Finding Your Practice’s Sparkle

There are many layers to today’s recruitment problems in the veterinary profession, but one big problem is that practices are trying to recruit the way they have always done.

When I started working with the veterinary profession 10 years ago, the norm was to place an advert in the major industry publications and practices would receive a reasonable quantity and quality of responses.

But these days, advertising produces very little results, yet some practices continue to do it in the hope that the same action will produce a different result this time.

One huge limitation when it comes to advertising is there are a lot of practices advertising at the same time, and since veterinary practices are similar with some small differences in size and facilities, adverts tend to get rather “samey”.

I’d like to invite you to consider what makes your practice different to the rest.

What is your sparkle?

What do you do as a practice to add value to people’s careers and lives, how do you do it, and why do you do it?

Knowing this is the difference that makes the difference when it comes to attracting people to your practice, and more importantly attracting the RIGHT people into your practice.

Your practice’s sparkle is uniquely individual to you and can be uncovered with thinking and exploration, but here’s a snippet from a recent Find Your Sparkle coaching session I conducted:

PRACTICE OWNER: “We offer 20 minute appointments.”
ME: “Great, why do you offer 20 minute appointments?”
PRACTICE OWNER: “For the vets to spend more time with the clients so the client feels they are getting value for money, and the vet feels they are getting more time with the client.”
ME: “What’s the benefit to the vet of getting to spend more time with the client?”
PRACTICE OWNER: “They have a bit more breathing space in the consult, more time to think things through, more time to examine the pet and ask the client questions. They’ll also see less consults overall throughout the day, and it potentially leaves them with extra catch up time, and they’ll have less cases to handle overall so they can think more proactively about them.”
ME: “And if they have all of those things, what value does that add to a vet’s career, and life?”
PRACTICE OWNER: “Well, if they spend more time with clients, I guess that means the vet feels they can do more for the pet, and offer more value to the client, which will probably make them feel they are doing a great job, which is what we want as vets isn’t it?”
ME: “Yes, absolutely! So, if they feel they are doing a good job, what value does THAT add to a vet’s career and life?”
PRACTICE OWNER: “I think they will feel an increased sense of job satisfaction…perhaps more pride in themselves and the profession because they will be spending more time with pets and their owners and they are receiving better care and customer service, which will reduce the vet bashing that we’re getting a lot of at the moment…and all of that will probably make a vet feel more confidence, joy, and fulfilment.”
ME: “Exactly. So, 20 minute appointments is not just about offering clients more time with the vet. You’re actually bringing the ‘vetting’ part of being a vet back into the equation and helping them feel they are doing an amazing job and having a really positive influence on the welfare and happiness of pets and their owners, which in turn increases their confidence and joy. Feeling more confidence and joy will undoubtedly have an impact in all other areas of their life. Joy spreads, it’s contagious. They will see their friendships and personal relationships improve because they show up differently to them, they can contribute more to people in their lives because they won’t be tormented by this sense of “not doing enough” or “not being good enough”.” 

I worked with this practice to do a deep dive into every area of their practice to help them understand what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. In turn, this practice owner will now be talking about their practice with much more purpose and meaning and bringing a completely different energy to writing their adverts and interviewing prospective candidates.

Are you ready to find your sparkle?

Check out my events page for the dates of my next Find Your Practice’s Sparkle online workshop.

See you there!