5 Reasons Why Hiring the Right People for the Right Job is Essential
You wouldn’t hire a veterinarian and expect them to mostly clean the kennels, would you? The same goes for any veterinary team member. By employing credentialed professionals, you are essentially guaranteeing that they will work at the level of their licensing, education, and training. After all, why wouldn’t you take complete advantage of your employees’ abilities? Without letting your team perform to their fullest potential, you’re throwing money down the drain. When you are hiring, while keeping your current team satisfied, consider the following reasons for hiring the right people for the right job.
#1: Fulfilled employees are happy employees
Although no one in veterinary medicine, no matter the number of letters after their name, is above cleaning a diarrhea-streaked kennel, your top-level credentialed employees do not want to spend the majority of their time as kennel attendants. They spent a great deal of time, money, and effort on their education, which they want to use to its highest level. For example, if your credentialed veterinary technicians often are required to act as kennel attendants or veterinary assistants by cleaning kennels, walking patients, and restraining patients while your veterinarians draw blood and place IV catheters, their job satisfaction will suffer. Empower your employees to do as much as they can with their licensing, and you’ll notice an improvement in job satisfaction, morale, and productivity.
#2: Credentialed professionals can make you more money
During these challenging hiring times, you may snag any warm body off the street to fill your open positions. However, while you certainly need someone to keep your hospital clean and sanitized, most off-the-street employees will not be qualified to provide the level of veterinary care you need. By employing highly trained team members, you can pay them what they are worth to perform the tasks you need. Not anyone can monitor anesthesia and calculate drugs correctly, so you must fill that role correctly. Then, once you have assembled your core credentialed team, you can offer higher-level services to clients, because you trust your team members to handle their jobs with knowledge and expertise. You won’t need to spend your time babysitting unqualified team members, or waste your credentialed employees’ time correcting mistakes.
#3: Outsource tasks so your team can focus on the job at hand
With the current state of the veterinary industry, your team is likely not as robust as you’d like, and you may be dealing with a staffing shortage. You may be struggling to find qualified new team members, but do not ask your current team to perform duties that are often considered “chores.” Instead, outsource these tasks, such as janitorial services and laundry, to a company dedicated to providing these services to busy veterinary hospitals. Then, your team can focus on your clients and patients and help generate more revenue, so you can add the qualified team members you need, improve your facility, and upgrade your equipment.
#4: Hiring the correct people can save you money
Consider the wages you pay your staff. Outsourcing janitorial and laundry services to an outside company instead of paying your credentialed employees overtime to stay late to clean will likely save you money. Plus, at the end of a long, hard day, your team does not want to stay behind and scrub floors. They need to go home and decompress, and be refreshed for caring for patients the next day. Requiring team members to perform menial, non-veterinary tasks can destroy job satisfaction and lead to increased turnover, which can cost you a significant amount of time and money because you are continually searching for and training new employees.
#5: Allowing your team to perform typical job duties increases client satisfaction and patient care
If your team is constantly scrambling to wipe down kennels, swap laundry loads, and mop floors, they are not focusing on clients and patients. For example, if your team is overstretched, your client service representative may be tackling the never-ending mound of laundry while a line of clients waits in the lobby. Or, your technician may be hosing down the kennel that housed the Great Dane with vomiting and hemorrhagic diarrhea and missing that the recovering surgical patient they are monitoring is in pain. Give your team the outside support they need to ensure they can focus on their medicine- and client-related duties, and your clients will be more satisfied and your hospitalized patients will receive better care.
Do not waste your team’s time on tasks that can be outsourced. Contact our Veterinary System Services team to see how we can handle your tasks, such as hospital laundry and janitorial services, and free up your team to better care for your clients and patients.