When Recruiting Gets Easier, Selection Gets Tougher

With the economy on the skids and unemployment figures on the rise it’s clear that a lot of companies are shedding staff to protect their businesses. But if you are hiring then right now is one of the best times in recent years to do it.

A report by HR technology and research company Kaonix, reveals that the number of applicants per job across all sectors has nearly doubled. Which is great news as a recruiter because it potentially gives you more choice and hence chance of landing a superstar for your practice.

However there is a downside, because as the number of applicants rise, so too does the difficulty in choosing the right person. For example, if you are the manager of a small practice, the admin (phone calls, replies, letters and feedback) alone might well swamp you and lead you to make a poor decision.

So it’s important to take a logical approach to the problem (And it doesn’t hurt to let technology do as much of the work as possible. Here’s a little checklist that might make your life easier:

1. Ensure that you have a prewritten and saved standard acknowledgment that you can copy and paste into an email.  I recommend always include a thank you (as courtesy), a note of the job they applied for, a date when they can expect to hear back from you if they have been successfully shortlisted. And I’d always make sure to say that if they have not heard back from you by this date then their application has not been successful.  This saves time going back and writing a second email to someone who is not going to add any value to your business in the near future.

2. Rather than send out a letter, or have to tell all the candidates where the practice is for interview, why not get a page up on your website that has interview day instructions including location (it’s so easy to embed a Google map) and giving them an idea of what’s in store for the day.  You can then send a link to the page in an email when you give them the good news that they’ve made the short list - quick and easy.

2. Take time to read the CVs. Personally I don’t bin CVs for layout reasons (I’ve met too many excellent vets who can’t write a CV to save their life to fall into that trap). But the devil is in the detail, so as tiring as it can seem, make sure you scrutinise the CVs properly. Giving a poor candidate an interview because you got sloppy/tired when reading the CVs is a huge waste of time. A recent example is a nurse who applied for a small animal position, her CV was very well presented, but if we hadn’t read to the end, we wouldn’t have seen that her real desire in life was to be in the fashion industry.  Conversely, if you find a ‘show stopper’ early on in a CV then why waste time reading more?

3. If in doubt, call the applicant for a brief chat to clarify any doubts you have. Are they warm, enthusiastic, polite when you call? Did they answer your question satisfactorily? If not then for me it’s decision made. Move on.

4. Aim for a shortlist of three or four solid candidates. Anymore and you’ll be wasting a lot of time on interviews. If you have a shortlist of ten then you either haven’t defined the role well enough or you’re being soft! Remember you only have room for one and you don’t have all year to work it out.

5. Prepare, prepare, prepare. You don’t want to have to go back to the drawing board on this one and waste even more time. Make sure you do the following:
•    Call to confirm the day before the interview to avoid frustrating no shows
•    Make sure your reception team know that the interviews are happening; nothing makes you look less organised than no one knowing a candidate is arriving.
•    Ensure you have a quiet, neat workspace set aside for the interview and CVs printed out before hand.
•    If you are going to be doing competency testing (we’ll cover this another day) then make sure you have all your materials ready (including a vet to ask clinical questions if this is part of your process).
•    If you are nervous then type out your questions before hand and have a running order written down so you don’t forget to ask important questions.
•    Anticipate the questions they might ask, like salary, hours and holidays. This saves you having to chase around for the information later.

6. Take notes and debrief – crucial that this is done on the same day as the interview itself. If you are interviewing with one or more colleagues then compare your notes while it is still fresh in your mind.

7. Ready to make an offer? If you are then go for it. If not and you need more information then remember the shoe is on your foot for now. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to come in for a trial day.

Dave’s Tuppence-worth

Getting the right bums on the right seats in your vet practice is one of the most important tasks of a manger. Current market conditions mean that things are very much in the favour of the practice, but be careful not to be rushed into a bad decision because you were swamped with job applicants. If you need help, then ask for help, it should be just as important to the business owner that you succeed. 

If it isn’t, I’m happy to tell them about the 40k per year difference in turnover it can make if you hire the right person. Or the destructive effects of the wrong person entering the practice.

Till next time, happy managing.

Veterinary Rounds – Woolly Communication, Viral Benefits & Rita in Sydney

Woolly Communications

A friend recently sent me the following joke about a kiwi sheep farmer. You may have read it, but I thought it was worth repeating:

1. Because it’s funny.
2. It highlights a communication problem that is probably damaging your business right now (which is not funny).

A Kiwi buys several sheep, hoping to breed them for wool. After several weeks, he notices that none of the sheep are getting pregnant, and phones a vet for help. The vet tells him that he should try artificial insemination.

The farmer doesn't have the slightest idea what this means but, not wanting to display his ignorance, only asks the vet how he will know when the sheep are pregnant. The vet tells him that they will stop standing around and instead will lie down and wallow in the grass when they are pregnant.

The man hangs up and gives it some thought. He comes to the conclusion that artificial insemination means he has to impregnate the sheep himself.

So, he loads the sheep into his Land Rover, drives them out into the woods, has sex with them all, brings them back then goes to bed.

Next morning, he wakes and looks out at the sheep. Seeing that they are all still standing around, he deduces that the first go didn't take, and loads them in the Land Rover again. He drives them out to the woods, bangs each sheep twice for good measure, brings them back, and goes to bed exhausted.

Next morning, he wakes to find the sheep still just standing around.

"Try again." he tells himself, and proceeds to load them up, and drive them out to the woods. He spends all day shagging the sheep and upon returning home, falls knackered into bed.

The next morning, he cannot even raise himself from the bed to look out of the window. He asks his wife to look, and tell him if the sheep are lying in the grass.

"No," she says, "They're all in the Land Rover, and one of them is beeping the horn."

Funny? Well perhaps not, and a recent consultation with a pet owner shows why.

This client I had been pre-warned was “difficult” and struggled to follow advice. In fact she was coming to the practice to have her aged pet that suffered advanced heart disease put down.

I spent a lot of time just listening to her and it was clear she was confused and felt she hadn’t been listened to. After an examination we chatted about her options. I made it clear that her pet was not going to live for long, but I felt we still had one or two tricks up our sleeve to significantly help his quality of life.

A week later she returned, delighted as for the first time in weeks her dog was back up and going for walks in the park. She was amazed and her friends were amazed – they came to the practice to tell us so.. “Johno” was the talk the park.

Of course the improvement didn’t last forever and Johno was eventually put to sleep. But his owner had had a few more weeks of quality time and when the end came, she felt she had done everything she could for her beloved companion.

Our ‘difficult’ client was transformed. She took the time to buy us all a lovely gift and write one of the most moving thank you cards I have ever read. In it, among other things, she wrote, “Thank you for listening to me”. The same thing she said in the consult room to me when I first met her.

So what’s the lesson? Communication is the most important skill in business. Are your vets good communicators? Do you really, really know? Do they talk more or listen more? Do they use lots of jargon? Are they reading a client’s body language? Are they selling effectively? You can’t possibly know any of this from a distance and you don’t need to be a vet to assess it.

There’s a pretty good chance that a high percentage of those clients perceived as being ‘difficult’ are only being so because they either don’t understand what is being asked of them, or they don’t feel that they are being listened to. Get into consults with your vets or follow up your complaints with a personal phone call to find out.

Vets Go Viral – Novel Approaches to Practice Marketing

No not a story about the horrific Hendra virus here in Australia. Instead we see the creative talents of Village Vet Marketing director Ashley Grey and his clinical team at their Hampstead hospital. A highly amusing and innovative video remake of Michael Jackson’s Thriller created to celebrate Halloween, whilst promoting the practice.

And just to prove it can be done by any of you, I knocked up a little piece of my own to promote a kitten adoption service operating from one of my client’s practices. This video was published on a Sunday and by Wednesday more than 100 people had watched it. Click here to view it.

The advantage of this is it is relatively easy to do, looks professional and if you insert it into your social media network, it will spread around and beyond it quickly - providing you with some cheap and effective practice promotion.

What can you produce? Send me your video and success stories and I’ll tell everyone about them here.

VPMA Dinner in Sydney

OK, not an official event but it was fantastic to meet up with the VPMA ex-president and previous winner of the practice manager of the year award, Rita Dingwall. Rita’s passion for veterinary practice is utterly infectious, so it was a real treat to catch up with her and her legendary husband John on a balmy evening in Sydney.

If you are in Sydney and want some tips or to catch up for a beer then let me know and back in the UK, if you’re not already a member of the VPMA, then I’d strongly recommend joining. Their annual congress is coming up soon from the 28th - 30th January 2010. It was a terrific learning and net working experience last year - expect this year to be no different.

Meanwhile…

Double Bay Veterinary Clinic (my current project) goes from strength to strength. The marketing plan is done and sales are up by an impressive amount for the quarter, in a largely flat market. We installed digital X-ray this week to add to our already impressive diagnostics array. Next up is our new website (the current one www.doublebayvet.com.au, I think you’ll agree, needs a little work), but do check out our twitter and Face book sites to get a feel for how you can use this media to good effect.

Next Week
We’ll take a look at how the global financial crisis might affect your business in 2010 in my article ‘New Year Party Pooper – Are We Heading for A Painful Comedown in 2010?’

Tips to Beat the Recession 2 – Show a Little Love

Moral and motivation go hand in hand. When the chips are down in the wider economy a strong sense of purpose, togetherness and motivation will work wonders in keeping your business afloat. So how do you set about boosting moral when all you’re worried about is keeping the business alive?


Don’t cut, cut, cut…train, train, train


If your turnover is flagging then it is tempting to reach for the knife and slash costs from your business. This may help the short term P/L account but if you lose staff you will also lose abilities and skills required to deliver your service.
Another option if things have slowed a little is to take the opportunity to implement a training program. Was there a customer service issue causing problems? Are staff making the most of the sales opportunities coming through the door? Do you even know the answers to these questions? If not then you have vital work you have to start doing today.

Say thanks

I’ve lost count of the number of staff satisfaction surveys I’ve read where staff don’t feel valued because the boss never says thanks. The value your staff place on their job is every bit as much about recognition of a job well done, development and thanks as it is about actual money. A big, well meant ‘thank you – you were terrific today’ costs nothing. Even better, it will make you feel good as well.

Blame culture

The blame game is one of the most damaging (and sadly most prevalent) aspects of veterinary culture. Whether it’s one vet bemoaning another’s work or someone going off like a rocket because "someone" didn’t recharge the otoscope batteries. It really doesn’t matter. If your practice team like to play the blame game then chances are the tension in your prep room is grinding the team down.
Instead of looking to blame others for prep room troubles, everyone (most importantly the boss) should first look inwardly at what we could have done differently to help.

Get the right bums onboard your bus

Recruitment is vital. Get the right people for your business. If you need a high flying academic type then the fast-talking, charismatic vet won’t do. If your business needs a schmoozy, customer focussed people person then the introverted certificate holder won’t do. Identify what your business needs and don’t fall short of what you were looking for.

Make sure they’re all sitting in the right seats

If things aren’t working then don’t be afraid to shake the team up. Your plans won’t always work out and if things are going awry then you have to take action. I have a client with a good vet who is definitely in the wrong seat on the bus. This is bad news for everyone. The vet is miserable and the business is struggling as a result of lack of commitment. It isn’t that the vet (who started out fine) has suddenly become a bad vet, they’re just in the wrong seat. Talk to your team, find out that they want/are best at, and then see what you can do to accommodate them as best fits your business plan.

If you deal proactively with these problems you’ll be amazed at the results.

The decisions you take as a leader and manager affect all those around you. Cutting costs leads to a vicious circle of increased demands on decreasing resources. A high stress situation likely to lead to staff churn and decreased valuation of your business. (People like to see familiar faces and high churn rates sabotage your efforts to create a high performing team.) There is another way, nurture your team through these tougher times and the result will be a fitter, better placed organisation ready to take full advantage of the upturn when it duly arrives.

Vets in Money Love Shocker – Cash flow Tips to Beat the Recession

During the recession money is tight. Read on for my tips that will transform your cash flow inside of a month.

1. Bombing Out on Billing?

There is a very good chance that you are losing 10-50% of revenues each time you or an assistant invoices for work done. This is madness but in my opinion one of the biggest problems facing practices today. Do you have a set price list? Do you know what profit levels you are trying to achieve? Do you teach your assistants how to use it when they arrive at your practice? Be honest. If ‘no’ is the answer then there’s hope for you yet. Before you do anything else make sure you address you billing. Grab out a handful of invoices and see if your team are getting it right. If not, then it’s time for a retraining session.

2. Avoiding Debt

There is no point being busy if you’re not getting paid. You may be experiencing an increased demand for direct claims and payment plans from your clients right now. Your assistants are being bombarded by the same media messages as clients about how bad things are. Together they are conspiring to ruin your cash flow by creating more non-payment situations than previously. (Assistants are in general not good at standing up to such requests for credit). Make sure you reiterate and reinforce your policy on debt – avoiding it is a lot better than clawing it back. Teach your assistants how to say no gently when a client asks for credit.

3. Recovering Debt

I have seen practices adding tens of thousands of pounds of debt in the past two months. Small business cannot sustain this level of debt. Delegate the task of analysing your debt to a trusted team member. Split it into insured and uninsured. Also divide it into aged (over 30 days) and non-aged. Then start with the biggest outstanding aged accounts first and chew through them. Be relentless. If insurance is outstanding, call the company for an explanation and get them to commit to a time schedule – then hold them to it. Make sure you have a set policy for dealing with uninsured debt. I prefer a policy whereby it starts nice and escalates gradually towards a debt recovery firm.

4. Being Thrifty

You have bills to pay right? Drugs, staff, marketing, postage, overheads….my advice is to pay as little for everything as possible. (Note - that’s not the same as paying late) It is in everyone’s interest that your practice doesn’t go bust so lots of people will be willing to give you discounts. ‘Everything is negotiable’ is one of my mantras. Now is the time to hone your haggling skills. Upgrading equipment? - Haggle for a discount or see if the vendor will throw in a huge box of useful consumables for free. Running a marketing campaign? - Your suppliers will probably cover some or all of the costs. Lease up for renewal? – Many landlords are willing to renegotiate deals right now, or at least not put them up as much as usual. If you don’t ask you don’t get. Now is not the time to be shy!

Keeping control of cash flow will mean your business can continue to deliver pet care, employ local staff and keep money flowing through the supply chain. The more of us that achieve that, the sooner we’ll be through the recession!

If you have comments or tips you’d like to add? Please click the link below and add type away. If your business is struggling and you would like some help getting back on track then why not drop me a line?