The need is there. But hiring and retaining staff to care for tots, tweens, and teens is tough and going to get tougher. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of optometry support roles will grow 10% through 2032—a number that outpaces the available workforce.

Add to that another problem: Staffing appears to be getting even more challenging, as health care workers report burnout at 2.5 times the rate of other industries, according to Glassdoor economic research released this year.

The Staffing Conundrum

It’s little surprise then that, according to My Business Care Team, practices with stable, well-trained teams see 23% higher patient satisfaction scores—yet 67% of optometry practice owners reported staffing as their biggest operational challenge in 2025. It’s particularly difficult finding folks to work with your youngest patients. Although professional credentials are important to your practice, when it comes to working with kids, you either get it or you don’t. As Tom Bowen, president of Thrive in Roca, Nebraska, says, “Beyond the short-term productivity benefits, experience is overrated.”

When looking to hire a new child-friendly team member, what is important? “Soft skills and the right personality,” says Bowen. According to the Prism Career Institute, the top qualities and abilities to look for are effective communication, patience, empathy, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills.

Internal Meetings and Messaging

When it comes to communication, it’s important that anyone working with families be able to get a thought across in as few words as possible—whether you’re talking to children or their parents.

It is so important, in fact, that it should become a routine exercise included in staff meetings, suggests Daniel Acuff, PhD, president of Youth Market Systems and Daniel Acuff Enterprises LLC, who wrote “What Kids Buy and Why: The Psychology of Marketing to Kids.” 

He recommends asking staff members to summarize the essence of who your business is for and what your marketing or training effort is in just a few words. “Most companies and employees can’t, and it’s one reason 80% of new programs perform below expectations,” says Acuff.

Although there is a lot of interest in working in this arena, there is no clear career pathway to moving ahead in the pediatric care area. The first step in addressing that problem is determining which staff members are the right candidates to even consider for the role.

“With 20% of our patients under age 18, caring for younger people is an important part of what staff members need to learn,” says Rob Szeliga, OD, of Spring Hill Eyecare in Spring Hill, Tennessee. “We know which employees are naturally better with children and which are better with teens.

“Educating staff accordingly is important,” he adds. “Our team attends continuing education programs. Even if not everyone attends, the ones who do will come back and then teach what they learned.”

Operational Challenge

Why is this training so important? According to My Business Care Team, practices with stable, well-trained teams see 23% higher patient satisfaction scores and 18% better revenue retention. That is great in theory, but in that same study, 67% of optometry practice owners reported staffing as their biggest operational challenge in 2025.

That’s why most of your peers have tried a little bit of everything when it comes to training, from hiring experienced personnel to hiring newbies who come with no prior training to muddy your ideal processes, training in teams, attending trade shows, and in-house shadowing.

Whatever you do, that training not only has to continue but also needs to start on day 1. Why? According to Wynhurst Group, employees are 58% more likely to still be with an employer after 3 years if they went through a well-structured onboarding process as new hires.

There’s no question that training is a challenge, but, as Wynhurst Group’s analysis found, it can also deliver a huge payback. That’s one reason more and more small business owners are agreeing with the motto of Southwest Airlines cofounder Herb Kelleher: “Hire for attitude; train for skill.”