Dec 2015

Focus
on Business
BOOSTING RECRUITMENT
SUCCESS
BY THERESE MCNAUGHTEN*
Hiring new staff can be a minefield.
Your intention will be to attract, source, recruit and retain the very
best talent and skill set for your business, but how can you be sure
you are doing this effectively? How can you reduce costly hiring
mistakes; and how can you ensure you are doing your best to attract
and retain the best talent?
To get your recruitment project off to a flying start, begin by
focusing on the position description you need. Get it wrong and
it can have an impact not only on how your recruit, but whom
you recruit. Planning is key. Taking time to write a well-defined
position description will ensure you attract the right level and
quality of candidates, reduce attrition in the long-term and support
a successful employer/employee relationship. It gives clarity and
guidelines, helping to manage future expectations for both the
new staff member and for their manager. Use it to support your
recruitment and selection process, job review times and training and
development. Other key recruitment considerations include:
Analysing what’s missing
Clearly identify the resource gap/skills that are missing and need to
be found for your business. If you are replacing someone, ask yourself
if you would you look for the same skill set? Is there someone suitable
in the business that could be upskilled to fill this role? This is a good
time to re-evaluate what you need to make the position description
more successful for all concerned.
Considering the impact
Define the purpose of the role and identify the main impact you
want. Think about the outcomes you require.
Identifying core skills
Identify the skills needed to help achieve the key purpose of the
position. Consider core critical skills that are negotiable and those
that are not negotiable for the role. What is the minimum level of
tertiary qualifications required? Remember most skills can be taught
but a good attitude cannot!
Working out the support required
Do you have or will you need an induction plan? What training is
needed? What career path are you offering? What scope and level of
remuneration and incentives are required? Consider why the person
you want, would want to work for you? And how will you will attract
and source them?
Leading the recruitment process?
Have you got the time and in-house level of expertise to conduct the
recruitment for your business? Consider outsourcing some or all of
the process to a recruitment professional to help you save time and
money.
Here is a WOF-style checklist for a position description:
• Company information - the title of the position, reporting to.
• Purpose/description of the role—an outline of the overall purpose
and content of the role.
• Job Requirements—a list of the Key Result Areas (KRA’s)—4-8
specific tasks or duties you want them to contribute. First list the
key area and then list the key tasks/activities they will need to
undertake, eg. Manage financials—provide up to date monthly
sales and P&L reports.
• Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s)—how you will measure the
results: sales, milestones, goals, targets etc.
• Relationships both internal and external they will manage
• Experience required - consider the specific experience you require
for this role including skills, knowledge and qualifications. List skills
and describe the level of competency required in each, eg. Customer
service—at least three years of telephone and face-to-face
• Personal attributes—in today’s ever-changing work environment
consider flexibility, adaptability and a positive attitude to learning.
All go a long way to creating a positive and productive work force.
Other considerations
During this process, think about how you can highlight your
company’s key selling-points in the position description. Identify
unique features this role offers a candidate and highlight incentives
and opportunities for career development and innovation, investment
in education and community involvement.
Lastly, you may also consider outlining the remuneration package
components—base, targets, benefits, staff discounts, health
insurance etc. where applicable. You can keep this on your own copy
and remove for applicants if you wish it to be confidential.
In further columns for NZ Optics I will expand on the considerations
above, outline tips for writing good recruitment ads and provide you
with some compelling interview techniques. ▀
* Therese McNaughten is a director and founder of Wholeoranges
Consulting, a boutique recruitment firm that provides flexible
recruitment services to businesses nationwide, and a business
coach for those going through career transitions. For more, contact
Therese at therese@wholeoranges.co.nz or visit
www.wholeoranges.co.nz.
Largest ever AUSCRS meeting
BY DR DAVID KENT*
A
record number of attendees gathered
to listen to the most comprehensive
programme on cataract and refractive
surgery available in this part of the world at
this year’s Australasian Society of Cataract
and Refractive Surgery (AUSCRS) meeting.
Held at Peppers Resort in Noosa from
October 7-10, AUSCRS 2015 continued
to uphold practices making it uniquely
entertaining, including the banning of ties
and jackets, allocating amusing themes
to many of the sessions and dressing up
speakers in outrageous costumes, with
accompanying music and videos.
Many ophthalmology registrars also
attended the AUSCRS Advanced Trainee
Programme, which provided the basics in
cataract surgery, intraocular lenses and
corneal and refractive surgery.
At the main meeting four overseas
speakers presented: the current president
of the American Society of Cataract and
Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Robert Cionni;
the immediate past president of ASCRS, Eric
Donnenfeld; Roberto Bellucci from Italy; and
Gilles Lesieur from France.
Cionni presented The Gold Medal Lecture,
Managing Loose Zonules. He outlined the most
important innovations in cataract surgery in the
presence of compromised zonules, including
the development of phacoemulsification,
viscoelastics and capsular tension rings, and
he discussed the Ahmed capsular tension
segmentas well as the Malyugin modified CTR
that can be injected.
Until recently the loops around the anterior
capsule margin were usually sutured to the
sclera in the ciliary sulcus using Prolene. More
recently—since the discovery that Prolene
degrades and gives way over 10-20 years—
there has been a move to using Gortex 6-0
sutures as the best choice for scleral sutures.
Cionni showed how to do two separate
sclerotomies and then use 25 gauge
disposable retinal forceps to pull the two
ends of the Gortex suture through the two
sclerotomies. He recommended using a two,
one and then one throw knot with Gortex
sutures before rotating the knot inside the
eye. He also covered important surgical
principles and gave many useful insights.
The presenters were all dressed up in outfits
and helmets suitable for extreme outdoor
sports for the next session on, Complications
and challenging cases: too close for comfort.
President Dr Graham Barrett channels his inner Kermit at AUSCRS 2015. Photos courtesy of MiVision
Surgical videos included management of an
eye that had a chronically dislocating anterior
chamber IOL, astigmatic surprise with a
trifocal IOL due to IOL tilt, dislocating of a
Verisyse iris clip IOL, the use of an artificial iris
in a patient with trauma and IOL exchange in
juvenile chronic arthritis.
In the following session there were
presentations on adjustable IOL, controversies
in corneal collagen cross-linking and the use
of toric IOLs in keratoconus.
AUSCRS president Dr Graham Barrett
dressed as Kermit the Frog for the session
entitled Muppets or Masters: The role of
new technology, while other presenters
dressed up as science fiction heroes. The
topics included femtosecond laser assisted
cataract surgery, trifocal IOLs, intra-operative
aberrometry to assist with IOL power and
astigmatism management and extendeddepth-of-focus
IOLs. The audience was asked
to vote if each topic made the presenter a
muppet or a master?
Day two included a discussion about
the role of posterior corneal astigmatism
estimation and/or measurement to assist
with toric IOLs. There were presentations that
compared the three different trifocal IOLs
from Zeiss, FineVision and Alcon, as well as
comparisons of different extended-depth-offocus
from AMO Surgical and Oculentis.
Another presentation compared contrast
sensitivity and glare testing in patients with
trifocal IOLs and normal age-matched eyes
and found no significant difference. There
was general agreement there was now no
reason to use a bifocal diffractive multifocal
IOL when trifocal IOLs all gave a much better
range of unaided vision and extended-depthof-focus
gave useful near vision, without
the same degradation of low light and
night time vision found with trifocal IOLs.
Another session included presentations and
Dr’s Rod Keillor, Mark Ruddel and Brett Rogers at AUSCRS
debate about the merits or lack of merit of
femtosecond laser assisted cataract surgery.
The third and final day was also of a
high standard. The first session on corneal
surgical controversies debated the merits
of endokeratoplasty surgery, deep anterior
lamellar keratoplasty in keratoconus and
whether or not there was a role for excimer
laser in combination with corneal collagen
cross-linking for patients with keratoconus.
One of the highlights of day three was a
session entitled Refractive Round Up, in which
Barrett dressed as a native American chief
complete with a small live pony, while the
other presenters dressed as cowboys. There
was a case presentation of a woman in her
70s who developed progressive keratoconus
leading Eric Donnenfeld to comment that
most late keratoconus cases are due to floppy
eyelid syndrome and chronic rubbing of the
affected eye.
The final night was celebrated with the
Gala Dinner, with the theme Hot Night in
Havana.
Next year the 20th meeting of the AUSCRS
will be held at the newly renovated Sheridan
Mirage in Port Douglas from July 20-23rd. ▀
* Dr David Kent is an Ophthalmologist with Fendalton
Eye Clinic in Christchurch and the current New Zealand
representative to the International Society of Refractive
Surgery and AUSCRS
OPSM a-flutter in Butterfly Creek
BY ZOE SMITH*
OPSM held its National Mini-
Conference on October 18, with 40
optometrists attending from as far
north as Whangarei down to Dunedin.
The one-day event at Butterfly Creek
in Auckland included guest speakers
Drs Rachel Barnes and Andrea Vincent
from Retina Specialists, who led a talk on
abnormal and normal peripheral retinal
conditions. Vincent discussed the use of
Optos ultra-widefield imaging scanner and
its ability to diagnose rod-cone dystrophies.
In using Optos’ fundus autofluorescence
(FAF) imaging, she said, abnormal FAF
images in rod-cone dystrophy correlate
highly with the visual field loss.
Optometrists then shared case
reports, confirming diagnoses with the
ophthalmologists. My favourite case was
one from Evan Tennant of OPSM Dunedin,
who discussed the case of a man who’d
been diagnosed several years ago as
simply having retinal pigment, but a reexamination
of his FAF images indicated the
patient actually had a rod-cone dystrophy.
The event included a Red Eye Workshop
led by fellow optometrist Jason Dhana and
myself. In the workshop, attendees were
split into two groups to review eight cases
of red eye, covering differential diagnosis,
treatment and management. Dr Hussain
Patel was on hand to give feedback on tricky
treatment scenarios and advice on “dodgy
looking discs,” glaucoma case analysis.
Emma Gilles from Johnson & Johnson
gave a presentation on the new 1-day
Moist Multifocal. It was refreshing to learn
about the reasoning behind material choice
and design of the lens to help give our
presbyopic patients more natural vision.
Graeme Curtis from CLC then led us through
piggybacking solutions in Keratoconus and
other ways to improve lens centration for
those troublesome cone fits.
The day ended with another round of
cases, including successful orthoptic
treatment of intermittent exotropia in
a child presented by Melissa Thomson
of Thames OPSM; and a spontaneous
hyphaema case presented by Craig Holmes
of Tauranga OPSM.
Many thanks must go to the event
sponsors Johnson and Johnson Visioncare,
Designs for Vision and Alcon, without whom
the event would not have been possible. ▀
* Zoe Smith is an optometrist at OPSM Royal Oak and
a clinical supervisor teaching fellow at Auckland
University Eye Clinic.
Pauraic O’Sullivan, Jared Beetham and Hirdesh Nair
Zoe Smith, Dr Andrea Vincent and Dr Rachel Barnes
AFT mulls IPO
AFT may go public to raise capital on
the NZX and ASX stock exchanges,
the company said in a statement.
AFT is considering an initial public offering
to raise of $45 million, with a $4 million selldown
by the Atkinson Family Trust, which
owns 87% of the company.
The company intends to continue
introducing new products in New Zealand
and Australia, and expand internationally
through third-party licensees and
distributors. Half of AFT’s 2015 revenue was
from New Zealand, 47% from Australia and
the remainder from the rest of the world,
primarily southeast Asia, where the company
began doing business in mid-2014.
The company sells 109 products across
Australia and New Zealand, and has
licensing or distribution agreements in over
35 countries. ▀
12 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS December 2015
December 2015.indd 12
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