Attracting and retaining quality veterinary employees is a challenging task. You face a very tight job market in the US, along with a career path that has higher levels of stress than other positions. Your recruitment processes for new veterinary employees should involve multiple places to find new people who can fit in at your practice.
1. General Purpose Job Sites
Websites such as Indeed, CareerBuilder and Monster serve a general job-seeking audience. You can use these resources to get a lot of exposure for your listing. While some of the people visiting these websites are animal care professionals, you do end up with a lot of awareness and reach. These jobs also get aggregated onto other sites, so you end up spreading it beyond these large-scale websites.
2. Niche Job Websites
Complement your general purpose job site listings by putting career opportunities on niche sites and groups, too. For example, AVMA, iHireVeterinary and The Vet Recruiter are specialized resources that give you access to a smaller, more focused user base. You won’t get as many responses through these sites, but the ones that you do are likely to be high-quality candidates.
3. Animal Shelter Volunteers
People who are heavily involved as animal shelter volunteers have a love of animals and a lot of practical experience that you can leverage in a veterinary practice setting. They may have previous animal care experience or be interested in starting careers in this field. Partner with local shelters, rescues and similar organizations to build a long-term talent pipeline. If you have spare time, you may want to volunteer at a shelter to network with the front-line employees and volunteers who help with the animals’ medical needs.
4. Local Businesses
Have you encountered workers at local businesses who impress you with their skills? You may want to start networking to see whether you can bring in quality candidates that you have already interacted with in professional settings. Make sure to maintain good relationships with the local businesses and avoid blatantly poaching their employees, however.
Pet stores, boarding facilities and grooming services are three great options for finding potential employees. They may have limited advancement options or access to continued education opportunities. A career at your veterinary clinic could fulfill their dreams and long-term plans.
5. Community Outreach
Does your veterinary practice stay involved with the local community? Employer branding is an excellent way to establish your clinic as a quality place to work. When you have community outreach initiatives, such as low-cost spay and neuter services and vaccine clinics, you grow the network of people supporting your animal care efforts. Your next star employee can come through word-of-mouth recommendations provided by community members.
An offshoot to this idea is to post signs in your waiting room that advertise the open positions that you want to fill. Your patients’ parents may be job hunting or have someone in their social network who are. Local publications also give you an opportunity to communicate your job openings. You probably have some of these magazines and newspapers in your waiting room, already.
It’s not easy finding the right people to add to your vet practice. When you use these channels to bring in applicants and seek out candidates, you can keep your job roles filled and your upcoming pipeline healthy.
EasyDVM Practice Software is a cloud-based veterinary practice management software system. We pride ourselves in offering a system that is user-friendly, easy to learn for new team members, full-featured and elegant in its simplicity. Best of all, all devices, multiple users, all your clients and patients, always affordable.