Episode #100 – How The VET Recruiter Helps Animal Health and Veterinary Employers
Samantha: Welcome to “The Animal Health Employment Insider,” brought to you by The VET Recruiter. In this podcast, executive search consultant, Stacy Pursell, founder and CEO of The VET Recruiter, provides insight and practical advice for both employers and job seekers in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. The VET Recruiter’s mission is to help Animal Health and Veterinary organizations hire top talent, while helping animal health and veterinary professionals attain career-enhancing opportunities that increase their quality of life.
In today’s podcast, we’ll be talking about how The VET Recruiter helps Animal Health and Veterinary employers. But before we get into our episode, Stacy, I’d like to congratulate you on reaching a milestone. This podcast episode today is your 100th episode! That is very exciting!
Stacy: Yes, it is Samantha! I have greatly enjoyed our podcast series, and it’s hard to believe that we’ve reached 100 episodes. The time has certainly flown by.
Samantha: Yes, it has, and perhaps there is no better way to celebrate this milestone than with today’s topic, which focuses on your recruiting agency, The VET Recruiter, and what it can do for employers in today’s marketplace.
Stacy: Yes, I’m excited about the fact this is our 100th episode and I’m also excited about today’s topic. In fact, I’m passionate about The VET Recruiter and the services that it provides to employers.
Samantha: Stacy, can you say a few words about The VET Recruiter?
Stacy: I certainly can. First of all, The VET Recruiter is a full-service executive search and recruiting firm specializing in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. We help companies and organizations of all sizes identify and hire the best candidates to fill their open positions. Specifically, the types of employers we work with include animal health pharmaceutical companies, pet food companies, animal health diagnostic companies, veterinary distributors, veterinary practice owners, and other types of companies within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession.
Samantha: I know that we’ve talked about this before, but why should employers use the services of an Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter?
Stacy: Samantha, I’m so glad you asked this question. The reason is that the best professionals typically are not actively looking for a new job. I’m talking about the top five to 10 percent of people working in the Animal Health industry or Veterinary profession. They’re not looking at online job postings or circulating their resume. Instead, they’re being kept busy at their current employer, which is doing its best to effectively engage them and keep them happy. After all, if they’re a top performer, then their employer wants to keep them right where they are. They are highly regarded there.
There are three main reasons why an employer should use a search consultant or recruiter.
Samantha: What are those three reasons?
Stacy: First, employers can identify and approach the top candidates in the marketplace, regardless of whether they’re looking for new Animal Health jobs or Veterinary jobs. After all, this can be a difficult, time-consuming task for employers. Animal Health companies and veterinary practice owners and other hiring managers have a lot to do when it comes to running their businesses. They often do not have the time and sometimes the resources necessary to devote to this kind of task.
Second, an executive search consultant or recruiter can help an employer avoid mistakes during the hiring process. They can troubleshoot the interview process and keep it on track, they can properly screen candidates, they can help to evaluate candidates, and then they can help during the offer and negotiation stages of the hiring process. Third, an executive search consultant can protect an employer’s desire to conduct a confidential job search, if that’s the type of search that needs to be done.
Samantha: Doesn’t the current job market enter into all of this, as well?
Stacy: It absolutely does. We’re in a highly competitive labor market, which means that candidates have more options. One of those options is simply staying with their current employer, which hiring managers sometimes forget. Candidates don’t have to do anything, if they don’t want to. They can just stay where they are. This reality also underscores the importance of a search consultant. Employers can’t just float out a couple of online job ads and expect to find the candidate they want to hire. It does not work that way anymore.
I have a saying that I use often when it comes to hiring the right people.
Samantha: What saying is that?
Stacy: An employer should want to hire the best person for its open position, not just the best person who is looking for a new position. There’s a difference between the two, and this is the value that an executive search consultant brings to the situation. When an employer works with a recruiter, they’re much more likely to hire the best person for the position, not just the best person looking for new Animal Health jobs or Veterinary jobs. There is a difference between those two talent pools. Obviously, one is much deeper than the other.
Samantha: So, Stacy, what makes The VET Recruiter different from other recruiting agencies? In other words, what makes it stand out?
Stacy: Samantha, that’s another great question, and I’m glad you asked it. I ask candidates a similar question when I talk with them about their job search or their career. It’s important to know what sets you apart from the competition.
First, The VET Recruiter has been in business for more than 20 years. That alone shows we have a proven track record of success. That’s important because if employers want to experience more hiring success, then they must align themselves with an Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter that has a track record of attaining that success. We have that track record at The VET Recruiter.
Second, we specialize exclusively in the Animal Health, Animal Science, Animal Nutrition, Veterinary, and Pet Products industries. Because of that specialization, we have extensive experience recruiting within those industries and niches.
Third, because of our longevity and experience, we have relationships with the top professionals in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. As a result of those relationships, we know what these professionals want in an employment opportunity and in a career. This also means we know what it would take for them to make a move and leave their employer for an opportunity with another organization. This is critical information for those employers wanting to successfully identify, recruit, and hire the best candidates in the marketplace.
Samantha: I would imagine that The VET Recruiter has a fine tuned process for what it does, is that right?
Stacy: Yes, that’s correct. We have a comprehensive recruiting process. In fact, there are 20 steps in the process, and I’d like to go over them now, if that’s okay.
Samantha: Yes, that would be great!
Stacy: One thing to keep in mind is that we’ve created our recruiting process to benefit both employers and candidates. That’s because we always strive to achieve a win-win situation between the two of them. There are a total of 20 steps in The VET Recruiter’s recruiting process, and those steps represent multiple stages.
For instance, the first five steps comprise the sourcing stage, or the stage during which we identify viable candidates. The first thing we do is to consult with our client and understand their needs and coordinate the job description with the hiring manager, human resources of both. Then we interview the hiring manager for clarification of their needs.
Samantha: You interview the hiring manager?
Stacy: Absolutely. We need to know exactly what they’re looking for. There can’t be any miscommunication. After that, we conduct research to locate the logical talent pool. This includes checking our existing databases for possible leads. Then we narrow our search results to target the best candidates.
The next stage of our recruiting process involves steps related to actual recruiting.
Samantha: What’s involved there?
Stacy: We have to qualify candidates through initial phone interviews. Then we must sift through the candidates and separate the potential finalists from those who are underqualified or those we call “window shoppers” or “tire kickers.” And then we recruit those potential finalists, which means we convince them to consider our client’s opportunity. Once we’ve done that, we perform in-depth interviews with potential finalists.
After all of this, we move on to the interviewing stage with our client.
Samantha: So that doesn’t happen until you’ve conducted your own interviews?
Stacy: Yes, that’s right. We want to make sure that the candidates are qualified. Then we arrange and coordinate the interview schedule for our client. After that, we prepare the candidates for the interview in a comprehensive fashion. Then, after each interview, we debrief both the candidate and the hiring authority, answering their questions and moving the process along.
That brings us to the offer and negotiation stage and the steps that are involved. First, we coordinate with the hiring manager on the possible offers that could be made, providing any information that would help lead to offer acceptance. Then, once an offer is made, we work with the candidate to resolve any problems or reconcile any differences so they feel comfortable accepting the offer. If they don’t yet feel comfortable, then we help with negotiations until they do feel comfortable.
And that brings us to the final stage and the final steps of our recruiting process.
Samantha: And what is that?
Stacy: The onboarding stage of the process. During this stage, we help the candidate in resigning properly from their current position. And then we follow up after the placement to make sure that the candidate has made a successful transition as a new employee.
Samantha: Wow, that is a lot of steps!
Stacy: It is, but it’s important to us that “no stone is left unturned” during the recruiting and hiring process. In our experience, that’s the best way to ensure success, both in terms of hiring the candidate and also in terms of retaining the candidate as an employee. At The VET Recruiter, we believe we are experts in the search process because that is what we do on a daily basis, day in and day out.
We also believe that employers should leave recruiting to professionals who are experts in the search and recruiting process. Because when hiring managers and practice owners do that, it frees them up to do other things within the organization, important things that need to be done in their own businesses. The bottom line is that employers should spend their time on what they do best, which is running and managing their business.
Samantha: Stacy, thank you for joining us today and for sharing all of this great information. And if our listeners want more information, they can visit The VET Recruiter website, correct?
Stacy: Yes, all they have to do is visit www.thevetrecruiter.com.
Samantha: Stacy, thank you again and congratulations on your 100th podcast episode!
Stacy: Thank you, Samantha! I’ve greatly enjoyed doing these podcasts, and I’m looking forward to doing even more.