4 Reasons Your Veterinary Hiring Process May Not be Working

Are you in the process of hiring for one or more positions within your veterinary practice and feeling frustrated by the lack of quality candidates who are responding? Believe it or not, it could be stemming from the very strategy you’re using. Veterinary recruiting is more of a science than an art form, and if you’re striking out more often than you’re hitting home runs (or even base hits for that matter), it could be due to one or more of the following four reasons.

You do not have a clear practice identity (or you’re not communicating it effectively).

The goal of most veterinary recruiting ventures is to locate, hire and retain candidates who are not only skilled, but are also a good fit with the culture of the practice itself. If you aren’t clear on your clinic’s values, or you’re not doing a good enough job communicating those values, you’re probably attracting the wrong kinds of applicants. It’s no different than shopping. If you don’t know the size you need, how can you expect to end up with a product that will fit properly? The same goes for recruiting. Understanding who your practice is will help you better identify the individuals who would fit best.

Your job descriptions aren’t accurate.

Whether it’s a matter of leaving out important information or over-exaggerating the scope and duties of the role, either way you’re setting your practice and your potential candidates up for failure. Accurate job descriptions are critical because they help you weed out unsavory prospects while narrowing down your options to those who are most closely aligned with the role you’re trying to fill. When writing your job listings, be realistic and honest. The more communicative and clear you are upfront, the less time you’ll waste sifting through candidates who aren’t a good match.

Your practice has poor or non-existent internal communication.

This is particularly important for larger practices. The clinic owner or lead vet may have a vision in his or her head of what the ideal candidate for an open position is, but if that information isn’t adequately relayed to the person in charge of recruiting for that role, the disconnect can easily result in mismatched applicants, not to mention frustrations and delays. Beyond this, understanding what the manager expects of his or her employees once they’re hired is also important. Without open, honest and clear communication, you could be wasting your time looking for an apple when you really need an orange.

You have unrealistic expectations.

If you’re looking for a veterinary technician with 10+ years of experience and certain specific skillsets, make sure you’re offering a job that will both challenge them and also pay them a salary that is suitable for their qualifications. Many veterinary recruiting disasters stem from unrealistic candidate expectations – situations that end up ending badly for everyone. Make sure you have an accurate idea of what the job in question entails and also what competitive compensation for that role is before you set out looking for your diamond in the rough. This will ensure that everyone is on the same page and improve the chances of finding the ideal candidate.

Veterinary recruiting is no easy feat. To make things even more challenging, if your internal hiring processes aren’t up to par, you could be wasting valuable time and money as a result. If you’ve evaluated your current strategy and identified one or more of the above issues, it’s time to make some changes.

If you’ve done so and you’re still feeling overwhelmed and frustrated, you may want to consider enlisting the help of a professional veterinary recruiting service. Dream Team Elite can assist with all of your hiring needs. Contact us today at 1-800-469-1871 ext. 353 to learn more or to schedule a free consultation.

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