View from the AOP: How do we improve staff retention?

One of the biggest issues facing employers in optics, whether multiple or independent, is staff recruitment and retention.

We hear there are, for instance, shortages of optometrists in the Scottish Highlands or that it is difficult to find practitioners with clinical and soft skills. And, the findings of our 2017 health and wellbeing survey evidenced this, with employers reporting one of the main pressures they faced was finding suitable employees. These results, coupled with the findings around optometrists’ career aspirations, has prompt-ed us to explore this further.

We know from the 2016 Optical Workforce Survey conducted for the sector by the College of Optometrists, many practitioners are choosing to take up locum work over employed positions but we do not have a sense of exactly how many are considering this. We also know a quarter intend to stay in optometry for only five years but do not know what would make them to stay longer.