When done properly, exit interviews encourage departing employees to give valuable feedback and inform practice leaders about underlying issues.

Among the most valuable assets at your veterinary practice are your employees. A team member’s permanent departure can present both a challenge for a clinic as well as a silver-lining opportunity for management to gather insights through an exit interview. To help your practice extract maximum value from the situation, I’ll address the who, what, […]

Veterinary practices have some leeway but must follow the law when they seek to influence employee health.

Few people would object if their employer offered them free gym memberships or voluntary access to a smoking-cessation program. Their reactions might be quite different if certain health benchmarks or controls were made mandatory. All this raises the question of when an employer can require someone to get a vaccine, for example, or stop smoking, […]

Some people are career-oriented while others place greater value on time away from work. Practice leaders can support both.

We have all heard about work-life balance. Over the past few years, though, a new phrase has been tossed into the mix: work-life integration. Is there a difference, or has the old phrase been given a fresher name? The short answer is that the idea of work-life balance has evolved into the more holistic concept […]

Recognizing signs of mental distress in team members is the first step in getting them the assistance they might urgently need.

On the day your practice hired Maria as a veterinary nurse, you were thrilled. Not only did Maria have plenty of experience, but she was compassionate and caring, too. A win-win. Nowadays, though, you notice that Maria is on edge much of the time, experiencing what seem to be panic attacks. Some days her anxiety […]

Team members and job candidates desire more than a paycheck. Benefits such as flexible schedules, paid CE and mentoring can produce happier employees.

Team members and job candidates desire more than a paycheck. Benefits such as flexible schedules, paid CE and mentoring can produce happier employees. Veterinary practices have found that they need to make the workplace as appealing as possible if they want to recruit and retain quality team members. In the past, clinics could simply advertise […]

As employment laws change or are enacted, practice owners and managers need to be cognizant of all the twists and turns. An array of online resources is available to explain the details, or you might want to consult an attorney.

Keeping up with evolving employment-related legislation can be difficult for small business owners, and COVID-19 made the situation even more problematic. As laws containing new and sometimes confusing information are rapidly passed, a veterinary practice owner’s compliance with the legislation might lag, which can have consequences as serious as litigation. As a general approach, gathering […]

Workplaces thrive in a culture of gratitude and when teamwork and collaboration are encouraged.

Studies have shown that positive leadership leads to positive work environments. The concept is so logical that you probably don’t need to review stacks of employee survey results to accept the notion that leadership has a real impact on work culture. Just as negative people can create a negative work environment, positive leaders can create […]

Be honest with yourself. Did you rush the job candidate through the interview? Did you miss any warning signs? Did you quiz the references? Does your onboarding and training program need an overhaul?

After you spend time and money advertising for job candidates and interviewing them — and then selecting someone you believed would be a great addition to your veterinary practice team — it can be quite disheartening when the new hire just isn’t working out. You think back through the hiring process, the resume that showed […]

Chronic complainers within a practice can be toxic. Learn to develop a workplace full of problem solvers.

The practice manager, Jaime, is busy working on payroll in her office when the following conversation takes place with a technician named Cory. Jaime: Oh, hi, Cory. How are you? Cory: Fine. (Silence) Jaime: Can I help you? Cory: Well, it would be nice to actually get a break from work and eat lunch in […]

Workplace gossip can be harmful, so know how to control it.

“Maria’s skirt is awfully short, isn’t it? And she sure doesn’t have the figure to pull that off!” “You’re not going to believe what I heard about our new client.” “Did you hear who is getting divorced? You’re not going to believe what happened!” “We’re not getting bonuses this year because of what happened between […]