Hiring well and doing so on a consistent basis requires a tremendous amount of time, energy, and effort, and that is especially the case within the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession in this current market.
There are many aspects associated with a company or organization’s successful hiring efforts, and as a result, attention to those aspects is integral to success. On the other hand, inattention to these aspects leads to inadequate results. The central focus of just about any hiring process is the talent pool that is available to the employer, in other words, the professionals that the employer is able to hire in its efforts to fill its open positions.
However, how you hire is just as important as who you hire.
The WHO of Animal Health and Veterinary hiring
The critical first step of hiring involves the candidates that you target, and which candidates you target is extremely important. The goal should be to hire the best candidates in the marketplace and not just the best candidates who are actively looking for a new job. That’s because those active job seekers do not necessarily represent the very best candidates.
When we talk about the best candidates, we’re talking about the top 5% to 10% of professionals in the marketplace. These candidates are typically being kept busy and satisfied by their current employers, since those employers do not want them to leave for another opportunity. As a result, these professionals are not looking for new opportunities, either because they have no desire to do so, they have no time to do so, or both.
Only considering those professionals who apply through online job postings is a not a comprehensive hiring strategy and not one that is likely to produce the desired results. Instead, identification of the very best professionals in the marketplace—regardless of whether they’re actually looking for a new job or not—should be the first step of the process. However, even if you successfully identify these professionals as possible candidates for your open positions, how you approach hiring these professionals is just as important as which professionals you’re targeting.
The HOW of Animal Health and Veterinary hiring
After all, it doesn’t mean much if you identify the best candidates in the marketplace, but you aren’t able to successfully engage and hire them. This is where the bulk of the time, energy, and effort is required to be successful, and there are four main areas involved. These areas must all line up for the hiring process to reach a satisfying conclusion.
#1—What you need as an organization
Until you are able to specifically articulate your needs as an organization, you won’t be able to meet (and hopefully exceed) those needs. More than likely, this will require input from multiple individuals, so that you can formulate a comprehensive vision of the ideal person for the position.
#2—What the candidate needs as a professional
As an employer, you cannot overlook or dismiss what candidates want, especially top candidates and especially in this current market and hiring environment. Not only must you know this information, but the candidate’s wants and needs must also line up with what your organization can offer them in an employment opportunity.
#3—The vision you have as an organization
Every organization should have a vision for the future, including a plan for achieving both the short-term and long-term goals that are included within that vision. Even more than that, you should be able to effectively communicate that vision to every candidate involved in the interviewing and hiring process. This is one of the best ways to engage and recruit tip talent.
#4—The vision the candidate has for their career
Once again, the vision that you have an as organization must be in line with the vision that the candidate has for their career and their future. This means communicating your vision as an organization, discovering what their vision is, and then making the connection between the two. (If a candidate can not envision working for your organization, then there is almost no chance that they actually will.)
The recruiting element of Animal Health and Veterinary hiring
There is a central thread that runs throughout the entire HOW of Animal Health and Veterinary hiring. That thread is recruiting. Simply put, an employer must be prepared to recruit top talent to join its organization as a new employee. As we’ve addressed before in our articles and blog posts, there is a scarcity of qualified candidates, especially in the Veterinary profession. Consequently, a passive, laid-back approach is not going to get the job done.
Instead, a proactive approach for identifying and engaging top candidates is the preferred approach, and recruiting is the central element of that approach. Identifying the top 5% to 10% of professionals in the marketplace is just the first step. Actively recruiting those candidates and convincing them to join your organization is the critical next step.
And that is why HOW you hire just as important as WHO you hire . . . and might just be more important.
An Animal Health recruiter or Veterinary recruiter can help you with this critical phase of the hiring process. A good recruiter has the experience and expertise to not only help your organization identify the top professionals in the marketplace (the WHO), but also to help you engage them and actively recruit them (the HOW). There is no investment in your organization that is bigger or more crucial than the investment you make in personnel, so why would you not make sure that your investment is as good as it can possibly be?
The VET Recruiter has been helping Animal Health companies and Veterinary organizations hire consistently well for more than 20 years. We know who to hire and how to recruit, and we look forward to helping you, as well!
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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.