Now, more than ever, employers need recruiters and search consultants to help them find and hire the talent they need to stay competitive in the marketplace. This, of course, includes employers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession.
But what is the value that Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters provide? What do they do that sets them apart and allows them to excel in areas in which employers are not able?
The short answer to these questions is that they persuade.
An Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter persuades
We are, of course, currently in a candidates’ market. And it’s not just any candidates’ market. It’s quite possibly the most extreme candidates’ market in the history of the nation. And that’s even more the case within the Veterinary profession, where the unemployment rate is almost zero. (I can not tell you the last time that I talked with an unemployed veterinarian who wanted to be employed. If they wanted to work, there was no shortage of job opportunities.)
Because of this, utilizing only job postings to fill your open positions will not work very well. After all, this strategy only sources those candidates who are actively looking for a new position. Since the unemployment rate in the Veterinary profession is nearly nonexistent, there are not many veterinarians who are actively looking for new jobs. After all, employers know what’s happening in the job market. Consequently, they’re doing everything they can to keep the veterinarians that they do have on staff. If anyone left, they know how difficult it would be to find, recruit, and hire another one.
In light of this, employers cannot be passive in their recruiting and hiring efforts. Doing so will result in just a few candidates, if any candidates at all. Instead, they must be proactive. They must proactively identify top candidates in the employment marketplace, whether those candidates are looking for a new job or not. This is where hiring managers and some practice owners lack the time, energy, and effort. After all, Veterinary practices have been extraordinarily busy during the past year and a half due to the increase in demand for Veterinary services.
However, even if you proactively find the right candidates, then you must successfully engage those candidates in a discussion about your employment opportunity and everything that it entails. And then, once you engage them, you must recruit them.
In other words, you must persuade them that your employment opportunity is the next and most logical step for them in their career.
And this is the #1 skill that Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters must possess, the ability to effectively persuade.
Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters are specialists
Persuasion, much like everything else, can be either good or bad. It can have positive outcomes or negative ones. It all depends on the situation, the circumstances, what a person is being persuaded to do. For instance, persuading someone to leave a burning building is good, whereas persuading someone to run into a burning building could be disastrous. In the case of an Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter, they are persuading a professional that your employment opportunity represents the best move for them in terms of their career. (Granted, of course, that your opportunity is better than the job they currently have. Top passive candidates will not make a lateral move, nor should you expect them to.)
Ultimately, an experienced and reputable Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter is striving for a win-win situation for both the candidate and their client. And what could be more positive than a win-win for everyone involved? It does the recruiter no good if the candidate is not a good fit for the employer, or vice-versa. The recruiter is utilizing their skill of persuasion to convince a candidate that they would be a good fit for a better employment opportunity, one that will be a benefit to them not only professionally, but also personally. Although this may, in fact, be the case, people often need to be persuaded to do things that will benefit them, both in the short and long term.
To illustrate this point further, let’s use LinkedIn, which is the world’s largest professional network with 810 million members and 57 million registered companies. Yes, there is a wealth of information on LinkedIn, including information related to candidates within every conceivable industry and niche, including the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. However, while LinkedIn may help you to identify professionals in the employment marketplace, it does not do much in the way of persuading those professionals to pursue a job opening that you may have.
And the skill that is most integral to effective and successful recruiting is the skill of persuasion.
While 87% of recruiters use LinkedIn on a consistent basis, the best search professionals use other tools like the telephone to persuade candidates to consider and then explore employment opportunities that have the potential to be better than the job they have right now. Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters are specialists. They specialize in persuading (recruiting) top passive candidates to explore better employment opportunities. When it comes time to recruit and hire top talent, why would you not want a recruiter to put their skills to good use? To draw a parallel, why would a world-class surgeon not be in the operating room?
The VET Recruiter has 25 years of experience engaging, recruiting, and persuading top candidates in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. We understand what is most important to the process, for both the candidates and also the employers that want to hire those candidates for the value they can contribute to the organization.
If you use the services of an Animal Health or Veterinary recruiter, then make sure they possess the #1 skill of persuasion. If you aren’t using the services of a recruiter, then this is the perfect time to start a relationship with one to aid your attempts to hire the best candidates in this challenging hiring environment.
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.