As we’ve moved into Q-4 of 2020, there’s a good bit of conversation and speculation regarding the product side of our business. Encouragingly, I’m talking with many colleagues who have found during Covid that their APT (Average Patient Transaction) is noticeably HIGHER these recent months, and that seems to have folks wondering things like:
It’s an interesting consumptive world in the eye care business today. The more deeply we’re entrenched in third-party provider panels, internet distribution, optometrist-on-site big box and chain set-ups and all the rest in the (not-so-new) new normal, the greater the tendency by consumers to assume the care and products are pretty much the same.
With 54 million Millennials, including some of the twenty-somethings, composing the largest segment of today’s American workers, it’s high time we strategize specifically to attract and retain these workers.
And why wouldn’t we? Today’s twenty-somethings are more educated than ever, they’re tech savvy likeno other group in history, they have great work ethic when motivated, they’re oozing with energy that favorably impacts people of all ages and they value and want to be part of a great work culture.
The Covid Era and its economic and labor market impacts have certainly created challenges for those of us who need workers (as in warm bodies) to function in our workplace. Among those challenges has been an apex in what I’ve come to call the Perfect for Me Workers, who simply job hop to the next place desperate for help if work conditions aren’t perfect. This has had employers treading on pins and needles in the Covid Era, often avoiding employee confrontation at all costs for fear of workers walking, a result of which in our observations coaching the coaches has been tolerating employee conduct unbecoming.
As we interact with private practice colleagues around the globe, it’s clear enough growth came a bit tougher this year than some. That said, it’s equally clear where the right growth strategies are in place along with the tendency to FINISH initiatives we commence, we can buck the trend and see record production despite what’s going on down the street, across the state and across the country.
I’ve heard this question weekly, if not daily, for now four decades, but the last year or two, the question is nearing Green Eggs and Ham status…
It gets asked here, it gets asked there. It gets asked everywhere. It gets asked in the dark (and light). It gets asked in a car, on a train, in tree, and in the rain. It gets asked on a boat and maybe even to a goat. In a house, and perhaps to a mouse. It gets asked in as many or more places as green eggs and ham gets eaten!
And of course, colleagues, that question is… drumroll please… What is the future of private practice?! And in a word, based on working with private practice owners every day these decades, including during the Virus Era, including this very month, week and day, it’s BRIGHT!
As we’ve been discussing regularly throughout the “Virus Era,” there remain plenty of challenges keeping a bricks and mortar private practice fully staffed and rolling. In BB Post 18, we asked and explored the question Where Did All the Workers Go? Here in Post 20, let’s talk about the logical next questions: WILL They Coming Back? If so, WHEN? And How do we GET AND KEEP Them?
As we discussed last time and have regularly throughout the “Virus Era,” keeping the practice staffed-up with a great team is tougher than ever. Where once it was employers who called the shots, or at least set the stage, in the workplace, it seems there’s been a shift. These days, it feels more like employees are calling the shots, even to the point of employers being held hostage in their own businesses amidst a “make it perfect for me or I’m out” mentality.
As we’ve been discussing regularly throughout the “Virus Era,” there remain plenty of challenges keeping a bricks and mortar private practice fully staffed and rolling. In BB Post 18, we asked and explored the question Where Did All the Workers Go? Here in Post 20, let’s talk about the logical next questions: WILL They Coming Back? If so, WHEN? And How do we GET AND KEEP Them?
The last couple years have been a period of great uncertainty, but amidst all that uncertainty, one thing is as certain as ever. Colleagues are paying more to recruit and keep great staff. And despite our best efforts, it sometimes still isn’t enough to keep staff from jumping ship in this day and age.
As we’ve been discussing regularly the past year in the Blogs, Podlectures and on the Help Desk, there’s plenty of challenge keeping a bricks and mortar small business, particularly a private practice, fully staffed in this day and age. And there’s a common question that seems to come into the conversation regularly: Where did all the workers go?
