Staff Management

On-Target Job Posting = Staffing Bull’s Eye

Brad McCorkle, Local Eye Site

By Brad McCorkle

By honing the language and branding that describes your practice, you can create job ads that allow you to hire high-quality employees.

Job Ads: Good and Bad

By understanding the difference between effective and ineffective job ads you can improve the caliber of employees in your practice.

Good
Sharp VisionEye Group, L.L.P., a multi-subspecialty Ophthalmology group, located in Stamford,Conn., is seeking a full-time Optometrist to take over a fully staffed existing optical practice in Stamford.

Sharp Visionhas ten ophthalmologists covering not only comprehensive ophthalmology but also retina, glaucoma, refractive, plastics and cornea subspecialties. We currently have seven employed optometrists in three optical locations; we have five in Norwalk, Conn.,two in Greenwich, Conn.,and we are currently seeking an optometrist for ourStamford location.

We offer an excellent comprehensive salary and benefit package including a 401K. The optical store inStamford has been in operation for eleven years and is fully staffed with techs and employees to assist you in patient care.

This is an exciting opportunity for you to take over a thriving, well established optometry practice in a growing community inSouthern Connecticutand be associated with a long standing and reputable comprehensive ophthalmology group.

Bad
Full-time or Part-time

Salary/Wage:

Call for details

Benefits:

Call for details

Looking for an experienced, licensed optometrist able to perform the duties of an optometrist such as complete eye health/vision evaluations, prescribe eyeglasses, contact lenses, and all other care associated with an optometrist.

New construction shopping center minutes from JFK airport in New York. Space also available for rental for an audiologist.

Brand Practice to Best Advantage
Take the time to put effort into creating a job posting that does justice to your practice. Remember, everything has a brand, and your practice has an employer brand that needs to be cultivated. Put yourself in the position of your ideal candidate. Ask yourself the kinds of questions they will be asking when they look at your ad: “How respected will the person in this position be if the employer can only dedicate five minutes to creating the ad? What are the redeeming qualities of this organization as a place to work?”

There is intense competition for the best and brightest in the eyecare profession, and that competition is only going to get more intense over the next decade. Realize that your job posting is part of the playing field, so bring your A game when telling us about your open position.

Use Creativity and Eye for Detail
I’m always surprised when employers don’t take advantage of the free options they have to make a more aesthetically pleasing posting. Adding a company logo is a great example. If you have the option to easily add an element to the ad that makes your practice look more professional, use it!

Speak Candidate Language, Make Your Job “Findable”
Another mistake practices make is using language that does not connect well with a job-seeker.Using internal job titles as the title of your job posting is a no-no. This is a mistake because those titles often don’t mean anything to prospective candidates. Additionally, internal titles often have limited “key word relevance” on the web. In other words, make sure your job is findable on the internet by putting yourself in the place of the ideal job-seeking candidate. What are the words and phrases a candidate will use when using search engines to find their ideal job? Use those words in the title of your job posting and again multiple times in the body of your posting. Also, be specific about the location of your job (city and state).Do these things, and you will be more “findable” and better able to speak the language of your ideal candidate.

Also, try to avoid stereotypical job ad language. Be different to grab the eye of the best candidates. We all know that communication skills are important in most jobs, but how many job ads have you seen with “strong communication skills required?” That may be a true statement, but my eyes can’t help but glaze over after I’ve seen the same tired old language over and over again. Find a way to communicate what’s important in a candidate with fresh descriptive language that makes me want to work for you.

Try to Avoid Anonymity in Ads
With most online recruiting solutions, you have the option to post your jobs anonymously. Depending on the circumstances, it is understandable that certain situations require discreteness. However, in a relatively small profession like eyecare, posting your job without revealing the employer will have a significant effect on your volume of responses for several reasons. First, the job-seeker doesn’t want to risk applying for a job with their current employer. Secondly, how can you properly promote your practice and its professional opportunities if you don’t reveal who you are?

There are opportunities where anonymity is a must; however,I encourage you to weigh the necessity of that level of discreteness versus the effect it will have on your ad. How anonymous can your ad be at an “optometric practice” in a specific town?

Your Job Ads, Key Marketing
It’s important to think of your job ads as you would the marketing your practice uses to solicit new patients. You wouldn’t dream of paying for a campaign to market your practice to prospective patients without careful consideration. It would serve you well to put the same amount of care into your recruitment advertising.After all, is there better marketing than the grass roots word of mouth that results when great employees provide great service?

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Brad McCorkle is the president and founder of Local Eye Site, an online employment community for ECPs that powers Review of Optometric Business’ Career Center. To contact him: Brad.mccorkle@localeyesite.com.

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