Drs. Licausi’s and Zilnicki’s practice team, one of whom recently departed after a happy run with the practice. Drs. Licausi and Zilnicki proactively made sure this exit of a beloved colleague didn’t bring down the other employees’ spirits or productivity.
Employee departure management strategies in optometry
By Miki Lyn Zilnicki, OD, FCOVD,
and Jessica Licausi, OD, FAAO, FCOVD
Nov. 20, 2024
When a much-loved employee leaves, office morale can decrease sharply. Here is what we do to keep our employees’ spirits and productivity up when a colleague departs.
Gap Left in Team After Departure
A staff member recently left us who had a few different roles within the office, leaving more than one gap to fill. She was our biller and part-time vision therapist. She also had training in reception and had the capability to cover our front desk in a pinch.
The decision to leave was a difficult one for our staff member. It came down to health insurance. She found a job that offered a level of health insurance that we could not, making her son’s medication much more affordable.
Upon giving notice, she was saddened to leave the small-family environment of our office. She was grateful for all the support we gave her through the years, which made this decision hard, but at the end of the day, she had to make this decision for her family.
As employers, we are always sad to see good staff leave. We try our best to have open communication with them about their life and what they need so we can then try to accommodate them as best as possible and retain them. Unfortunately, in this instance, we could not provide what our employee needed for her family.
The Employees Who Are Left Behind
We have four remaining staff members who work a range of full-time to part-time hours. Since our office is such a close-knit group, our departing staff member chose to disclose to the remaining staff her decision to leave and why. She wanted them to know directly from her that she was leaving for personal family reasons, and that it had nothing to do with anything that occurred at the office.
The biggest question was how this employee’s responsibilities were going to be absorbed once we told staff we would not be hiring someone right away.
Our decision to not hire right away was two-fold: first both of her positions (billing/vision therapist) take a long time to train, and two, and we felt strongly that we could split her responsibilities with the current staff we have in place.
This decision, though, required open and honest conversations with our staff, particularly our office manager, about what tasks she can handle without feeling overwhelmed.
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For the vision therapy position, we have been cross training our current receptionist in this area for a few months. This role takes months of training that include didactic sessions to discuss anatomy, concepts and training techniques as well as an understanding of how to become an effective therapist. We felt that pouring more into our current staff was more beneficial than hiring another person for this role.
Quickly and Forthrightly Address Negativity & Turn it Around
We made sure to address concerns, especially those that had a negative tone, head on and quickly in order to nip it in the bud. While we were both saddened to have a valued and loved part of our team leave, we made an effort to be the example of positivity toward this change.
In this instance, this staff member gave us very short notice. Staff (and we ourselves), were a little stunned with the quick turnaround. It left us scrambling. We were concerned about resentment building as the departing employee’s workload was disbursed to remaining staff.
We strive to build a positive work environment and welcome change in the office. Once we had a plan in place for divvying up roles, we presented it to our employees and showed them in an upbeat way how we would make it work.
We structured this departure as a way for other staff members to take on growth in their roles within the office. Confidence and attitude starts at the top, and we made sure to show nothing but enthusiasm for the future.
Emphasize Opportunity for Improvements
We had multiple conversations concerning our departing employee’s strengths and weaknesses in her roles, which allowed us to figure out how to improve systems in the office to be more efficient.
For example, previously billing for the week was reviewed on Fridays and sent out. This took a lot of time as it required staff to go back to each day, click through each patient, review the billing, print what was needed for certain patients (CMS forms, records) and then compile and either electronically submit or mail it out.
With our office manager now taking over this role, we developed a new system in which each day she will review billing and print CMS forms/records, so that by the end of the week, she just has to mail out what is necessary and click “submit” electronically as everything will be reviewed already. We are confident that this small change will improve efficiency and turnaround time on submissions.
Show Departing Employee & Remaining Employees There Are No Hard Feelings
We got our departing employee flowers, bought her lunch and wrote her a nice card expressing our gratitude for her time with us. We also made sure to message her on her first day at her new job with well wishes and encouragement.
We are firm believers that if an employee leaves on good terms, it is important to keep a friendly relationship. You never know when your paths may cross again!
Miki Lyn Zilnicki, OD, FCOVD, and Jessica
Licausi, OD, FAAO, FCOVD, are co-owners of Twin Forks Optometry and Vision Therapy in Riverhead, N.Y.
To contact Dr. Zilnicki: DrZilnicki@twinforksoptometry.com.
To contact Dr. Licausi: DrLicausi@twinforksoptometry.com
