Forecasting the Future of Veterinary Recruitment and Retention: Insights and Trends for 2024

Julie South [00:00:06]:
You're listening to the Vet staff podcast, the place where veterinary professionals go to get their heads screwed on straight so they can get excited about going to work on Monday mornings. I'm your show host, Judy south. This is episode one six five, merry Christmas or happy New Year, depending on when you're listening to this, there is. Did you know there's a chinese curse that says, may he live in interesting times? Well, like it or not, we're all living in interesting times and it's our ability to adapt to these times that keeps us both healthy and on our toes. This week we're interrupting the series we're currently running on resiliency to dust off the crystal ball and to do a bit of crystal ball gazing. What might be in store for us from a recruitment perspective in 2024? One of the paradoxes of modern living, I think, is that while some things stay the same, everything changes. And at the same time, while nothing changes, everything does. For us at vet staff, nothing changed and everything did through 2023.

Julie South [00:01:32]:
Whilst at the same time everything changed and then nothing did. Weird and interesting times, that's for sure.

Julie South [00:01:43]:
The vet Staff podcast is proudly powered by vetclinicjobs.com, the new and innovative global job board reimagining veterinary recruitment, connecting veterinary professionals with clinics that shine online Vetclinicjobs.com is your Goto resource for finding the perfect career opportunities and helping vet clinics power up their employer branding game. Visit vetclinicjobs.com today to find vet clinics that shine online so veterinary professionals can find them. Vetclinicjobs.com.

Julie South [00:02:26]:
Dude, so how accurate was my crystal ball gazing from this time last year? Was I on the money or was I way off? If you've been listening to this podcast for a while now, you've probably realized that I'm a bit of a digital girl when it comes to the possibilities of things digital. I'm pretty much an early adopter way back in last century. Back in the 19 hundreds. Gosh, that makes me sound old. Back in the 19 hundreds. Hundreds. I was fortunate enough to be working at the Reserve bank, which was one of the first organizations in New Zealand to use this new fangled thing called email. Similarly, going fast forward, but back just to last year, back twelve months last December.

Julie South [00:03:19]:
As soon as I heard about this thing called chat, GPT and AI being a thing, I was right into it. While lots of people were jumping up and down about how dangerous AI is. And let's face it, anything can be dangerous in malicious hands. I was getting excited. But in saying all of that, what I didn't appreciate or anticipate was the speed at which AI and GPT would integrate into our lives in different ways. Because when you think about it, we've had AI in our lives for quite a few years already, quite a few decades even already. When we google something, it's AI that provides that people also ask option for us to consider. When you search by voice, for example with Siri or Alexa, that's AI working there as well.

Julie South [00:04:16]:
It's AI that helps us with traffic, with our grammar. In healthcare, AI helps analyze large data sets. It's those machine learning algorithms that are able to quickly identify patterns and insights, data that us humans would probably never be able to analyze in any meaningful way by ourselves. Now let's have a look at the predictions I made this time last year on where I thought recruitment was headed in 2023, whether I was on the mark and then we'll have a look at my predictions for 2024. This time last year in episode one one three, I predicted that vet clinic employer branding would become more of a thing as a sharper recruitment hall because clinics would need to position themselves to stand out against those clinics in their neighborhood looking to hire the same vet and the same vet nurses to make their next move. I also predicted that job sharing would become more prevalent and genuine part time roles would be more prevalent at the same time as well because not everyone wants to work full time and utilizing skills in this way means that more veterinary mums and dads could re enter the workforce in a more meaningful way. I also predicted that remuneration would be packaged differently, especially here in New Zealand, because not all clinics were in a position to pay the high dollars being paid overseas. I also predicted that veterinary nursing job satisfaction would improve because veterinarians would learn that vet nurses were really highly skilled professionals whose skills are being wasted when clinics ask nurses to sit on reception and or clean out cages instead of monitoring anesthetics, intubating and putting in catheters.

Julie South [00:06:35]:
I also predicted that the divide between really good employers and those who weren't so good would get wider and that AI and recruitment bots would become more prevalent and that because of this, personalization would need personalization in recruitment would need to get stronger and more personal. I predicted that recruitment in air quotes recruitment would become more of a thing and it would start to have a seat at the management table because of its importance in the overall success of a clinic. And then lastly, I predicted that clinics would start to invest more heavily in staff retention because they'd realize that when people resigned the invisible cost to the business was high and that clinics would recognize that there was an invisible cost involved. Some of those predictions did come true, I'm relieved to say, and yes, very relieved to say that because then it kind of helps prove that I know what I'm talking about. The ones I would have liked to have come true didn't and some of those that I didn't want to come true have. So looking at 2023 in review through the lens of veterinary recruitment in Godzone, New Zealand, what happened? Vet clinic employer branding. Yes, that happened, although not as much as I would have liked to have seen happen. But it has started.

Julie South [00:08:14]:
Some clinics are doing a really good job with their employer branding and other clinics don't give a damn. Job sharing and more genuine part time roles have come about. Yes, this has happened again, not as much as I would have liked to have seen happen. Some clinics have embraced it wholeheartedly and fully embraced it and then perhaps others with others. Embrace is a bit of a stronger word than they might use themselves. But it's more of a thing now than it was this time last year I interviewed Dr. Stuart Burrow of Vet Marlborough and he told me in episode one three five that it's not an impossible thing to do. They do it.

Julie South [00:09:03]:
They do it very, very well. It's just that it takes a bit more planning to achieve. They invested in the planning. They have a very successful and a very cohesive part time team that works with the full timers. So not impossible, just needs some working and I'm pleased to see that it is happening. Remuneration packages will be different. No, this hasn't come to fruition in New Zealand yet. Unfortunately.

Julie South [00:09:36]:
The vet nursing job satisfaction would improve. Nope. Sadly I don't think that prediction came true either. Some vet nurses are more satisfied. Most, however, I don't think are. And that the divide between really good employers and those that weren't would get wider. Yes, I think this is getting happening, the divide is getting wider, but I don't think it's so wide yet to make that much of a significant difference. And by significant difference I mean that the really good employers will start to raise the bar such that the not so good ones will need to lift their game.

Julie South [00:10:18]:
Sadly, there are still lots of clinics that need to genuinely appreciate that the clinics are about their. That working in clinics are about their two legged humans as much as their four legged patients. AI and recruitment. That AI and recruitment bots would become more prevalent and that because of this, personalization would be stronger. Well, when it comes to some tech, I'd regard myself as, like I said before, one of the early adopters. If I haven't adopted something personally, I usually have a reasonably well informed opinion on it. And when I made this prediction, this AI prediction back in December last year, Chat GPT was just hitting the public arena. Back then I'd had a dabble and was starting to imagine some of the possible use cases for AI in recruitment.

Julie South [00:11:15]:
Beyond the automatic cv filtering that many recruitment software programs already offered. I don't think anyone quite expected Chat GPT to take the world by the storm that it has, together with all its AI brothers, sisters and cousins. My prediction last year was more along the line of how I thought that clinics would adopt AI into their recruitment, which really hasn't happened any more than was happening back then, rather than that the AI generated and AI written job applications, which is what I have seen, have become more prevalent. Did you know, for example, that there are bots whereby AI bots whereby all you have to do is upload your cv to it, tell it what type of job you would like to have, and then it'll apply to all the jobs advertised that meet that criteria? All really without lifting a finger other than the original cv and criteria that you would have filled out to start with, what I noticed were more applications from English as a second language. Applicants with impeccable English in their cvs and cover letters. Some of them even tried to adopt local dialect, local kiwi dialect. I filtered these out so that Kajal and Tanya didn't waste their time following up job seekers that weren't going to go anywhere in New Zealand. But the caliber of these cvs and their applications got better each week.

Julie South [00:12:57]:
It was each week, and they also got more prolific. I'm sure clinics started to notice a similar trend as well. The other prediction was that recruitment would become more of a thing and it would start to have a seat at the management table in clinics. This, I think has started to happen, but not to the degree that I would have liked to have seen. Those clinics that have upped their employer branding game have, I think, certainly taken recruitment seriously or more seriously than before, and almost given it a category or a seat in clinic, even if it's only on a part time basis at their board table. And then I would like to see that happen more often, more seriously across more clinics. And then my last prediction last year for 2023 was that clinics would start to invest more heavily in staff retention. No, I don't think this has happened at all, sadly.

Julie South [00:14:01]:
Why did I predict this? Because I thought that with veterinary professional shortages going on and only going to get worse, and it has, that clinics would see that they need to look after the professionals they had or risk losing them and struggling to replace them. The recruitment research that we vet staff undertook in conjunction with associate Professor Laura Harvey and associate Professor Dr. Christy Cameron of the environmental and animal sciences faculty at Unitech in Auckland showed that 40% of responders were actively looking for their next job. That's a bit of a scary monster number. For the sake of keeping the maths easy. If you're a five person clinic, that means that right now approximately two of your team is looking to move on. If you're a ten person clinic, then about four of those are. As I said, I kind of hoped that this prediction would come true and that is that clinics would start to appreciate and realize that they needed to invest more in Vetstaff retention.

Julie South [00:15:17]:
However, it hasn't really. That hasn't come true. Now, what am I predicting for 2024? Great question. I'm so pleased you asked. So let's have a look. In no order of importance, AI. I predict that the use of AI is just going to get even more prevalent. That those larger corporate like clinics that use recruitment software like bamboo, like bullhorn, like even a Salesforce API are going to get even more sophisticated with their AI integration.

Julie South [00:16:00]:
Who knows, maybe even you use HubSpot and you use their AI CRM. I think things are only going to get more sophisticated and the integrations are going to get more sophisticated as well. Now, what does this mean in real terms? Those clinics that use ATS's applicant tracking systems are, I think, going to get even more sophisticated. What might this look like? My crystal ball gazing is that job seekers won't know. They won't have a clue, at least in the early stages of their application process, whether they're communicating with a real life person or a sophisticated LLM large language model, the bot that's been built on chat, GPT four or another GPT four type cousin. What's important, I think, is that recruitment gets more personalized. I think we're going to see more automation, which is great for efficiency, but not so great for human connection and for feeling valued, which is what people, employees want to feel at work. For the record, the software that Vetstaff uses to manage our recruitment already has.

Julie South [00:17:21]:
Like I said last year, an ATS in built in it. An applicant tracking system. We don't use it. Everything we do here at Vetstaff is done manually inside that CRM, human being to human being, because you are an important human being and we are human beings and we think we're important as well. And we go the whole manual system because you're important to us. So that's prediction number one. I think things are going to get more sophisticated, more automated, which is a bit sad. Coupled with that is prediction number two.

Julie South [00:18:02]:
Aigenerated job applications will become more prevalent. I predict that cvs will start to look more of the same because they're being written by AI bots. To a degree. I think that some clinics will spend more wasted time sorting through the wheat from the chaff with genuine applications versus AI generated applications that say all the right things. I think that AI generated job applications are becoming more and more a happening thing. Prediction number three, avPs, allied veterinary professionals. I believe that they will be given more credence and authority, and I say authority in air quotes. I believe that here in New Zealand, with formulation of the AVP register, that vet nurses and vet techs will be therefore taken more seriously because they can get registered.

Julie South [00:19:01]:
Now, nurses have always been, not always, but for a long time have been able to be registered. But I think that this allied veterinary professional register will take things just to a whole new level as well. It's not going to be an overnight thing, unfortunately, because we've got legislative registration still to happen. Prediction number four, that the New Zealand Vet Council will be more pragmatic and hopefully more willing to consider registration from veterinarians. It wouldn't have previously from other countries. By that I mean that there would have been a carte blanche no to issuing an APC that up until now. Maybe they'll be given a bit more pragmatism. The Vet Council will show a bit more pragmatism with their limited scope option, and I predict that, provided a veterinary can demonstrate beyond reasonable doubt that their expertise in their chosen field, for example, large, small, exotics or equine, is genuine and real.

Julie South [00:20:08]:
And they can prove this, that apcs will be issued in a more limited scope way. We've had a few experiences here at Vetstaff with vets that have been issued registered or limited scope apcs in 2023, and we'd like to have more of that experience in 2024 as well, and to hear about more instances where that has happened from other clinics. So if you know about that, please let us know because we'd love to be able to shout out that this is happening. Prediction number five, staff retention. It's still going to be even more critical and of critical importance to clinics. Pretty much everyone knows that veterinary professionals can earn more in countries other than New Zealand. Therefore, it's going to be on clinics to prove beyond any reasonable doubt that living and working in New Zealand is a great place to work to be and to bring up families to start families. So I believe that self retention is going to be more of a happening and more of a serious thing inside clinics.

Julie South [00:21:24]:
Prediction number six promoting holistic well being I believe that there'll be an increasing focus on holistic employee health and well being. Mental health has become a commonplace, commonplace term now as physical health in workplace culture. And who knows, maybe we'll even stop using the term mental health as a differentiator and accept that health includes mental and physical health. I predict that more clinics will recognize that supporting health in all its components is critical in in order to have a thriving and a productive team. I think we'll also need to see more workplaces take on an integrated approach to wellness. Engaging healthy lifestyle habits around sleep, around nutrition, around exercise and work life balance. Destructive behaviors like smoking, alcohol and recreational drug use. Sometimes these stem from a lack of work fulfillment or life dysfunction.

Julie South [00:22:37]:
We'll see more clinics taking a compassionate and a supportive stance on overall employee health, enabling those people to bring their best selves to work. Coupled with that though, is the requirement for individuals to start taking personal responsibility, which I hope we'll see more of. Coupled with greater health awareness, promoting holistic health and well being. I'd like to think that people start taking their own health and well being seriously as well. Prediction number seven is around vet clinic employer branding, still in its infancy here in the vet sector. I think we'll start to see a few more clinics realize and appreciate that they need to promote how great their working conditions are. And then prediction number eight, I expect social media to be more prominent from a reverse recruitment angle. By this I mean I'm expecting to see more job seekers promoting their ability rather than clinics promoting their vacancies.

Julie South [00:23:46]:
From this I expect to see more job seekers who are doing their own negotiating to play. Sadly, this is what I think will happen, that they will play clinics off against each other more often. This means that when clinics make a job offer, it needs to be done. The first offer needs to be the best one because not all job seekers will give a clinic a second chance. And most of those job seekers probably can't be faffed or have the negotiation skills to negotiate additional contracts. Now, with all of these predictions, what do I think it's best for GveT clinics to do to ensure that they can recruit and retain the best veterinary professionals so they can keep their heads screwed on straight and get excited about going to work on Monday mornings as well. First and foremost, with the big conglomerates of Google and Facebook having so much marketing power, I believe it's going to be even more important than ever for clinics to do their best to take steps to be as non reliant as possible on them for their promotions. So this is them being Facebook and Google of both of their consumer brands and their employer brands becoming more important.

Julie South [00:25:22]:
That's what I predict, because these two are different. What works to attract more clients won't work to attract more employers, and vice versa. Even if your clinic is one of the few who's currently fully staffed, still invest please in some form of energy or some form of energy into kick off your employer brand marketing. The easiest way to do that is to head over to vetclinicsjobs.com and set up your free clinic listing to kick off your employer branding initiatives. Do this even if even when you're not looking for new Vetstaff. Why? Great question. Why? Because it enables you to build out your clinic's ever important employer brand and it'll give your clinic some depth. Why is this important? Because it's a way to showcase your clinic as a good employer so that your clinic can shine online and attract the veterinary professionals who are looking at that clinic just down the road from you.

Julie South [00:26:37]:
Then, once you've got your clinic up and running, invite your team to review your clinic. I know that's scary. Very few clinics are actually doing it. The clinics that do this are in the minority and according to Vet staff research I referred to earlier, it's what job seekers actually want to know. So give them what they want. Show job seekers what a good employer you are. According to your team, you'll find it so much easier to recruit and retain the type of veterinary professional who will fit your team like a glove rather than one that will give them blisters. And your ability to recruit and retain the best fit veterinary professionals for your veterinary clinic is only going to become more critical and ever important this year 2024, as there's a veterinary shortage.

Julie South [00:27:36]:
Therefore, it's only natural to be more important to clinics than to start online now and to showcase your clinic as good employers. Because sooner or later you start. Preferably the sooner, the more stronger, if that's such a word, the stronger your employer brand will be. Those are my predictions for the year I'd love to hear yours. You can get hold of me@vetstaffpodcast.com. I'd love to hear what your thoughts are. Thank you for listening to the Vetstaff podcast. On behalf of the entire Vetstaff team this year, thank you.

Julie South [00:28:22]:
Especially thank you for getting this far. If you did find this podcast helpful, can I ask you to do me a favor, please? Can you please share this with your friends and colleagues? It's really easy. The best way to do that is just direct them to vetstaffpodcast.com and they can follow there on their favorite podcast listening app. It means that they or you will never miss out on a show going forward, provided you've done that. Thank you so much. This is Julie south signing off and wishing you and yours all the most fantabulous. Best 2024. Here's to inviting you to go out there and be the most fantabulous version of you.

Julie South [00:29:13]:
You can be.