Hiring the right people is one of the most important decisions a Veterinary practice can make. A strong hire can elevate your team, increase client satisfaction, and help grow your business. On the other hand, a poor hire can drain resources, disrupt culture, and contribute to turnover.
With today’s competitive Veterinary job market, practices cannot afford to take a casual approach to hiring. The best way to recruit top talent is to prepare before you ever post a job opening or conduct an interview. Thoughtful preparation will help your practice attract stronger candidates, make better hiring decisions, and improve long-term retention.
Here are five steps every Veterinary practice should take before bringing a new person on board.
1. Understand the Market in Which You’re Recruiting
The Veterinary job market is unlike many others. Demand for veterinarians and Veterinary technicians continues to outpace supply, giving job seekers the advantage. I can tell you from personal experience that veterinarians often receive multiple job offers, sometimes within weeks (or even days) of beginning their search.
This reality means practices must approach hiring with both awareness and humility. Before you start recruiting, take the time to understand:
- Compensation benchmarks in your region. Salaries, signing bonuses, and benefits packages can vary widely depending on geography, specialty, and type of practice. Candidates often have a good sense of what they’re worth, so practices need to stay competitive.
- Candidate expectations. Today’s workforce values flexibility, career growth opportunities, and a healthy work-life balance as much as salary. Veterinary professionals, like workers in other professions, want to know that their well-being will be respected.
- Competitive landscape. What are nearby practices, corporate groups, or specialty hospitals offering? What are their reputations? Understanding your competition helps you position your practice more effectively.
When you know the realities of the market, you can set realistic expectations, craft a more attractive offer, and approach candidates with confidence.
2. Fix Your Culture Before Recruiting
Culture is the number one reason people accept—or decline—a job. Veterinary medicine is a close-knit profession, and word spreads quickly about toxic environments. If your practice has challenges with morale, leadership, or communication, it’s best to address them before bringing in someone new.
Ask yourself:
- Are team members engaged and motivated?
- Do employees feel respected and valued?
- Is there evidence of cliques, burnout, or unresolved conflict?
A fresh hire won’t fix a cultural problem; in fact, they may leave quickly if issues persist. Worse, a negative culture can damage your practice’s reputation in the Veterinary community, making it harder to recruit in the future.
Investing in culture now pays dividends later. Simple steps like offering recognition for great work, improving team communication, or revisiting scheduling practices can significantly improve morale. By improving your culture first, you set the stage for new employees to thrive and contribute positively to the team.
3. Be Strategic About What You Need
Before posting a job description, step back and take a broader look at your practice’s needs. Hiring should not just be about filling an immediate gap. Instead, it should support your long-term goals. Ask questions like:
- What skills and qualities are essential for this role?
- Which responsibilities can be shared or restructured within the existing team?
- How will this role contribute to client satisfaction and practice growth?
- Is this hire part of a larger strategic plan, such as expanding services or reducing overtime?
Many practices rush into hiring without clarity, which can lead to mismatched expectations on both sides. Being intentional helps you avoid “panic hiring” just to fill a shift. Instead, you’ll have a clear picture of the person you need and how they’ll fit into the bigger picture of your practice.
4. Let Experts Do What They Do Best
Recruiting and hiring is time-consuming and costly when done without the right expertise. Practice owners and managers already juggle patient care, client relationships, and daily operations. Adding recruitment into the mix can feel overwhelming.
Recruiting professionals and search consultants can help practices save time and find better candidates. An experienced recruiter brings:
- Access to a larger candidate pool. Recruiters know where to find talent, including candidates who are not actively job hunting but may be open to the right opportunity.
- Insight into market trends and compensation. Recruiters stay on top of what candidates want, what practices are offering, and how to structure competitive offers.
- Skills in evaluating fit beyond the resume. A recruiter can assess a candidate’s soft skills, cultural alignment, and career motivations. These are factors that are often just as important as technical abilities.
By letting experts handle recruitment, you free up your time to focus on running the practice while still ensuring you get the right talent.
5. Prepare for Success After the Hire
The hiring process doesn’t end when the contract is signed. Onboarding and early integration are critical to retention. Unfortunately, many practices overlook this step, leaving new hires to “figure things out” on their own.
A structured onboarding plan should include:
- Orientation to systems and workflows. From medical records software to scheduling processes, new hires need guidance.
- Introduction to team members and mentorship opportunities. Assigning a “buddy” or mentor can help new employees feel welcome and supported.
- Regular check-ins. Schedule conversations at 30, 60, and 90 days to identify challenges and ensure the employee feels valued.
When new hires feel supported from day one, they are more likely to succeed long-term and to recommend your practice to others in their network.
Hiring: An Investment, Not a Cost
Hiring the right people is one of the best investments you can make in your practice’s future. Don’t leave it to chance. Take the time to prepare, position your practice as an employer of choice, and approach recruitment with a clear strategy.
We invite you to find out more about our Veterinary recruiting services for employers and also learn more about our recruiting process and how we can help you hire more veterinarians in 2025.
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.