How to Hire Veterinarians and Staff for Your Veterinary Practice

Animal hospitals, veterinary clinics, and their recruiting teams are struggling to find veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and staff for their businesses now more than ever. Approximately 23 million households acquired a pet during the pandemic so it is no surprise that the demand for healthcare services for our pets has also increased (Source: ASPCA).

With a limited supply of veterinarians and veterinary technicians, pet parents are experiencing longer wait times at clinics, utilizing telehealth services, or increasingly feeling hurried or rushed out of the office. It boils down to simple economics: High demand for healthcare and low supply of doctors and nurses.

In this post, we’ll explain why utilizing these 7 recruiting methods is important to finding talent and successfully growing your veterinary team.

  1. Select the right platform to post jobs

Unfortunately, the name job boards created for masses that we are accustomed to using, ie. LinkedIn and Indeed, do not cater to the rapidly growing and diverse pet industry. Veterinary practices of all sizes end up paying an arm and a leg. Employers are often fooled by “free posting for your first week” specials to learn that they must pay daily boosting rates and other hidden fees.

These veterinary job listings are regularly drowned in the background of thousands of job postings that go up every day. Instead, try niche job boards that are exclusive to the pet industry or veterinary industry such as PackHire, AVMA, and Relief Rover. These maximize the number of relevant eyes that see your job posting and are often times MUCH more inexpensive.

2. Set a budget

If you expect to find quality candidates you will need to spend money on employment search engines, recruiting, third-party background check companies, etc. This can vary depending on recruiting needs and company size but set a budget and do not be afraid to spend. You will thank yourself later.

3. Use Key Terms that candidates are searching for

If you are recruiting for veterinarians and veterinary technicians, be sure to add related keywords and credentials to your job posts so they will be returned in candidate searches. For example, as “animal doctor” “DVM”, “veterinary nurse”, “veterinary assistant”, “LVT”, “RVT” or “CVT”. These will help more job seekers in the veterinary field or pet industry find your job posting.

4. Utilize Social Media Channels

If your animal hospital or veterinary clinic does not have a social media page, make one ASAP! Post jobs on all your social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, for example, to maximize reach. Use hashtags and links to direct the potential candidates to where they can apply for your veterinary job.

5. Think outside the box

Do not overlook important recruiting sources such a veterinary school career centers (American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges AAVMC), trade shows (Global Pet Expo, Super Zoo), industry-specific professional groups, and non-profits (American Veterinary Medical Association AVMA and National Association of Veterinary Technicians of America NAVTA). Networking with career centers and event attendees will help you build relationships with the veterinary community. Staying up to date with news and publications in the veterinary field as well as pet food and pet products is also important. Many times the best quality veterinarians and specialists participate in research and author pieces with names and contact information. Go the extra mile!

6. Referrals

Ask your current team members for referrals regularly. It is the simplest, most effective, and often times most forgotten recruiting method.

7. Get Professional Help

If you have tried all these steps and still are not finding the right candidates or are up against brutal deadlines you may want to consider utilizing professional recruiting services for your veterinary practice. Recruiting agencies typically charge a fee that can be from 15%-30% of a candidate’s first-year salary. Recruiters can cut hiring time in half and dramatically simplify the process by sourcing and vetting candidates for employers so they only have to select from a small bunch of carefully screened candidates.

How PackHire Can Help You Hire Quality Veterinarians and Staff for your Veterinary Practice?

PackHire’s team of expert recruiters will walk you through our recruiting process from A-Z.  You will reduce time and money spent on recruiting, make data-driven decisions, and hire quality veterinarians and staff.

We are happy to be a resource by providing tips and recommendations on how to write the most effective job descriptions and share with you our Must Ask interview questions for candidates. Create your employer account and post your first job for free! Contact us here

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