Hiring in the veterinary field is notoriously challenging. With high turnover rates and hiring success often falling short of expectations, it’s essential to develop a smart, efficient approach to bringing new talent into your practice. In this post, we’ll discuss strategies to help you avoid common hiring mistakes and set your team up for long-term success.

Why Hiring the Right People Matters

Hiring decisions can shape the future of your veterinary practice in ways that go beyond filling positions. The individuals you bring on board will directly influence the quality of care, the strength of your team, and the culture of your practice. A strong hire can elevate your practice, while a poor hiring decision can drain time, energy, and resources.

Veterinary practices face higher turnover rates compared to many other healthcare sectors. For example, turnover for veterinary technicians is nearly 50%, and for veterinarians, it’s around 20%—double the rate seen among physicians.

High turnover puts additional strain on practices, creating a cycle of constant hiring, onboarding, and retraining. However, practices that adopt a careful, methodical hiring process—one that includes behavioral interviewing and multiple interview rounds—tend to see more successful hires and lower turnover rates.

5 Ways to Limit Hiring Mistakes in Your Veterinary Practice

To avoid these pitfalls and set your practice up for success, you need a hiring process that is intentional, repeatable, and geared toward long-term growth.

1. Understand Your Unique Hiring Challenges

The veterinary profession has its own set of hiring obstacles. Practices frequently experience high turnover, and the hiring success rate is often low. But what exactly is “hiring success”? A good metric to measure this is asking yourself: Would I hire this person again after six months or a year? If the answer is no, something went wrong in the process.

Effective hiring isn’t just about filling a vacancy—it’s about finding people who contribute to your practice’s growth, culture, and long-term goals. Practices that focus on quality hiring processes can increase their hiring success rate significantly, ensuring that the majority of new hires not only perform well but also help the practice thrive.

2. Define the Right Success Metrics

To improve your hiring success, it’s essential to define what success looks like. Rather than rushing to fill positions, focus on key performance metrics, such as:

• Long-term retention
• Quality of work
• Cultural fit within your practice

Ask yourself: What qualities define my best employees? Look for candidates who embody these characteristics. By adopting a mindset that prioritizes quality over speed, you’ll find candidates who don’t just fill a role, but elevate your team.

3. Build a Repeatable Hiring Process

A repeatable and consistent hiring process is critical to avoiding common pitfalls. This process should include:

• Behavioral Interviewing: Look for patterns in past behavior, not just intentions. Instead of asking hypothetical questions like, “How would you handle conflict?” ask, “Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker. What did you do?”
• Multiple Interviews: Involve multiple people in the hiring process to get different perspectives. Consider having two or three rounds of interviews with a team of interviewers to gather insights.
• Scoring Candidates: Develop a scoring system for evaluating candidates, where you rate their alignment with your best employees on a scale from 1 to 5. This helps quantify how closely they match the qualities that drive success in your practice.

4. Avoid Common Pitfalls

Many veterinary practices fall into the trap of rushing the hiring process to fill a vacancy quickly. While it might seem urgent to fill the gap, it’s crucial to slow down and focus on quality. Rushed hiring can lead to bringing in candidates who don’t fit the culture or perform as expected.

Another common mistake is overlooking red flags during interviews. For example, a candidate who blames others for their past failures or shows signs of a “victim mindset” is likely to bring more drama than solutions to your practice. These behaviors can lead to inefficiencies and increased time spent managing underperforming employees. It’s essential to identify and eliminate these red flags early in the process.

5. Invest in Onboarding and Development

Hiring doesn’t end when the contract is signed. A well-structured onboarding process is vital to ensuring long-term success. Invest in onboarding programs that not only teach new hires the ropes but also integrate them into the practice’s culture. Continuous development is also key—give your team opportunities to grow, learn, and improve.

By hiring people who show potential and a mindset geared toward improvement, your practice will benefit from employees who don’t just plug gaps, but actively make your team better.

Hiring for the Future

The people you hire today will shape the future of your veterinary practice. Rather than just filling vacancies, think about where you want your practice to be in five or ten years. Hire individuals who not only meet your current needs but also align with your long-term goals and culture. By maintaining a proactive recruiting process and continuously evaluating your team’s talent, you’ll build a practice that thrives in the future.

Always be recruiting, and ensure your hiring process reflects the standards of excellence you want your practice to embody. You’re not just hiring for today—you’re building the team that will help your practice grow and succeed over time.

What's does your hiring process look like? Share your tips with colleagues in the comments below.