How Would You Handle This Potential New-Hire Trainwreck?

SHANA WAS EXHAUSTED after a day with a full schedule, plus add-ons, at the clinic. She plopped onto the chair at the tech desk. “Thank God we are finally getting some relief tomorrow when the new hire starts, it’s got to have been — what — at least six months since we’ve had a full team?”

“Oh, at least!” Dr. Wyatt continued, “We are still short-handed and need to hire a second person, but I’ll take one over none! Even though Adam has never worked in optometry, I’m banking on the fact his last three years working at a chiropractor office will prove to be cross-functional.”

“I hope he can hit the ground running — we are still so strapped on manpower, no one can afford to slow down during clinic to train him properly,” Shana added.

“We need to balance the training amongst the departments since everyone is cross-trained.” Dr. Wyatt added, “Let all of the staff know to help where they can and let’s reconvene at the end of the week to see where we’re at.”

At the end of the week the two met again. “This week turned into a dumpster fire,” Shana said with a sigh.

“It couldn’t have gone that bad — my patient flow didn’t seem affected and nothing stood out to me,” Dr. Wyatt stated.

“While I’m glad to hear that, the rest of the team is drowning.” Shana added, “Our schedule is fully booked every day, leaving no time to do anything other than work with patients — I’m pretty sure we have near-to-no spherical contact trials and no one has been notified all week that their glasses have arrived.”

Dr. Wyatt took a deep breath, “Thank you for your honesty, and you have my word that we will address these things, but I was referring to how Adam’s week went…”

“Since you appreciated my honesty… Having him shadow us all — we literally kept tripping over him.” Shana concluded, “We were all hustling and in our zones and he was just in the way.”

“Was he actually shown how to do things — when will he be able to start working on his own?” Dr. Wyatt asked.
“He observed but wasn’t directly shown anything.” Shana continued, “He took a lot of notes and paid attention, but there wasn’t even time for him to ask questions.”

“Okay, well that’s a start, let’s have a quick all-staff meeting on Monday before clinic starts so we can align,” Dr. Wyatt said.

“That’s another thing…” Shana said with hesitation. “Adam mentioned that between the volume of patients and the lack of formal training, he was going to have to decide if this place is worth the stress.”

Dr. Wyatt was surprised, “I understand everyone is overwhelmed, but we are going to have to troubleshoot together to find a solution that works for us all. We cannot lose this great find, even before he gets his toes wet.”

“I absolutely agree — we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.” Shana concluded. “Let’s work on a plan on Monday, and hope that Adam shows up!”

Krista S.
Carrollton, GA

Training a new employee with no prior experience can be challenging, especially with a fully booked schedule. To maintain consistency, structured processes and detailed training guidelines can be implemented. A training calendar with clear expectations at 21, 30, 60, and 90 days can be created to keep both the team and the new employee accountable throughout the process. Progress in training helps reduce staff burnout by ensuring that everyone is confident and capable in their roles. Trainees can be encouraged to embrace the discomfort of learning something new and motivated to practice the skill with a patient on the same day it’s introduced. Patients can be asked if they’re comfortable with training a new employee during their visit. Most patients are very understanding when it’s explained that a new team member is gaining experience. By conducting the training in front of patients and having the new employee perform the task the same day, valuable opportunities for hands-on learning in a real-world setting are created.

Ben T.
Miami, FL

Adam can’t learn the job if no staff members have time to train him! “Dr. Wyatt added, “Let all of the staff know to help where they can and let’s reconvene at the end of the week to see where we’re at.” This statement is the problem. No one was assigned to train Adam. The saying is true, “If everyone is responsible, no one will do it.”

To keep the staff from being burnt out, a formal and written training schedule needs to be made, adhered to, and carried out with benchmarks for passing onto the next skill on the list.

Dr. Wyatt needs to have a clearly written process for training new team members. The training process needs to have a designated trainer for each skill and a timeline needs to be set for accomplishing the training in each area. Dr. Wyatt also needs better communication, a training manager, and clearly defined expectations.

Jennifer S.
New Canaan, CT

Use SPEXY training to get him up and running and not take valuable staff members off the floor! Also, consider slowing down the patient schedule to get him onboarded. There may be a slight loss of revenue, but it is a small investment in getting a well-trained team up and running as quickly as possible!

Deborah T.
Austin, TX

First, the doctor needs to lighten his schedule while he’s shorthanded. He needs to assign a specific person to do some one-on -one training with the new hire. Having different employees trying to train the new hire might be a bit confusing, with everyone telling him how to do things. If the trainer can spend a full week with the new hire, he should be ready to go the following week. The office seems very chaotic and everyone is being overworked and getting overwhelmed by the lack of help. It’s only a matter of time before someone blows up. No one should have to work in an environment like that.

Rick R.
Girard, PA

With no optical experience and no one with any available time to help train him, the answer is simple: They can’t. It would be hard enough to acclimate to the new office WITH optical experience.

Take on fewer appointments until there is an adjustment. Otherwise, what’s that old quote? “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

No. It seems he’s almost clueless. “It couldn’t have gone that bad — my patient flow didn’t seem affected and nothing stood out to me,” Dr. Wyatt stated. What? Are you kidding me? He could help by getting his head out of the sand and realizing what is happening in his office. And, FYI, Adam ain’t coming back.

Jennifer H.
Sandpoint, ID

When our staff are overwhelmed, our doctor steps up between patients to help — verifying glasses, measuring PDs, helping with frame repairs. If this end-of-week meeting is the first time the doctor is hearing that no one has been notified of glasses arrivals all week, we’re talking some serious issues with management. They need to: A) develop a curriculum that can be handed to a new trainee for those busy days that are overwhelming, so they can occupy themselves in a helpful way (printouts, videos to watch, exercises, etc.); B) see the doctor stepping up more; C) evaluate if they really should be accepting all their current spread of insurance plans. Sounds like it’s time to cut a few of the lowest-paying plans and reduce chaos for higher profitability.