Last month, we addressed “How to Get Candidates (and Employees) to Love Working for You,” which made sense since it was February, a month associated with feelings of love.
March, on the other hand, is associated with luck, due in large part to the St. Patrick’s Day holiday and the “luck of the Irish.” There are plenty of practice owners and hiring managers right now who wish they had some of that luck in terms of their Animal Health and Veterinary hiring efforts. That’s because the job market is extraordinarily tight for talent right now, with job openings plentiful and workers and qualified candidates in high demand.
Preparation + opportunity = success
There are, of course, two types of luck—good and bad. For the purposes of March, St. Patrick’s Day, and this article, we’ll be discussing the former as opposed to the latter. After all, when people say they want luck, it’s understood that luck is of the good variety. With this in mind, I have an interesting quote that I would like to share on the topic. This quote, attributed to Roman philosopher Seneca, is as follows:
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
So as far as Seneca was concerned, there were two main elements to enjoying good luck—preparation and opportunity. This denotes that the person who has the luck has a role to play in its creation. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t just happen out of “thin air.” To put it another way, a person who has prepared in advance for a certain situation or set of circumstances and then encounters an opportunity has, by this definition, created their own good luck and fortune.
This paradigm can be applied to Animal Health and Veterinary hiring. Sure, hiring in this market is as tough as it has ever been. And yes, it can become frustrating when you don’t experience success. But there are things that employers can do to improve their chances to experience that success—to improve their “luck,” to put it another way.
Prerequisites for Animal Health and Veterinary hiring success
Not only are preparation and opportunity the two critical elements when it comes to improving your luck and your Animal Health and Veterinary hiring efforts, the two elements are inverse. Specifically, the fewer opportunities there are, the more preparation is necessary. And right now, there are not as many opportunities to hire top-tier talent in the job market due to the competitive nature of the market. As a result, more preparation is required on the part of employers, because when an opportunity does reveal itself in the form of a top candidate, the employer must be prepared to take full advantage of it.
Below are six areas in which proper preparation is a non-negotiable prerequisite for Animal Health and Veterinary hiring success:
#1—The job description
This must be a compelling description of both the job and the overall employment opportunity, including company culture, perks, and everything that comes with it. You just can’t “throw this together” and post it online thinking that qualified candidates are going to flock to it. They’re not.
#2—The screening process
Who is involved in the screening process? What criteria is being used? What is the line of communication between everyone involved? These are just some of the questions that must be answered in advance of launching the job search.
#3—The interview process
Once again, who is involved and what is the criteria? Are you interviewing online only, in-person only, or a combination of both? Depending upon your answers to those questions, how will the logistics work? As with #2, these are all things that you must know in advance.
#4—The selection process
What is the protocol for selecting the final candidate? Who is involved in the decision-making process and who ultimately has the final say? The last thing you want is miscommunication during any stage of the process, but it can be most costly during the latter stages.
#5—The offer stage
Who is going to make the formal offer to your final choice? How will that be done? Over the phone? Via email? First one and then the other? What will you do if the offer is rejected or the candidate wants to negotiate the terms of the offer?
#6—The onboarding stage
Even if the candidate accepts your offer, you can not yet breathe a sigh of relief. That’s because there is no guarantee that the candidate will show up for their first day of work. “Ghosting” has been rampant in the employment marketplace during the past couple of years.
Recruiters and Animal Health and Veterinary hiring
There are many aspects to preparation, especially regarding Animal Health and Veterinary hiring. However, the main aspects involve information, people, and time. You only have so many of each resource at our disposal and you must make the best use of all three to help ensure success. This is exactly why preparation is so critical. As I’ve stated before in articles and blog posts, the margin of error for employers in this job market is razor thin. In fact, that margin many not even exist anymore.
And this is where an experienced and reputable recruiting firm can help. Recruiters represent all three of the vital resources needed for effective Animal Health and Veterinary hiring—information, people, and time. They have information critical to the identification and recruiting of top candidates. They have expertise as recruiters to do much of the “heavy lifting” during the interviewing and hiring process. And they can create more time for employers during the process by undertaking important roles and crucial responsibilities.
In short, a recruiting firm like The VET Recruiter can help your organization do everything it needs to be properly prepared in this job market to take full advantage of opportunities to acquire top talent when those opportunities arise. It’s a great way to create our own good luck and Animal Health and Veterinary hiring success this year and every year.
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.