objectives – how much sweat, effort and creativity they are willing to put in of their own free will.

Myth #11: Not everyone here should be a top performer. We need some “Steady Eddies”, or we’d drive ourselves nuts trying to satisfy everyone’s career expectations.

Don’t confuse performance with pressure to offer promotion opportunities. Many people who are at the absolute top of their class want nothing more than to be left alone to do what they do best, day in and day out.

All too often, we convince ourselves that it’s OK and normal to have a normal performance curve where 70% of the workforce is ‘average’… we too easily accept the notion that ‘average is OK and doesn’t hurt me’. The truth is, average is awful. ‘Average’ in most organizations represents an opportunity cost of 23% or more of payroll – money that gets paid out, but where there is absolutely zero return.

In most organizations, that 23% of payroll represents a staggering sum of money which if deployed elsewhere could materially change the fortunes of an organization.

JAN G. VAN DER HOOP

Jan is the co-founder and president of Fit First Technologies, a company that applies its predictive analytics to the task of matching people to roles. Those algorithms drive platforms such as TalentSorter, FitFirstJobs and Eyeployment.com, which are relied upon by organizations to screen high volumes of candidates for “fit” in their open positions.

TIM BRENNAN

is Chief Visionary Officer with Fit First Technologies Inc, the creators of Eyeployment, TalentSorter and Jobtimize.

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Networked for Success

Finance|Wealth, Practice, Resources

By Kassandra Shaw, OD. St. Paul Eyecare

Editor’s note: Kassandra Shaw left Saskatchewan to study Optometry at Waterloo with the full intention of returning to her prairie roots. Raised by owners of an independent small-town business, Kassandra knew exactly what she wanted to do and where she wanted to do it. In January 2017 she opened an independent practice in St. Paul, Alberta and is about to add a second OD. She was able to achieve her goals through experiential learning as a student intern, as an associate optometrist, and with the help of her network, Optometric Services Inc.

At the time of entering Optometry School at Waterloo, I already knew where and what type of practice I wanted. By graduation in 2013, I had intentions of living somewhere in a rural area, which I thought would be best for raising a family in the future. I grew up in rural south-east Saskatchewan, and knew that a prairie setting was something that I wanted to come back to. Given that my parents were owners of an independent retail business, I had a strong drive towards a consumer based business model. Wanting to enter the health care field, Optometry presented a perfect match for me.

I targeted an area that could accommodate another one-to-two OD practice, not wanting to stray too far from my roots. My research pointed to St. Paul Alberta; a growing community large enough to support a new optometric practice.

While I already planned to own my own business from before graduation, I set out to gain experience prior to implementing my goal. I wanted to see how other optometrists managed their clinics and what could be learned through the experience. I did my internship in a private practice in St. Paul and joined the practice as an associate after graduation. In the following two years, I gained strong marketing and customer service experience at a major optical retailer to complement what I had learned from independent optometry.

Support from My Network

I opened the doors of my dream independent practice on January 17^th of 2017.

It would be lovely if a wonderful manual existed with all the information needed to open and operate a practice, with all the options and aspects to consider, but there isn’t. A colleague suggested I look at OSI (Optometric Services Inc.) as a network to support my goals. OSI had a very good reputation in the region, and that definitely came through when I met with Hannah, the Regional Account Manager.

Hannah was there to answer all of my questions and spent the time to ensure everything was properly set up. Moving forward with OSI has been incredibly beneficial. They held seminars with my staff who were new to the industry before we even opened our doors. They’ve continued to hold seminars in areas that we need help.

OSI also offers leadership management courses. I can honestly say that this was the most impactful development tool I have encountered. The courses were like a manual for analyzing an independent optometry clinic—how to look at it from every perspective: from tracking the financials and all the different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), all the way to staffing and scheduling.

The OSI national summit at Lake Louise was affordable enough even as a first-year practice. I was able to take my staff along for an educational and fun weekend of networking with great speakers.

Virtues of Independent Practice

I think that independent optometry is a great thing. Owning your own business offers a great opportunity to grow something shaped around your own ideals and values. The entire idea behind being an entrepreneur is very rewarding and it allows you to offer to your patients exactly what you want to offer; to practice optometry in the way you want to practice it.

There’s a lot of great resources out there and many people willing to help. There’s always resources that are specifically set out to help you, and so it’s not something that’s outside of anyone’s reach even if you believe you don’t have the background with the business aspects of independent practice.

Now that I’ve put in all the work to make my own business successful, I would tell anybody to do the same. It’s definitely worth it! We are in an industry where we are very lucky to have a lot of resources to work with and to help us along the way.

One year in, I couldn’t be happier with the progress we’ve made. The biggest challenge in moving forward is that I’m going to be needing to hire more staff. My brother graduates from Waterloo this spring, and he will be joining me in the practice. Once I’m not seeing patients five days a week I will have a couple extra days to be training and working with new staff. And I am confident in the future knowing that OSI will be along for the journey.

This article is supported by Optometric Services, Inc.

KASSANDRA SHAW, OD

Dr Kassandra Shaw is the owner of St. Paul Eye Care, in St. Paul Alberta. She opened her doors in January 2017. Dr. Shaw is a member of Optometric Services Inc. (OSI).

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How ODs Will Be Affected By 5 Digital Transformations in Healthcare

Differentiation | Business Strategy, Practice, Technology

Technology has been changing our practices for a long time, and will continue to do so. Here are five “digital transformations” spotlighted recently in Forbes magazine, and how we think our own industry will be impacted.

Healthcare is changing with the introduction of telemedicine; mobility and cloud access; wearables and the internet of things; artificial intelligence and big data; and empowered consumers.

Telemedicine
Eighty percent of doctors surveyed in 2015, believed that telemedicine is a better way to manage chronic disease than just seeing patients through a traditional office visit. As the Baby Boomers age the amount of chronic disease that we manage will increase significantly. Having the ability to utilize telemedicine to help manage chronic disease will be a great benefit to the patients we see. Through telemedicine the patient is not limited to the geographic location of the doctor’s office. With an internet connection and a smartphone, telemedicine will enhance the doctor-patient relationship.

With the camera feature of today’s smartphone, it will be easier to triage some patients between the categories of urgent and emergent. It may also help make the decision whether the patient should go straight to the hospital, or instead come to the eye doctor’s office.

Online refractions hold the potential of helping to manage patients with out-of-control diabetes, who have rapidly changing refractions, or those young patients who are rapidly growing and have changing refractions.

Telemedicine will also give us the ability to transmit to other doctors from whom we are seeking consults, information in real time about the patient who may be sitting in our chair. This may help us triage the difference between categories of patients such as urgent and emergent.

Mobility And Cloud Access
For the doctor, both mobility and cloud access can help deliver better patient care. The doctor can access patient records on the home computer or on the smartphone while on-call. This has the potential of delivering both better and faster care while on-call. It also gives the ability to answer questions from a specialist about a patient whom you’re sharing care with if you happen to be out of the office.

Cloud access is the computing platform of the future. Because of its superiority, eventually it will be used by everyone.

Wearables And IoT
Wearables are here to stay. Just count the number of Google or Apple watches on people’s wrists. Every year the number is getting higher. Even eyeglass frames are beginning to utilize wearable technology. Frames are being designed to identify if the patient has fallen and not gotten up.

Wearable technology in eyeglass frames includes activity tracking technology (e.g.: Level Smart Glasses ) that does things such as step counting, calories burned and distance traveled. 3-D displays and facial recognition are two of the more exciting things (or incredibly scary things) that will be incorporated into glasses in the near future. By the way, if you misplace your glasses, with wearable technology in your frames, you can easily find them.

Contact lenses are being developed with built-in technology. Google scientists have created the contact lenses that can measure the blood sugar in your tears.

The Internet of things (IoT) is really about the inter-connectivity and inter-operability of all of our electronic devices within the internet infrastructure. IoT is going to expand exponentially over the next decade. It will become the way that we do everything. Everyone we know who has seen Tony Stark’s computer J.A.R.V.I.S. wants one. It’s just a matter of time. This will change the way we do business in the office, as well as changing the way we do things at home.

Artificial Intelligence And Big Data
Artificial intelligence is one of the most exciting technological changes that will help doctors in dealing with patients. Differential diagnosis and interactions between both prescribed drugs and other chemicals patients are putting into their bodies are just two of the significant ways that artificial intelligence can contribute to the eye examination and treatment plans of the patients we see.

Artificial intelligence offers the ability to review the patient’s chart and suggest differential diagnoses that we may have overlooked. It has the ability to analyze all medications and all substances consumed by the patient looking for both positive and negative interactions with the drugs we are considering prescribing for the patient.

Big data also has a role in improving patient care. Once we are all linked together electronically, we can see the results of every treatment plan prescribed to every patient everywhere. This will give us much better insight into evidence-based medicine. It will also quickly identify those patients who are not best served by standard protocols, and instead would benefit from some other form of treatment. Subtleties and nuances will not be overlooked.

Empowered Consumers
Knowledge is power. If you haven’t read about the “Empowered Consumer,” then read this article from Forbes. The Empowered Consumer is already in our offices. These patients exhibit the following:

• With smartphone in hand they are driven by their ability to try before you buy, return at will and click their way to new options and choices.

• They check sources before making a decision, using sources such as Amazon comments and their social network of friends.

• They expect you to understand their needs, their history and everything, from the way they engage, to what they’ve done in the past. (Do you track your patients this closely? Starbucks does. Most major retailers do.)

The Forbes article recommends that we do the following:
• Connect with consumers on the tech platform of their choice.

• Provide a brand-safe platform.

• Drive contextual content relevance.

• Utilize analytics-driven decision making.

• Maximize engagement.

The future is now. Take this week to review how your practice is preparing for the changes coming soon to healthcare.

References
i. http://www.leveltechnology.com/
ii. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/diabetes-google-develops-glucose-monitoring-contact-lens-012314
iii. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenrosenbaum/2015/07/16/the-new-world-of-the-empowered-consumer/#1eb60e664aab

MARK WRIGHT, OD, FCOVD

Dr. Wright is the founding partner of a nine-partner, three-location full-scope optometric practice. As CEO of Pathways to Success, an internet-based practice management firm, he works with practices of all sizes. He is faculty coordinator for Ohio State’s leading practice management program.

CAROLE BURNS, OD, FCOVD

Dr. Burns is the senior partner of a nine-doctor full-scope optometric practice that she built with her husband, Dr. Wright. She is also the COO of a state-wide nursing care optometry practice. Dr. Burns lectures nationally on practice management and staffing issues. Dr. Burns authored the Specialty Practice section of the textbook, Business Aspects of Optometry.

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Motivating Staff in an Optometrist’s Office

Human Resources, Managing Others, Talent Acquisition, Training & Onboarding

There are few jobs that I can think of that demand the level of skill that is required to be effective as an employee in an optometric practice. The ideal candidate will exhibit a strong attention to detail, excel in customer service and sell like a superstar – all the while managing in an often fast-paced environment of ringing phones, walk-ins and pick ups.

How do you attract, grow and keep exceptional staff?

After determining what the needs of the office are, it is also important to reflect on what is most attractive about working in your office. Consider what the alternatives are to working in your office from the perspective of wage and aspiration. From this point of view, there are a number of attractive benefits to working in a health care practice. This type of occupation is gratifying to someone who has a strong sense of accomplishment when they have truly helped someone. Often the working hours are better than some comparable retail positions.

Many of the offices that we work with offer a Health Spending Account (HSA). This is a more cost-effective and egalitarian way to offer insurance coverage to your office, particularly if you are a smaller office with 10 employees or less.

Complimentary Eye Exams are a fairly standard benefit offered in most practices. Not only does it ensure everyone in the office appreciates the value of the eye exam in the practice, it also follows a “practice what you preach” philosophy when it comes to regular eye exams.

We often advise clinics to offer a set number of “at cost” glasses and/or contacts to each staff member. They can use all 3 or 4 pairs for themselves or they can extend the offer to friends and family. This way, it is fair to all staff members, whether they are single, married, with or without children. For many employees, being able to extend a discount to friends and family provides a sense of feeling important, and that can be very motivating!

We screen hundreds and hundreds of candidates for our clients. One of the most common reasons candidates give for wanting to move to a new position is for “growth” and new opportunities. One of the easiest ways to provide that opportunity is through Continuing Education. We often advise our practice owners to be very clear about this benefit. The clinic is paying for the employee to grow and obtain new skills. The intention, of course, is that the employee will use those skills to improve the performance of the current clinic. The reality is, it is the employee who gets to put those new skills on their resume and there is value to that. The point is that the employee should recognize this as a benefit that is, and should be, mutually beneficial.

Something as simple as a title with authority can offer a higher sense of ownership to the role and impact performance positively. For instance, consider these job titles; Front Desk Manager, Patient Flow Coordinator and Gallery Supervisor. Reinforce the idea of the responsibility of these titles as you hand off patients, “I am going to introduce you to our Front Desk Manager who will be able to assist you with those appointments and explain the solutions we discussed further.”

Considering all the duties and the skills required to be effective in this role, it is advisable to set up compensation that is reflective of that effort. Having a lower base wage is fine as long as a profit sharing bonus structure is also in place. This way, as the clinic performs because of everyone’s contributions, everyone reaps the rewards of that success.

One of the fundamental pieces in employee motivation is constant contact with the owner. When the owner draws the line between the result and the employee’s efforts on a regular basis, the employee feels encouraged and supported.

Lastly, we recommend that you find out what exactly motivates each of your staff members. While this could be done through observation, it may be prudent to ask the employee directly what makes them feel connected and engaged at work and strive to build in a system that accommodates that.

CHRISTINA FERRARI

is the co-founder and managing partner of Simple Innovative Management Ideas (SIMI) Inc. and expert Practice Management contributor for Optik magazine. She can be reached at info@simiinc.com

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Five Hiring Myths That Cost Your Practice Money

Human Resources, Talent Acquisition

In this two part series, Jan van der Hoop and Tim Brennan of Fit First Technologies bust popular hiring myths to help you avoid making costly mistakes. Check back on March 21st for part two.

Myth #1: I need to hire people who have experience (usually at least 3-5 years) in this job.

The sad truth is that in the vast majority of cases, organizations find themselves hiring for experience and firing for job fit. We bring people in to the practice because they have the right blend of education, credentials, and work experience… and then we terminate them because they can’t get along well with their manager, their coworkers or your customers.

Far better to find people who fit. Candidates who can work productively with your people and your patients, and who have the ability to learn what they need to know quickly.

Myth #2: A solid résumé and a crisp, focused and well-written cover letter define the best candidate.

When you consider that most candidates don’t even write their own résumés, and factor in all the statistics around embellishment and outright falsification of information on résumés, it’s hard to believe that we are still accepting these documents as the primary admission ticket for candidates into any credible organization’s hiring pipeline.

When you layer on top of that the realization that there’s no correlation – none whatsoever – between what’s in the resume and how well people will perform or how long they will stay, you have to concede that relying on a resume to help you find the right candidate gives you about the same odds as buying a lottery ticket. The difference is that getting it wrong costs you a whole lot more that the buck you spent on the ticket.

Instead, screen first for the things that are predictors of retention and productivity – then look at their background.

Myth #3: Finding the right person is a numbers game. To improve my odds of finding the right person, I need to broadcast my opening using the big recruitment boards, the niche boards, and selected papers and publications.

The odds that candidates who post their resume online or who respond to an ad will be the right candidates for you to invest time in are pretty slim. At any given point, only about 20% of the workforce has an up-to-date resume… and they have and up to date resume because they are actively looking for work. When you think about it from that angle, these folks are typically are not the top performers you want to speak to.

There’s a huge difference between quantity of candidates and quality of candidates. The best quality candidates are usually not actively looking for work. They don’t hang out on the job boards or read the ads, and they don’t have an up-to-date resume. You want to target the 60% of the workforce who aren’t actively looking for work but who also aren’t in love with their current job.

Most of us don’t realize that requiring people to give you a resume is actually a barrier to
finding the right talent for our business. When you do away with that requirement, and set up a process where better people can apply without that inconvenience, you win.

Myth #4: First impressions are everything. A candidate needs to impress me in the first five minutes.

Yes, first impressions are important. And the statistics continue to show that most managers decide at an unconscious level whether or not they want to hire a candidate in the first three minutes or so of the interview. The other 57 minutes are basically a charade aimed at gathering information – positive or negative – to support whatever that decision was.

Really good managers are aware of that tendency… and they work to counteract it. One important way they do that is to be clear on the desired outcome… that they are looking for a top performer, not a top candidate. This difference is critical… top candidates have a great resume, show up on time and look the part, and so on… and these cosmetic factors we’ve been taught to value have no bearing at all on how long they will stay or how well they will work out. The list of attributes that are predictive of top performers is a completely different list.

Top performers share a very distinctive set of attributes and attitudes. They learn fast. They take responsibility. They build solid relationships. They think and act differently, and they fit differently in your business.

Myth #5: We need to offer top pay and top of the line benefits if we have a hope of attracting and keeping top performers.

Research and experience continue to show that pay and benefits are among the weakest ties. There’s no question you need to offer a package that’s in the right ballpark… but so long as these factors are roughly right, others become much more important.

The factors that attract the right candidates and keep your people focused and productive are what researchers refer to as the four critical aspects of fit. Fit with manager is the most important; it will make you or break you. The other three are fit with the job, with the team, and with the practice. It’s surprisingly easy to filter people in to a conversation with you on the basis of these aspects of fit, and yet remarkably few organizations have figured out how to do it reliably.