Attracting and retaining key employees is an objective and challenge for every business, just as it is for veterinary practices. If your practice struggles with attracting and retaining the employees necessary to provide the care you wish to deliver to your patients and clients, it is important to assess many different aspects of your practice. Improving profitability is crucial to solving this issue.
First, it is important to look at the incentives your opportunity provides to the people you are trying to attract and retain in comparison to the alternative opportunities that they have available. In addition, it is important to examine how attractive your opportunity is both personally and professionally, as no matter how attractive your professional opportunity may be, if the personal opportunities outside of work for a lifestyle that they desire are not available, the professional opportunity will hold little value for very long. If there is an imbalance of positive attributes either personally or professionally for potential candidates, it is important to either target individuals who are a good match for the lifestyle your opportunity provides, or to help enhance your opportunity by making it more attractive professionally to override the potentially negative personal attributes of the opportunity. Therefore, profitability is very important to enhance your employment opportunities. However, the professional attraction is likely to be short if the personal attraction isn't satisfied.
Secondly, if you struggle to offer suitable incentives to attract your desired employees, then it's important also to look at all aspects of your practice, including your fee schedule, to ensure that you are charging appropriately for the services you provide at a level that will allow you to pay your employees at a level that will be attractive. If you are undercharging for services, you will struggle to pay employees at a level that will yield both attraction and retention of the employees you seek. It is very common for veterinary practices to undervalue their services, and the people who pay for this are typically employees of the practice and the family of the owners. In both cases, undervaluing services leads to a very busy workload that takes both employees and owners away from their families, so it yields both low pay and long hours.
Lastly, focus your efforts upon improving profitability, as profits provide the resources you need to attract and retain the team you desire.
