How National Vision's Chief People Officer is leading through a time of transformation

By prioritizing behaviors over competencies and maintaining human touch, Bill Clark demonstrates how to navigate talent acquisition during times of change.

Your organization has been through significant leadership changes recently. How has this transformed your approach to talent agility?

We're in a time of intense transformation. Over the last 18 months, we've welcomed a new CEO, a new president of our largest retail brand, America's Best, and everyone on our executive leadership team is either new to the organization or in an expanded role.

As we balance changing priorities and maintaining our core culture, we've had to rethink talent acquisition. We had previously done a really nice job with competency-based job descriptions and interview guides, but recently we've set our traditional competency model aside and asked: during this transformation, which behaviors matter most?

These transformation behaviors are a bit different from our previous core competencies, so we've had to rework success profiles, interview guides and job ads around them. Success looks different now, and our talent approach needs to reflect that.

Our 1,200+ retail stores require constant recruitment efforts. What sets us apart is our unique position at the intersection of healthcare and retail. This distinctive environment has shielded us from the hiring challenges that plagued other industries, even during difficult periods like 2022. Our optometry offices naturally attract candidates because they offer a more professional setting than typical retail environments – something job seekers clearly value.

When balancing speed and quality in talent acquisition, how do you decide between building internal capabilities versus leveraging external partnerships?

That's a great question. In our home office environment, there's a constant push and pull around whether to use contractors or external organizations to fill gaps versus hiring people directly.

We have a lot of conversations about whether the work is short-term or if it's ongoing and core to our business. If it's short-term or requires specialized expertise we don't have internally, we'll typically look to partners. If it's ongoing and central to our operations, we'll build that capability in-house.

It's really about being strategic with our resources and ensuring we have the right mix of internal talent and external support to remain agile while maintaining quality.

How are you helping your team develop the skills needed for this new AI-enhanced workplace?

I think we're all trying to figure out the right balance with AI. For us, it's about considering how to use it to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them.

We have ongoing conversations with our teams about the various AI tools available. I talk about that balance between technology and human judgment with my team at least monthly.

We are also leveraging our key technology partners to understand how their products are evolving in this space and as a result how we can deliver a better candidate or associate experience with those tools. It's not just AI – it's also automation. They go hand in hand.

How has your partnership with Cielo enhanced your talent acquisition capabilities, particularly for hard-to-fill roles?

Cielo has been instrumental in helping us ensure our messaging is readily in front of potential optometrists. There is a very limited pool of active optometrists in the U.S. at any given point. To hire them, you have to be in front of them at the right time when they are suddenly open to a new opportunity. Everyone has tough days, and that's when they're most open to considering new opportunities.

With Cielo's help, we now reach every optometrist in the U.S. at least twice a year, if not three times, through various channels and with different messaging — social, print and other means — to get our name and value proposition in front of them. We simply couldn't achieve this level of consistent outreach with our internal resources alone.

Cielo's human resources and technological capabilities have enabled us to be much more visible in the optometrist community and capture that talent as soon as it becomes available.