Building and retaining an amazing team is essential to a successful practice. Once you've defined your practice's brand, who you are and what you're known for, you can use what you learned from that process to help communicate the type of people you want to recruit to your team. When your brand is well-defined, it becomes a cornerstone for identifying the right people to get on your 'bus'. Read "Good to Great" by Jim Collins and you will understand this statement. In Good to Great, Mr. Collins talks about identifying quality people with particular skill sets or capabilities and a 'chemistry' that attracts others who want to be on the team or 'bus'. Mr. Collins explains that when the chemistry is right on a team, people might not even know where the 'bus' is going at first, but with the quality and energy of the people on board, they will find a valuable destination.
All too often, veterinary practices focus too much on animal experience when recruiting team members, when the position might not be animal-related at all. Focus your recruitment on defining a specific skill set that is needed for that person to excel in the position. And then identify candidates who have the skill set and the 'chemistry' or personality to fit well on your team. A colleague once told me, 'you can't teach chemistry'. In essence, if the chemistry is not right, the relationship won't be successful and likely won't last long.
When hiring, focus on skill set and chemistry!
