7 things to look for when hiring for your eyecare practice

Running an eyecare clinic in 2025 means competing for talent in one of health care’s tightest labor markets. Practice managers face the same workforce‑shortage headwinds as primary‑care offices—plus the added need for highly specialized skills, from refraction to retail frame fitting. Practices are re‑tooling benefits packages and work‑life policies just to keep résumés coming in the door.

The stakes are high: every time a staff member walks out, the clinic can lose roughly 20 percent of that position’s annual salary in recruiting costs, overtime and lost productivity, according to a long‑running analysis of turnover costs. For an optical dispensary or surgical‑tech lane where margins hinge on throughput, one vacancy can ripple across patient flow, capture rates and revenue cycles.

Eyecare hiring is further complicated by the field’s “dual personality.” Patients expect both clinical precision and a boutique retail experience, so administrators must screen for candidates who can toggle effortlessly between OCT scans and fashion‑frame consultations. Practices now rank interpersonal aptitude and up‑trainability alongside licensure when setting job requirements, knowing that soft‑skill gaps can drag down satisfaction scores as surely as refraction errors.

The following seven checkpoints will help you vet candidates rigorously, avoid costly mis‑hires and keep the patient experience front and center.