Employee Retention: Keeping the Team Intact

Employee retention is possible for your veterinary hospital customers. 

Editor’s note: The following is part two of a two-part series examining the labor shortage in veterinary medicine. The first article delved into the issue and how it is affecting veterinary clinics. This article will focus more on solutions to some of the issues behind the shortage.

Even amid a tumultuous time, staff retention is an attainable goal for veterinary clinics. Heather Romano, MHRM, SPHR, SHRM-CP managing director of HR and Training at iVET360 said she has seen hospitals that are placing a high value on taking great care of their teams – even when it affects profitability and revenue. “But the ones who are doing this are seeing much lower rates of turnover and have had a much easier time finding members when they do need to recruit for the replacement or growth.”

For instance, one veterinary practice owner in Portland, Oregon, decided that the most important thing during the pandemic was to keep his team happy, both physically and emotionally. So they stopped taking new clients. “They decided they were seeing well over 100 new clients every month, and they stopped taking any new clients,” Romano said. “This really affected their revenue and limited their year-over-year growth.”

But, the team saw this as an investment in their mental health because it meant that they weren’t going to be overloaded with new clients. Instead, they could focus on their current clients, as opposed to putting them on 8- to 12-week waitlists. This strategy alleviated the pressure on the team. The clinic owner also invested money in raises for the team. They implemented bonuses, lunches, and even increased the benefits. They also gave everybody transportation stipends.

The practice owner and manager at this hospital already had a good employer reputation for caring for the team. As a result, they have seen a fraction of the turnover that other hospitals in the area have seen. “And when I say a fraction, we’re talking maybe a couple of people over the entirety of the pandemic,” Romano said. “They also, shockingly, have been able to recruit two new doctors. Both of these two amazing doctors applied without ever having seen their ads. So, they were basically unsolicited applicants. They also hired new technicians, a new receptionist and they get candidates with no problem. It’s because they’ve worked so hard to create this great employer reputation.”

Another hospital owner in rural Alabama with one doctor and three employees realized early on in the pandemic that she needed to change the culture at the hospital to appreciate her team members. The practice owner provided the best raises that she could. “This is not a highly profitable practice, but she did the best that she could to provide the best raises that she could to her team to convince them to stay.” She also implemented health care benefits and paid time off, neither of which were available to the team members before. And although this really affected their profitability, the hospital has had zero turnover through the pandemic, and they’ve not lost any time in the hospital because of having to close or deal with employee wellness issues.

“I could go on and on with other examples,” Romano said. “All of these hospitals are doing what they can. They’re all very different things, but they’re all focused on employee wellness. And by doing this, we’ve seen the employee satisfaction scores go up, even though they’re super stressed out during the pandemic. We’ve seen their retention improve. And we’ve seen a better quality and number of candidates come through for any jobs they do end up having to post. These examples show that you don’t have to change everything. You don’t have to completely rework your hospital, even just doing a few things to show your team that you care can make a huge difference for them.”

The fundamentals

From her work across the country, Romano said she’s observed several best practices from leading veterinary hospitals for improving employee retention and wages. First and most importantly, hospital owners must take excellent care of the team. “It really is that simple.” For years, so many hospitals have taken the “everyone is replaceable” approach and valued profits and revenue above all else. This simply does not fly anymore, and hospitals that have continued that mindset have struggled with team retention, employee engagement, lost clients, and so much more as a result.

The hard part is that taking care of the team looks different between hospitals based on various factors. So, Romano recommends hospital owners consider some of the following:

Make the practice an “employer of choice.” This could mean increasing wages, but it can also mean career pathing (Dual Career Laddering is one very successful concept iVET360 works with at its partner hospitals), focusing on employee wellness, reducing the client load, offering additional paid time off, and so much more. “I always say, ‘pile on the perks so the grass is always greener on your side of the fence!’”

Increase financial stability. Romano said that many veterinary team members are poorer than their poorest clients. The pandemic has intensified this. Anything a clinic can do to increase their financial stability and security will be highly appreciated. This can include offering an in-hospital food bank that team members can donate to and take from confidentially, offering DashPasses, helping with providing team members’ kids’ school supplies, and more. Hospital owners can also contribute more to their team members’ health care benefits, which would put more money in their pockets each month.

Train the team. This may require the hospital to close for a period of time each week (maybe an hour or two), but training, engagement, and retention are all very closely tied together.

Keep an eye on mental wellness. It can be difficult to spot someone struggling if they hide it well, but often, the signs can be noticeable. Be on the lookout for a recently withdrawn personality, unexpected highs and lows in moods, mistakes being made that were never an issue before, increased calling out or coming in late, and other personality changes that can be subtle. Offer additional breaks throughout the day (and yes, we need to offer all team members lunches and breaks every day, without exception, even if state law does not require it!), additional PTO, staggered schedules, and even hospital mental health days.

Back them up. Clients are causing a ruckus at many hospitals, and team members who see their manager and PO’s telling the client that their behavior is not acceptable will feel as though they can move past it. “When leaders chastise their teams for angry clients when they aren’t the team member’s fault – and believe me, this happens all the time – the team member feels betrayed, which causes them to lose all loyalty to the hospital,” said Romano. “Back them up and make the aggressive clients back off.”

If hospital owners think they are taking care of their team, but are still seeing high levels of turnover, then there is a disconnect, Romano said. Asking the team usually won’t help because they won’t want to say anything to potentially harm their job. “The best people to ask will be any team members who have left the practice during the pandemic,” she said. “The hospital owners have their contact information, so they shouldn’t hesitate to reach out and tell them that their feedback will help make positive changes at the hospital. Owners may be surprised at how many are willing to help.”

Recruitment Tool Kit

In iVET360’s recent Practice Manager Report which surveyed 683 practice managers in 49 states, recruiting and hiring was cited as the No. 1 challenge facing practices. That was true regardless of location or size. “While we can’t increase vet school enrollments or inspire more people to become vet techs, what we can do is offer our professional assistance with the recruiting and hiring process.” iVET360 developed a Recruitment Tool Kit that contains informative articles, templates, and how-to guides on everything from job ads to interviewing and hiring.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com/bluecinema