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Thread: Good Help Is Getting Hard To Find!

  1. #1
    Master OptiBoarder Cindy Hamlin's Avatar
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    Has anyone else noticed that good optical help is getting hard to find? It seems the last few years that opticians and optically trained people are getting scarce. I have also heard that schools are not turning as many out and that the boards are being held for fewer and fewer people. Can anyone shed some light on why opticianry isn't the "hot prospect" it was before?

    I also feel that more and more optical businesses are opening and the people aren't there to meet the demand. I may be totally off base here, but I would appreciate any input you may have.

    Recently, we have been hiring people with no experience and teaching them optics and nurturing them toward licensure and certifications. We are creating opticians!

  2. #2
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    I agree. The optical I work for has been looking for my replacement for months. We found one girl who had some experience but basically I am starting from scratch. If you are having trouble finding someone, I would love to move out the east coast.

    Rodney

  3. #3
    Optical Curmudgeon EyeManFla's Avatar
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    Originally posted by cah2020:


    Recently, we have been hiring people with no experience and teaching them optics and nurturing them toward licensure and certifications. We are creating opticians![/I]

    As it should be!

    Each area is different. When I was in the DC area No. Va. had many outstanding Opticians. This was becasue it was a profession that ment something.

    But in other areas of the country, corporate opticianry has made the quest for a license almost meaningless. And there is no interest in truly training people to be opticians.

    You are doing the right thing. Who better to serve and save our profession than US. Good luck.

  4. #4
    Master OptiBoarder Texas Ranger's Avatar
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    You're right. there is lots of competition for intelligent employees. I have an older experienced staff, and my two sons have been with me for about 4 years. My wife keeps encouraging them to finish college(which is OK) so they can get into computers,etc. I know guys with great educational credentials who are looking for work.Really good opticians will always have a good job. an OD called me a couple days ago, who is without an optician for his his optical shop, posted a newspaper ad and got resumes from the "checkers" at walmart! an MD shop just reopened last week after being shut down without an optician, probably be open a couple month then shut down again. shops opening everywhere, most doctors and corporate think opticianry is as easy as running the cash register at walmart. of course to have good people you have to take care of them, pay them well, provide good benefits, and be appreciative of their skills. it's not good bizz to have your staff always ready to go somewhere else.

  5. #5
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    Al,

    You are right on several points, not the least of which was the comment about coporate type stores. They are taking people out of McDonalds and other chains and putting them in lab and on the retail floor. This is not so bad except for the fact that they put them out there teaching them very little, mainly how to upsell and then from there they learn as they go.

    As for paying well, that is getting harder and harder to do thanks to the Clintons and the joke that they call a health care system. When you combine this with the McDonalds factor you get a slim "pool" of good employees. This pool gets even smaller with the OD's who realize that their people make or break the practice and pay them what they are worth.

    To tell you the truth, your best bet would be to start from scratch, this way you are not unteaching the new person anything.

    Just a thought!

    Richard

  6. #6
    Sawptician PAkev's Avatar
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    Chip,

    I believe that good help has become smarter help. The motivated individual with ambitions, goals, and professional growth has realized that it is now possible for them to become a competitor in today's tight employment marketplace. In some cases it may mean going someplace else for an extra $1.00/hr. In other cases it may mean going someplace else because someone is always leaving the toilet seat up in your employee restroom. Another reason could be because you forgot to say "Thank You" when they stayed an extra half hour to take care of a last minute client.

    I am not a believer in annual reviews because it may take a long time for someone to vent their discontentment. However, I do try to make it a point to take an employee to lunch once every 3 or 4 months on a slow day to let them vent any of their specific concerns.

    As an owner/employer with many administrative responsibilities, I also consider it very important to continue maintaining my service abilities by fitting, selling, and servicing eyewear. Not only does this maintain loyalty of your clientelle which you worked so hard to build, It makes things a little more competitive for your employees to establish their own following only to shake your hand and leave to start their own business.

    What I am finally getting to is rather than making it a point of recruiting new help, be sensitive in understanding the needs of your existing help to maintain their loyalty to you. As a fair employer, they will have little reason to go elsewhere.

    Good Luck
    Kevin

  7. #7
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    Idea

    You just don't even get kids and adults coming around looking for jobs any more. And getting people willing to work is still another matter. Had one opticianry instructor/manager/owner tell me she got her best help from behind department store cosmetic's counters and trained them.

    I personally thought the best opticians (but not possibly the best managers) come from the optical lab. Unfortunately, Labs now try to train people for only a single operation to keep them from getting ambitious and moving on.

  8. #8
    OptiBoard Professional Mike Fretto's Avatar
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    Part of the problem as I see it is the technology we have today has developed a brand of optician that knows little about the theory behind what we do.

    I can take someone off the street and in 1 hour train them to fabricate a pair of glasses. And as Chip pointed out, most wholesale labs train an individual to stand in front of a machine for 8 hours a day. If they have one or two individuals who know the basics there comfortable.

    I have a few years of lab experience and I feel it has made me more valuable as a dispensing optician. What I mean is we have to be able to explain what too much decentration in a high minus does to an edge thickness etc. etc.

  9. #9
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    Old Uncle Bob is fixing to solve all y'alls' employee problems. At the end of this week I retire after 40 years in the optical business and begin teaching at a community college that is part of The University System of Georgia. The prospect is exciting, yet daunting, as I go over the course of study these kids are going to have to follow. I'll probably learn as much as they do just preparing the lessons. By the time they get their A.S. degrees, they'll have plenty of lab, theory, math, history, dispensing, contact lens, as well as business experience. They'll also have an anthology of corney jokes. Now, if y'all will be willing to pay them a reasonable salary, and not expect them to perform secretarial and janitorial duties, I think we can have some really good people ready for you soon. No charge for the placements.
    The Professor

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  10. #10
    OptiBoardaholic
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    Hi Bob. Congratulations both on your "retirement" and on your now position as an educator. Thats quite a change from what you've been doing all these years. I want to wish you well, and I hope you continue to post here on the board.

  11. #11
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    Good Help IS Getting Harder To Find!!!!
    Besides owning a small dispensary in a rural community, I also own a placement service here in Texas. I deal strictly with ophthalmic personnel. I have dozens of openings across the state, but there are not enough qualified folks to fill them. So, where are they going??? They are leaving the field in droves. The reason they are telling me is MONEY and BENEFITS. Doctors want them to act and make decisions like highly degreed professionals, BUT they want to pay them McDonalds wages (sometimes less). They can get a 9-5 job doing mindless data entry Monday thru Friday for more money. More money, no weekends, good benefits, low stress. Who wouldn't consider jumping ship.
    MDs here are paying the best, but there aren't enough of those openings to go around. ODs want 'em cheap.

    It is improving, but it is slow. Until we force (legislatively) our state and our peers to recognize us as professionals the decline in good personnel will continue.


    Carol (Getting off my soapbox now)D

  12. #12
    Bad address email on file stephanie's Avatar
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    Hi I agree with all of you. The problem with this business I would have to say is the money. When companies get the good ones they just don't want to pay them what they are worth. This not only builds a sense of resentment but also a desire to want to do something besides optical. Been there done that myself. This job is not like training someone to run a cash register or flip burgers. You can't train everyone to do it therefore the need to pay the right good person from the start is incredibly necessary. I do have to agree with help being hard to find even sometimes when the pay is decent. From time to time we have people considering optical as a profession come into the office inquiring about salary. I have had more than one say something to the effect of"you have got to be kidding...I think I will have to find something else" I can't say I totally blame people. If I didn't enjoy this work so much I think I would have gone for something more lucrative myself. Unfortunately for the most part in this business(or so I see it) you either have to own your own business or go into management if you want to make a decent salary. I wouldn't mind the management aspect of it if they didn't cart you off to meetings. Just my two cents worth!
    Have a great day!
    Steph

  13. #13
    Bad address email on file John R's Avatar
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    Originally posted by chip anderson:
    You just don't even get kids and adults coming around looking for jobs any more.
    Unfortunately, Labs now try to train people for only a single operation to keep them from getting ambitious and moving on.
    Going to agree with you about that statement its the same in the UK, we cant get good staff who care about what they are doing. A lot to do with low pay and lousy working conditions. Our boss? goes for the one person one job theory to stop folks learning to much and keep them on lower pay, being stuck in the middle i get a lot of i'm fed up with doing this job cant i do something else. His reason for this is he dosent want anyone to know more than he does which isnt a lot. He has to rely on 4 of use to help him out with optical problems.
    John "why me" R

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  14. #14
    Master OptiBoarder Cindy Hamlin's Avatar
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    I agree with all of your comments. I believe that the current situation with the lack of help is forcing companies to pay higher salaries and compromise more! It is imperative that we are exceptionally good to the associates we have in order to keep them from being drawn away by the "pie in the sky" offers to steal them by people equally desperate for help! If we are exceptional to our employees they will in turn build loyalty to us and thereby eliminate the need to LOOK for help in the first place.

    I would be more than happy to let you train my future employees, Bob (and congratulations on your new career!).

    The key to our dilemna, I believe, is to be better to our current employees in order to keep them around! In the mean time, we need to find out why our numbers are declining. I do feel it is imperative to us!

  15. #15
    Master OptiBoarder Texas Ranger's Avatar
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    Part of the problem is also that we have a naive eyewear consumer, that thinks that everyone,regardless of where they are, are equally as competent to fill their prescription, therefore they equate our professional status to the lowest common denominator. so, you can be highly educated,licensed,creative,skilled, caring and an asset to your patients, but to many of them it's just how fast can you make them and how cheap will it be. I'm afraid that big chain advertising has shown opticians to be just sales clerks playing sales games. so, if you're just a sales clerk, there are things just can make more money at. but you do get the respect that you deserve, good or bad. there are a lot of really good opticians in systems that prevent them from doing their best work. we're in times of really low unemployment, with lots of opportunity of bright people, which most opticians are. As an employer, I know that I need to be flexible with staff's lives, pay decently and provide good insurance. but more than anything, people need to be appreciated for their efforts, soncerely.

  16. #16
    Optimentor Diane's Avatar
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    Bob,

    Where will you be teaching? I'm excited for you. I also hope to see you in Jekyll Island, in a few weeks at our OAG meeting.

    Diane

  17. #17
    Optimentor Diane's Avatar
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    Good help IS getting harder to find. So what to do? I believe that it is getting harder also, in the newer environment that we work in, now, to find the time to train new employees in the newest technology and expect them to truly keep up. I am a good trainer for my employees, but it is becoming more of a challenge with the level and amount of new products and technology out there.

    What is the answer??? I believe that FORMAL education is the answer. Now you're going to tell me that access to Opticianry Programs is not there. Guess What? It's available to any person willing to work a little. We NOW have internet courses that will allow a person to achieve their Associates degree in Opticianry. For any of you reading this post, you already have access to the internet, so what's stopping you? Check with NFOS at www.nfos.org, or you can contact the Commission on Opticianry Accreditation at 703-941-9110, to see where there is a program close to you. In Georgia, contact Thomas L. Schulz at DeKalb Tech at 404-297-9522, ext. 1207 or contact him via his e-mail at tschulz@mindspring.com.

    Now I look like I'm on a soapbox.

    The other answer is to pay them what they're worth. For those of you who are licensed Opticians, don't settle for less than you're worth. I had a woman call me and ask what I or my state association could do to make the doctor that she had just gone to work for pay her more money. She was a LICENSED optician in my state. She had moved to the very southern section of Georgia. She also wanted to know what the beginning salary was for licensed Opticians in Georgia. I asked her what she had accepted as her salary from the doctor. Her reply was that he was paying her $6.75 per hour. My answer to her that the starting salary in Georgian had just been lowered to $6.75 an hour for a licensed Optician. Your associations cannot make you earn more if you're willing to settle for less.

    Just some of my thoughts. :)

    Diane

  18. #18
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    Ditto Ditto Ditto

    Go Bob!
    We will welcome your talents (AND HUMOR) at our nfos meetings! We meet twice a year (summer, winter) and our winter 2001 meeting will be in Atlanta.

    Please send me your address at the college so we can contact you! Congratulations on your new venture...you will be SHOCKED at the amount of work involved, but teaching is extremely rewarding and alot of fun!

    Laurie : )

  19. #19
    Master OptiBoarder Alan W's Avatar
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    I have a problem here. I have seen some great opinions . . no kidding, not being sarcastic.
    But, I want to know whay the ABO exam is a ridiculously simple exam written for people who just left the sporting goods department at Target and attended some prep classes at Eye Masters! If that exam is supposed test for the level of education someone has . . . God help us all. The people I graduated with knew their stuff inside out. So, what's my point? The quality of education depends on the course material AND the teacher. And, I don't want to hear somebody tell me the manager at EyeMasters in Friendswood Texas, who stands in front of a bunch of former shoe sales people reading from a manual called "Controlling Remakes" is a teacher. Certainly that person is NO TRAINER. But, it's all over the place.
    As for training. . . when a person steps in the trainers circle, h/she better damn well know how to train. Opticians, doctors, indian chiefs, chefs, mechanics . . . were NOT trained to train . . not for one second, not for one minute, not for one decade. As far as I am concerned, the ABO, NAO, and all the rest of the organizations need to get their act together and create Train the Trainer courses. AND . . . more training needs to be offered in supervision... real supervisory skills. The Eye Masters, etc. of this world thrive on ignorance. They create a set of standards that make shoe salespeople frame sales people who take PD's.
    Then they reward for more selling, not learning how to take seg heights. When I went to college I had to learn to fit eyewear 5 days a week for a whole semester. Our prof. would grade us on how well we did. We could fail. Got that . . . we could actually fail. What a concept! Employers in mass optical retail don't do that. To most managers in optical mass retail . . training is a pain in the butt! The future depends on what we deliver to the employer. And, the employer who DOES keep every employee in a training mode perpetually, grows! Besides a pay check people want to constantly learn. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is wealth.

    Thanks for listening . . film at 11:00!

  20. #20
    Bad address email on file stephanie's Avatar
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    Redhot Jumper

    Hi Alan W! I am not sure I agree with you on the ABO being ridiculously easy. Of course I am an apprentice who learned most of this stuff out of the book on my own. I found the test to be hard as well as did all of my co-workers who went to school. I do agree with you that we should know this stuff inside and out. I would love someone to teach me inside and out. The problem is who?! No one can be bothered or some of them I don't feel know as much as I do. I read my manuals quite often if not just about everyday. I also help a girl getting ready to take the ABO in Nov. It is not only helping me learn it is helping her learn. Now if someone would just teach me the stuff I don't know that would be great. I don't just want to be mediocre I want to be great. Unfortunately I don't see it happening anytime soon. For now I will just be a good caring apprentice, that if I don't know the answer I will research it until I do.
    Have a great day!
    Steph

  21. #21
    Optical Educator
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    Stephanie,

    There ARE people willing to teach you more...at an nfos opticianry school! You are the ideal candidate to test out of the basic classes which you know, and take the advanced (2nd year) optical classes via Internet.

    If you want to learn more, there is education available to you...no matter where you live! You can learn at times which are convenient to YOU. You can create your own schedule. There is alot more to opticianry that goes well beyond the ABO. I would encourage you to check out an nfos school to further your optical knowledge by people who are tranined to train!

    I'll look forward to seeing you and your associates on our class rosters soon.

    Laurie

  22. #22

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    Hasn't todays technology with frame materials and high-index/polycarb lens materials made it incredibly easy to do a job that 10-20 years ago was much harder? I work with a good lab that does incredible work and have had nearly no problems. Listening to your client seems to be the biggest problem some opticians have. Listen and sell them what works with what they want. You can teach any idiot to fit frames and dot lenses. This approach works well for me, have I been lucky for all these years?

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