Who's the boss?

Optometric Management, Apr 2000 by Kattouf, Richard S

Sometimes an O.D. is his own worst enemy

In a perfect world, an employer could be a friend to his employees. However, it's not a perfect world, and adopting this philosophy of staff management can cause big problems in a practice.

When Dr. Susan Whalen bought an existing practice, her management skills were green. She approached her staffers first as friends instead of as employees. Unfortunately, her gestures were taken advantage of. Even when Dr. Whalen became aware of this, she was apprehensive about hiring new staff members due to the lack of qualified people in the job market.

The staff management problem came from two fronts:

1. A lack of confidence in managing staff.

2. An inability to hire the proper personnel.

Taking its toll

Dr. Whalen inherited two strong-willed "ringleaders" who did a good job of sabotaging her efforts to manage the staff. The two troublemakers went so far as to schedule fictitious patients for the end of the day so that when the patients didn't come in, they'd be able to leave early.

Dr. Whalen was emotionally drained from this stressful situation. She had a passive behavior pattern that enabled the abuse. With two strong extroverted staff members intent on controlling the office, the battle was in full swing.

Power struggle

When I began consulting Dr. Whalen, the two troublemakers had been with the practice for 6 years, while she'd been the owner for only 1 year. As I observed the staff, these major issues came to light:

Lack of organized training for clinical and optical skills.

Lack of staff organization.

Low morale.

Embezzled time and products.

Taking control

One of the tasks at hand was to set some guidelines for Dr. Whalen so she could successfully hire the best employees available. Here's a way to do this:

Have resumes sent to office. Look for candidates who appear stable, experienced and responsible.

Follow with a telephone interview. Evaluate how she sounds on the phone, her personality and language skills.

Schedule a faceto-face interview. Present the candidate with a questionnaire that includes a variety of challenging office scenarios. For instance, ask the candidate how she would handle a patient who is irate over an exam fee.

Hire someone on a trial basis. The length of time depends on you. It can vary from 1 week to 3 months.

Here are some resolutions for the problems with Dr. Whalen's staff:

Staff watched a weekly lecture series for ophthalmic technicians and were tested to ensure that they'd absorbed the materials.

Dr. Whalen organized daily meetings 20 minutes prior to opening the office. She also wrote comments about her staff's performance and critiqued the staff on a daily basis. This had a positive impact on communicating her plan for the practice.

We worked on a team commission system based on goals. The percentage for commissions was based on practices of similar size, which was 15% in this case. The staff's morale grew because of the team concept and commissions.

Dr. Whalen implemented an office manual, leaving nothing to chance. Now, she had a blueprint to use if staffers didn't comply with the rules. In fact, 2 weeks later, the two ringleaders were fired for punching each other's time cards to cover up lateness, among other things.

Not as easy as it seems

There are no fail-proof methods to guide you in hiring staff members, and staff management is a full-time job. But by creating carefully structured plans for hiring and managing a staff, and by acting as the guiding force for your practice, rather than just as a friend to your employees, you're laying the groundwork for success. OM

Dr. Kattouf is in private practice in Warren, Ohio, and he's president and founder of two management and consuiting companies. For information, call (800) 745-EYES or e-mail advancedeyecare@hotmail.com. Note: The stories in this column are based on actual consulting case files. All practice data are real; the names are fictitious.