Veterinary recruiters provide a tremendous amount of value in the job market and the employment marketplace. Unfortunately, there is some confusion about the role of Veterinary recruiters and what they do for employers and job seekers. This confusion leads people in both categories to underutilize recruiters or not utilize them at all. And when you don’t fully utilize Veterinary recruiters, you can’t take full advantage of the value that they are able to provide.
There are two main reasons why employers use recruiters. They are as follows:
#1—Talent
Everything starts and ends with talent. Employers want to hire the top talent in the job market. An organization’s biggest asset is its personnel, so it makes sense for it to invest in their personnel so that it can receive a substantial return on its investment. As part of that investment, some employers also make a further investment by engaging the services of Veterinary recruiters.
#2—Confidentiality
Not only do organizations want to hire the best candidates in the job market, but they also want to hire those candidates in a confidential fashion. Not every search that an employer conducts is a confidential one, but many of them are, including their most urgent and high-level searches.
This is another reason that employers use Animal Health and Veterinary recruiters. They want to identify, recruit, and hire the best candidates in a confidential fashion. A big reason for this is that they don’t want their competition to know what they’re doing.
When employers should NOT pay recruiters
However, before discussing the specific reasons that employers pay Veterinary recruiters, let’s examine why they do not pay recruiters. Or to put it another way, why employers should not pay recruiters. When a hiring manager or practice owner makes the decision to engage the services of a recruiter, they should select one that is both experienced and reputable.
With this in mind, there are three things for which an organization should not pay Veterinary recruiters:
#1—Sending a “slush pile” of resumes.
It can be argued that organizations can accumulate a “slush pile” of resumes on their own. They don’t need a recruiter to do that. What they really want are targeted candidates who are a good fit for the position in multiple ways. A “slush pile” of resumes is not a form of value, and if it’s not a form of value, then you should not pay for it.
#2—Sourcing candidates from a shallow talent pool.
Veterinary recruiters who source candidates from a shallow talent pool are not likely to source the best candidates. The deeper the talent pool is, the more candidates are in that pool. And the more candidates are in the pool, the more likely there are top candidates in the pool. And for the purposes of this discussion, these are the top 5% to 10% of candidates in the job market.
#3—Routinely presenting unqualified candidates.
Even if a recruiter doesn’t send a “slush pile” of resumes, they might send candidates who are unqualified. They might send a lot of candidates who are unqualified. If this is the case, it means that the recruiter likely did not speak to the candidates in an effort to properly screen them before presenting them to the employer.
Now that we’ve addressed the reasons to not pay Veterinary recruiters, let’s examine the true value that recruiters provide to employers.
Veterinary recruiters and the power of persuasion
In a candidates’ market, one in which top candidates have the majority of the leverage in hiring situations, “slush piles” of resumes and unqualified candidates won’t take you too far. Instead, employers need a way to identify, engage, and actively recruit the top candidates in the job market. The key element in this process is actively recruiting.
The way in which Veterinary recruiters accomplish this is by exercising influence over candidates. This is how they do so:
- Contact the candidate.
- Let the candidate know about the employment opportunity for which they would be a good fit.
- “Sell” both the opportunity and the organization by communicating all the ways that the opportunity is better than their current job.
- Convince the candidate to enter the hiring process of the organization so that they can explore the opportunity more fully.
This is the value for which organizations pay Veterinary recruiters. That’s because, when you’re talking about the best candidates, they did not even know the opportunity existed before a recruiter presented it to them. And even if they knew about the position, they probably would not consider applying for it. That’s because, as a passive candidate, they’re likely being treated well by their employer, which wants to retain them as an employee.
When employers pay Veterinary recruiters, what they’re essentially paying for is the power of persuasion, which is a tangible skill. The best Veterinary recruiters in the job market are the ones who have honed their skill and are able to put it to use to help their clients recruit and hire the best candidates in the employment marketplace. This is yet another reason to engage the services of an experienced Veterinary recruiter, one who has spent years developing their skills of persuasion.
So if you’re an employer in the Veterinary profession and you’re contemplating whether or not to engage the services of a Veterinary recruiter, there are two questions that you must ask yourself:
- Do you have not only the ability to find the top candidates, but also the ability to persuade and convince them to consider your opportunity?
- Do you have the time to identify, persuade, and convince the top candidates?
If your answers to these questions is “No,” then using Veterinary recruiters is a logical and strategic move. When you want to hire the best talent, the ability to persuade and convince is ultimately critical to your success.
Veterinary recruiters vs. LinkedIn
There are some hiring managers and practice owners who believe that they don’t need Veterinary recruiters because they can access the candidates they want through LinkedIn. There is no doubt that LinkedIn is a great tool. It serves a number of different purposes for people in the job market. This includes employers, employees, job seekers, candidates, and recruiters.
However, what makes LinkedIn so great is also one of its drawbacks: the amount of information contained within it. Just like there is a lot of information in a phone book, there is also a lot in LinkedIn. As a result, it can take a while to find the information that is valuable to you. But since time is of the essence during the recruiting and hiring process, this can slow you down and negatively impact the success of your search.
There is a difference between information and what is known as “intel.” The latter is an abbreviation of the word “intelligence.” It’s often used within a military context. It might be helpful to consult the Webster’s Dictionary definition of the word, which is as follows:
Useful information concerning a subject of interest (such as an enemy).
The difference between information and intel is that intel is more than just information. It’s specific information that is very relevant and useful to the person or people who possess it. To put it another way, intel is the most valuable information and the information that you want as quickly as possible.
Not having intel can have disastrous consequences, especially within the context of a military situation. Although it’s not as dangerous, not having intel can also be damaging when it comes to an organization’s hiring process. If that organization is attempting to fill an important position and it doesn’t have the intel it needs, then it could cost the organization a lot. In addition to not being able to hire the candidate it wants to hire, it could lose time, energy, and money in the process. That is a “lose-lose” proposition.
As an example, let’s say that you want to fill a position by sourcing candidates on LinkedIn. Obviously, LinkedIn is going to provide a certain amount of information, including names, job titles, employment history, etc. But is LinkedIn going to provide valuable intel? Can it provide the following pieces of information at first glance?
- Which candidates are satisfied in their current position
- Which candidates are unsatisfied in their current position
- Which candidates are most likely to make a career move
- What it would take to convince those candidates to make a career move
You could, of course, try to discover this information on your own. But once again, that will take time. This represents the difference between information and intel. It also represents the difference between LinkedIn and Veterinary recruiters.
Subhead here
Veterinary recruiters talk with scores of people each week and hundreds of people each month. In fact, they speak with professionals who operate at all levels of the employment marketplace. They include hiring managers, practice owners, practice managers, job seekers, candidates, and employees. Because of these conversations, Veterinary recruiters are able to gain valuable intel that they’re able to use to help their clients find and hire the best candidates.
Below is a list of some of the intel that Veterinary recruiters are able to uncover during their work “in the trenches” of the employment marketplace:
- Which candidates are satisfied in their current position
- Which candidates are unsatisfied in their current position
- Which candidates are most likely to make a career move
- What it would take to convince these candidates to make a career move
- Which organizations within the industry are hiring
- The organizations for which candidates are most interested in working (these are called “employers of choice”)
- What professionals think of the organizations that employ them
- What the company culture is like at various Veterinary organizations
- Compensation expectations of the top candidates in the job market
There are two things to keep in mind about the intel listed above:
#1—It’s an abbreviated list of the intel that Veterinary recruiters possess.
Recruiters actually possess more information and more intel than is indicated above. However, what is listed represents the most important intel, the information that will help an organization make an informed decision regarding their hiring process.
#2—This information can and does change.
Not only that, but it can also change quickly. The good news is that Veterinary recruiters usually know about these changes before anyone else. That means in addition to having intel, they have the most up-to-date intel. It’s one thing to have the most valuable information. It’s another to have that information first. This is a critical strategic and tactical advantage.
So as you can see, Veterinary recruiters provide a tremendous amount of value to practices, hospitals, and organizations. First, they offer influence when dealing with the top passive candidates in the job market. Second, they offer intel regarding those candidates and other trends and developments within the profession and the employment marketplace overall. Organizations that work with these recruiters can then leverage this influence and intel to their advantage to help ensure that they’re hiring top talent before their competition does.
When working with Veterinary recruiters, a search that might have taken months could take just a matter of weeks. That’s because the recruiter more than likely knows exactly who to call about the opportunity. They know which passive candidates are qualified for the position, which ones are motivated to consider it, and which ones might make the decision to explore it further. This is more than just information—this is intel that can mean the difference between hiring the right candidate in a short amount of time or taking an inordinate amount of time and still not hiring anyone.
The VET Recruiter: the profession’s top Veterinary recruiters
The VET Recruiter has been helping Veterinary employers and veterinarians for more than 25 years. We have a two-pronged mission:
- Help Veterinary employers hire top talent to help their business grow and become more profitable.
- Help Animal Health and Veterinary professionals attain career-enhancing opportunities that allow them to achieve the quality of life they seek.
The goal of The VET Recruiter is to build long-term partnerships with employers to present the best Animal Health and Veterinary candidates in the marketplace and not the best candidates who are “looking” for a position. Our passion is to solve problems and to make a difference in the lives of people.
Click here to see examples of The VET Recruiter’s placements. These are all examples of real positions that we have filled in the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession.
We also invite you to contact us for more information regarding our recruiting process and how The VET Recruiter can help your organization identify, engage, and recruit the best talent in job market.
You can also call (918) 488-3901 or (800) 436-0490 or send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.