The third of a five-part series on technician recruitment.

In the previous segments of this series, I discussed recruitment techniques for technicians (tinyurl.com/5n86s8mf ) as well as how to differentiate your practice from your competitors (tinyurl.com/s3ppad4p ). The reality that most practice owners and administrators are facing is there are not enough trained technicians in the market to support the growing demand on our ophthalmic practices.

Community colleges, universities and technical schools produce a limited number of trained technicians each year. Most practices rely on recruiting trained technicians away from other practices as their sourcing for talent. Unfortunately, supply is still limited.

Therefore, creating and maintaining an internal technician training program is an absolute necessity in today’s technician job market.

So, what does that program look like, and what common mistakes do practice make implementing a training program?

THE TWO MAIN MISTAKES

1. Cut corners on training

Many practices are in such dire need of clinical personnel that they shortchange the training aspect of their team members to get “bodies on the floor.”

As a result, untrained and underqualified personnel interact with patients, other technicians and physicians with negative results for all.

Most often, the untrained technician loses confidence, becomes overwhelmed and ends up exiting the ophthalmic technician career track. Then, the vicious cycle starts over again and turnover continues to rise, which leads to a bad reputation for the practice.

2. Improper valuation of trained techs

Practices that do have a solid technician training program become the training grounds for their competitors. A practice will take an unexperienced team member, teach them the necessary skills to succeed, start them toward their certification and a competitor will hire the individual away within a year for another $4 per hour.

Why does this happen? Practices typically have a standard performance review and compensation policy. The untrained individual starts at a low base hourly rate. A year later, the individual has a tremendous set of skills and may have even become certified, but the practice will only give the team member a small percentage increase to their base at their annual review because that is the standard percentage for employees across the practice.

What practices have failed to understand is that the fully trained and skilled technician is worth a considerable amount more to the practice than they were when they began employment with no experience. The individual that started a year prior is of a vastly different value to the practice at the time of the annual review.

OVERCOMING THESE MISTAKES

1. Develop a comprehensive 4-to-6-week training program.

The program should teach all the elements of ophthalmic teaching. It should teach not just the “how to” but the “why.” Have physicians and senior technicians deliver well-structured course material that includes knowledge tests and quizzes. Allow significant time for shadowing in the clinic with experienced technicians and physicians as well as surgical observation. Ensure that the senior technicians are performing assessments of each skill (ie, refractions, special testing) along the way.

At the end of training, complete a comprehensive skill assessment before putting the technician out on the floor by themselves. Lastly, assign the new technician a mentor who they can go to with questions or any struggles they may encounter in their learning process.

2. Develop a progressive compensation program.

Key milestones in a new technician’s career include:

• Hire date
• Completion of training
• 90-day review
• One-year review
• Certification
• Mastering new skills (ie, operating a LASIK laser)

Each of these steps should include an upward compensation adjustment so long as the technician meets or exceeds expectations. As practice owners and administrators, we have to understand the value of the well-trained technician in ensuring efficient patient flow, patient volumes, patient outcomes, patient satisfaction and physician satisfaction as well. Providing technicians with a progressive compensation plan that will help them realize a satisfying career with your practice will go a long way to stopping the out-migration of your technicians.

In my next installment of this series, I will discuss mechanisms practices can use to adequately assess and review the performance of their technical staff that will support this suggested progressive compensation program. I will address technical skill assessment as well as some of the intangible skills such as aptitude, attitude and professionalism. OM