by Stacy Pursell, CPC, CERS
The VET Recruiter®
I am going to assume that you want to experience more hiring success within your Animal Health company or Veterinary practice. That would make sense. Hiring the best candidates and investing in top talent is a way to excel within the marketplace and to grow your business.
In an effort to achieve this, you may have asked yourself in the past what you and/or your employer can do differently to identify, recruit, and hire the type of candidates who will truly make a difference within the organization. The problem might lie not in the answer to that question. Instead, the problem might lie in the fact that you’re asking the wrong question.
Your thoughts affect your actions
Most people would agree that thought precedes action. In other words, what you think about a particular situation influences how you behave and how you act in regards to that situation. This applies to the professional realm just as much as it applies to the personal one. As a result, what you think about the Animal Health and Veterinary hiring process has an impact on what you do regarding it. Specifically, it has an impact on what you do regarding the job candidates who are part of that process.
So the question you must ask yourself is not what you should be doing. Rather, it’s how should you be thinking?
I have been an Animal Health recruiter and Veterinary recruiter for more than two decades. Consequently, I have seen quite a bit during my career, both from the employer side and also from the candidate/job seeker side. A great deal of what I have seen involves the way in which members of both sides approach the recruiting and hiring process, especially what they think about the process and what they think about the other people involved in the process.
And because of this, I can say with certainty that for many hiring managers, the way in which they view job candidates and how they think about them affects their Animal Health and Veterinary hiring efforts. Unfortunately, any misguided notions negatively affect those efforts.
And that’s why better Animal Health and Veterinary hiring starts with a different perspective.
Animal Health and Veterinary hiring in this job market
When I started as a recruiter more than 20 years ago, the employer-job candidate dynamic was different than it is today. The general consensus was that in this dynamic, the employer held the majority of the leverage—if not all of it, depending upon the circumstances surrounding the candidate’s employment situation—because the employer had something that the candidate wanted: a new job.
And since that was the case, it was generally acknowledged and accepted that the onus was on the job seeker or candidate to do nearly all of the “heavy lifting” during the hiring process. They were the ones who had to prove themselves. They had to prove their worth to the hiring manager or organization, which means they had to do most of the work. (Or, at the very least, they were expected to do much of it.)
During the past 20 years, however, the leverage has been shifting, and this shift has been more pronounced within the Veterinary profession. That is because there is a shortage of qualified candidates within the Veterinary profession. The leverage has shifted because in many cases, the employer has needed the candidate more than the candidate has needed the employer’s job. This has especially been the case with the best candidates, those in the top 5% to 10% of the talent pool.
One of the problems that exists in today’s market is that some employers now believe they once again have the majority of the leverage. After all, once the COVID-19 pandemic started, there was a massive amount of layoffs, not to mention the fact that most employers paused their hiring efforts or flat-out instituted a hiring freeze.
The problem, at least for Animal Health and Veterinary hiring, is that there is still a lack of qualified candidates in the marketplace. Before the pandemic, the unemployment rate in the Veterinary profession was anywhere between 0.5% and 1.5%. And while that rate may have increased slightly since COVID-19 arrived, it is still far lower than the National Unemployment Rate.
All of which means that for many Animal Health and Veterinary employers looking to fill important positions within their organization, job candidates still hold the majority of the leverage. This is especially the case for the best candidates in the marketplace. That’s because their employers know not only how valuable they are, but also how rare and scarce they are.
Less leverage, but better Veterinary hiring
So, if top talent, the best candidates in the marketplace, have just as much leverage (or perhaps more) in a hiring situation than you do, what does that mean? In years past, less leverage equated to more effort on the part of the person lacking that leverage. As I mentioned earlier, when candidates had less leverage, they were expected to prove their worth to the organization, which meant they had to do most of the work during the interviewing and hiring process.
So if you as an organization have less leverage, then it follows that you must also prove yourself to top talent and put forth more effort. At the very least, it means putting forth as much effort as the best candidates you’re hoping to hire. Specifically, it means:
- Preparing for the interview as much as the candidate
- Being ready to answer this question and not be offended by it: “Why should I come to work here?”
- Being prepared to provide references from other people who will attest to why the candidate should work for your organization, including both present and past employees
- Writing a thank-you note and/or email to the candidate following the interview
You might think that you don’t have to do these things, and you’re right. You don’t have to. However, if you want to effectively recruit and hire the very best candidates in the marketplace, then these are the things that must be done.
Another strategic move is to utilize the services of an experienced Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter. An experienced recruiter can help you to engage top candidates in a way that will hold their interest throughout the interviewing and hiring process. They can help to “sell” both your open positon and organization to these candidates and explain why working for you is the next best step in growing their career.
While better Animal Health and Veterinary hiring requires more effort and energy, there is only so much time in the day. Leverage the expertise and the resources of an experienced recruiter to help you find and hire the candidates who will truly make a difference in your organization.
If you’re looking to hire top talent, you can click here to find out more about The VET Recruiter’s 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.
Copyright © 2020 The VET Recruiter
The VET Recruiter is The Animal Health Executive Search Firm and The Veterinary Recruiting Firm
Stacy Pursell is an Animal Health Executive Recruiter and Veterinary Recruiter and Workplace/Workforce expert for the Animal Health Industry and Veterinary Profession.