Not Getting Enough Applicants For Your Job Ad?

You know how important it is to have a great team for your veterinary practice. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to put together a compelling story and prompt an immediate response that will help bring in the staff you need for your practice. You’ve put out job ads. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be prompting the response you need. Perhaps you’ve had only a handful of applicants for your open positions. Maybe you’ve put out a job ad, but you’ve failed to bring in a response from someone that you feel will be a good fit for your practice. How do you get the responses you need when you have an open position for your practice? These key strategies will help.

Strategy #1: Sell Yourself

You’ve probably always assumed that it’s the duty of job applicants to sell themselves to you, not the other way around.  You expect them to line up to give you their applications, telling you all of their best qualities and why they’ll be a great fit for your practice. There’s just one problem with this strategy: in a competitive market that has more open positions than candidates–or in an area where you simply don’t have a lot of veterinary practices–it’s not just the candidate that needs to do the selling! If you’re struggling to get the right applicants for your open positions, try:

• Differentiating your clinic from the competition. What is it about your clinic that’s different from others in the area?
• Sharing the right information. Don’t be afraid to talk about compensation! Money is the elephant in the room for vets in general, but especially for underpaid, overworked vet nurses and vet technicians.
• Discussing the benefits of working for you. Are you offering the rich, rewarding experience of working with great customers? Providing a great team? Sell your job to your applicants so that they’ll know what you can offer!

Strategy #2: Do Your Research

We often use the saying, “You wouldn’t start a complex surgery without doing your research, preparation, and careful planning.” The same goes for many of the important aspects of your practice–including the important task of finding your next team member. Go online and see where other veterinary practices in your area are putting their job ads. Read their ads. You don’t want to copy it directly, but you can pull compelling phrases and styles from the ad to create a more effective ad for yourself. You should also:

• Know what candidates expect from positions like the one you have open. What duties do they usually fill?
• Understand the average compensation offered for open positions like this one and be prepared to talk about it
• Develop a deeper understanding of exactly what your practice offers compared to others–especially if you’re a small veterinary practice competing with larger practices in the area

Strategy #3: Write Your Ad the Right Way

As you’re writing your ad, start with the highlights! Remember that people often scan webpages first before going back to read them in more detail. You’re fishing amongst many other fishing enthusiasts who have bait that is very similar to your own. In order to hook the right candidate, you need to right a stellar job ad that will be sure to attract their attention, including:

• Using a warm, informal tone of voice that will attract candidates to your practice
• Offering a position description that includes the 3 most important job duties your new employee will complete
• Writing a clear persona description that offers both candidates and you a clear understanding of what you want out of the ideal candidate for this position

Your job ad is your first communication with a new potential member of your practice. You want it to be warm, inviting, and offer all of the advantages your candidates are looking for with their new job roles. At the same time, however, you don’t want to oversell the position! Instead, create an ad that gives a realistic view of what it will be like to work for your practice. You want candidates who genuinely want to work for a practice like yours, in the position that you have open.

Strategy #4: Fish Where The Fish Are

You wouldn’t go fishing in a spot where there aren’t any fish, and the same is true when you’re looking for job candidates. Go to where the candidates are! There are several places you can go looking to find great candidates for your open positions, including:

• Websites geared toward veterinary professionals, where you’ll find people who have held similar jobs in the past alongside those who are looking for their first jobs in the veterinary field.
• Social media: public ads can make the rounds with little effort from you as your fans share them with their friends and family members.
• Your own email lists, where you’ll find plenty of people who are already interested in your practice and everything you have to offer. Email lists from other veterinary networking sites will also help reach people in one of the online locations they visit the most often: their inbox.
• Your personal network. Who do you know that might be interested in your open position? Utilize your personal network as well as the networks of your existing team members. Are any of you in contact with current students or recent graduates at your college? Other individuals who might be interested in a veterinary position? Networking can often bring forward the best candidates for your open job.

If you’re still struggling to reach enough candidates for that new position in your veterinary practice, we can help!

We know how challenging it can be to reach your next team members which is why we put in that extra effort. Every Job Ad placed with us is…

• Advertised on our sites, now reaching 12,000+ visitors every month, and growing
• Shared weekly to our LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter social media network of 50,000+, and growing
• Included in our weekly email to 12,000+ veterinary and pet care industry professionals, and growing
• Hand styled, looks great and reflects the professionalism of your business

Here at Vet & Pet Jobs, our listings of Vet jobs, Vet Nurse jobs, Vet Practice Manager jobs and Vet Locum jobs in Australia make the process of Veterinary job hunting fast and easy. And for Pet Care professionals our listings of Pet Retail jobs, Pet Grooming jobs and Pet Sales jobs make it easy to pursue your passion for working with pets and animals.

Before you know it you’ll be starting a new job in an exciting Vet Hospital, Vet Clinic or in Pet Retail, and it all starts with a click.

And for Vet Hospitals, Vet Clinics and Pet Companies, post your Ad for Veterinarians, Vet Nurses, Vet Hospital Managers, Pet Retail, Management and Marketers and more. Find the best candidates and grow your professional team. Register and post your Job Ad today.