by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS
The VET Recruiter®
“Company culture” has become a popular catch-phrase or buzzword during the past several years. The current candidate-driven market has contributed to this evolving trend. The logic is simple: in order to attract, hire, and retain the top employees in the marketplace, organizations must provide a stellar experience, in addition to a well-paying job. And company culture is an integral part of that experience.
But how specifically can you do that? In the early stages of the company culture trend, some employers were of the opinion that providing bean bag chairs and ping-pong tables represented the height of cultural improvement. Alas, that was not the case. Employees, especially top employees, want more than a snack cart or an espresso machine. In short, what they want in terms of company culture are things of substance.
And of course, that begs this question: what are these things of substance?
Getting down to “brass tacks”
Before we get to that, I want to briefly discuss the term “brass tacks.” That’s because that’s what I’m going to use to tackle this issue. Specifically, I’m going to get down to the “brass tacks” when it comes to the role of company culture in Animal Health and Veterinary hiring. According to grammarist.com, the phrase is from the 19th century and it means to focus on the essentials. In terms of improving your organization’s company culture, the best way to do so is to focus on the essentials. And in case you were wondering, bean bag chairs and ping-pong tables are NOT the essentials.
With all of this in mind, below are six “brass tack” ways to improve company culture for better Animal Health and Veterinary hiring:
#1—Make competency the basis of your employer branding efforts.
You can not assume that job candidates and even employees are going to think that your organization is competent. Not only that, but it is also fairly easy to lose credibility in this area. As an employer, you must prove your competency to everybody, and you must do it all of the time. This might go without saying, but professionals associate a good company culture with what they consider to be a competent organization.
#2—Make sure respect permeates all interactions within the organization.
Respect is another cornerstone of company culture. For some professionals, it’s the most important aspect of culture. They expect to be treated with respect by everyone all of the time. It’s pretty much non-negotiable. This means employees expect to be treated with respect by both their boss and also their co-workers. In fact, even if an employee feels respected by their employer, but then they see a co-worker disrespected in some fashion, it will lessen their opinion of the organization and the company culture.
#3—Encourage risk taking in the pursuit of problem solving and excellence.
Employees want to feel as though they have the freedom and flexibility to do their job in a way that will challenge and fulfill them. In other words, they don’t want to be micro-managed. They want to feel as though their employer trusts them to do what they think is best to accomplish both their individual goals and the organization’s overall goals. Allowing employees to take risks and make mistakes in their job is essential to instilling in them a sense of security, and by extension, a sense of confidence.
#4—Model transparency and accountability from the top down.
Basically, this means that if you want your employees to be open and honest with you and also be accountable for their words and actions, then the members of management must do that, as well. In fact, the members of management should be modeling that behavior for everyone. That’s what leadership does. Leaders model the type of behavior that they want to see from their team members. Because if management is not willing to do what it expects of employees, then why should the employees do it?
#5—Do NOT take yourself too seriously (i.e., have fun).
There’s no doubt that a good company culture is one that includes fun. However, you can have fun as an Animal Health company or Veterinary organization without having to install arcade games in the break room. Fun is just as much an atmosphere as it is an activity, and the first step is not taking yourself too seriously. Sure, your goal as an organization is to be productive and make a profit. After all, you can’t stay in business (for very long) if you don’t make a profit. However, employees are almost always more productive when they feel as though they’re having fun in the process.
#6—Recognize that trust represents the most important element.
If you want to create and maintain the very best company culture that you possibly can and improve your Animal Health and Veterinary hiring efforts, then job candidates and employees must trust your organization. And it’s important to realize that trust within this scope is the same as trust in any other relationship between human beings: it’s difficult to build it and easy to destroy it. All of the other items on this list lead directly to the factor of trust. Ultimately, the organizations that are considered the most trustworthy by their employees are the ones that have the best company culture.
Animal Health and Veterinary hiring solutions
Building and maintaining a great company culture is one way to improve your Animal Health and Veterinary hiring efforts. Another way is to partner with an experienced recruiter or search consultant with a track record of identifying and recruiting the best candidates in the marketplace. After all, you can’t hire the best candidates if you don’t know who they are, and we at The VET Recruiter have built relationships with top candidates for more than 20 years.
You can click here to find out more about our services for employers. Click here to learn more about our recruiting process.
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1. By helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2. By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of Animal Health and Veterinary organizations. If this is something that you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.
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