Training in Today's Short Staffed Office

According to a recent Gallup poll, four out of every ten workers in America believe that their company is understaffed, while relatively few believe that overstaffing is a problem their company faces.*

So the problem becomes that you're short staffed, need more new staff but you can't spare anyone to train the new staff. Sound familiar? Following are some strategies to help address this nearly universal problem.

"WHAT IS IT COSTING YOU NOT TO TRAIN NEW STAFF?"

Consider having the new staff and one or more of your experienced staff members work a few weekends or a series of evenings to train the newbie(s). Yes, you'll have overtime to pay but consider what is it costing you NOT to train new staff? Have you had to trim your patient schedule back because you don't have enough trained staff to handle your usual patient load? Overtime is much less expensive than cutting your schedule back. Plus, it's temporary.

Yes, your already overworked staff may complain about working outside of usual office hours. However , if you make it worth their while they may be happy to do so. Consider providing a one-time bonus to the trainer or tickets to take their family somewhere fun like an amusement park or even a stay at a nice hotel near you with a great pool.

Consider bringing in an outside trainer to get your newbies trained quickly. The return on investment will be worth it.

Consider temporarily streamlining your processes to free up a staff member to train newbies. Can your technicians pinhole instead of refracting patients who don't want glasses?

Do you have family or friends who can work temporarily in your office to streamline processes, free up staff and allow training to be done? Think roles like a patient greeter to help patients complete their paperwork or perhaps teach how to do some automated testing like the auto-refractor or auto-lensometer.