How to Hire a Veterinarian in 2025- Guide For Veterinary Clinics
How to Hire a Veterinarian in 2025
In recent years, one of the key challenges faced by independent veterinary practices is not being able to hire qualified veterinarians. The truth is, the demand for veterinarians increased after COVID-19 as many people across the nation became pet owners, which led to growth in the demand for veterinary care. This left practice owners working up-to 70-hours a week with no time for family and friends. And above that the big corporations noticed this increased demand and started buying veterinary clinics, and to ensure that they are able to increase the revenue of these veterinary clinics, they started hiring aggressively and offered higher salaries and better benefits, which led many DVMs to move or take the corporate route. This has led to a situation where independent practices are now struggling to find the DVM’s for their practices and it has caused massive losses to them.
Today, we’ll help you understand how to plan the hiring process effectively to ensure your clinic can attract and hire top veterinarians.
Step 1 - Define Your Ideal Candidate
One of the mistakes often made by practice owners is that they immediately post the job on various platforms with the plan to hire the right veterinarian. Is your practice similar to the practice across the road in terms of offerings and services? Every practice is unique and has its own needs and buyer personas. When you decide to hire a veterinarian, here are a few questions you need to answer:
What skills does your clinic need?
Are you looking for someone with experience in small animal care or specifically exotic pets?
Are you looking for a fresh graduate or an experienced veterinarian?
A great veterinarian is empathetic, communicates effectively, and brings positivity to the clinic. They should not only have the technical skills but should also fit well with your existing team and clients.
Last week, we had a conversation with a practice owner who mentioned that in 2024, they hired a DVM in a hurry because the demand increased during tick season and it was becoming increasingly difficult to handle the number of pets. In a hurry and without 'defining the ideal candidate,' they hired this new DVM. Everything went well for a few weeks, but then they started noticing frustration from pet owners on their Google Business profile. The complaints mentioned how improper diagnoses had led to more problems for the pets. The practice owner learned the lesson that it is very important to invest time in clearly defining the needs of a clinic. You need not only a qualified veterinarian but also someone who understands the culture and values of your practice and is ready to go the extra mile to ensure that pets are well taken care of.
A solid team of veterinarians has a positive impact on the reputation and financial health of your veterinary practice. In the future if you decide to sell your veterinary practice keep in mind that the investors are looking for stable, well-staffed clinics with qualified DVMs.
Before we move ahead and discuss about the step 2, let’s take a moment and understand how a day looks like in the life of a veterinarian
Step 2: Offer Competitive Compensation
Defining your ideal candidate will help you plan what kind of skills you will need for your next hire, and step 2 focuses on how you can attract the ideal fit for your clinic. First, you will need to ensure that you are posting clear, detailed job descriptions that list qualifications and explain why your clinic is a 'happy workplace'.
We have noticed that practice owners who are aware of how much compensation is being offered by others in their local area, along with the average nationwide data, are able to craft the perfect package for their new hires. To help you understand, here's the information from Indeed:
Yes, corporations often offer higher salaries, but that doesn’t mean independent clinics can’t compete. Like most of us, veterinarians also value a supportive work environment and if you can show that you genuinely care about their well-being then you are already ahead of the corporates. You will need to ensure that you are advertising your culture and values along with the compensation structure.
Garth Jordan, CEO of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), shared with the AVMA that the average annual turnover rate among veterinary team members is 23%, and it is increasing each year. Below are the factors driving this trend. As an independent practice owner, it's important to focus on motivating your employees and identifying areas for improvement.
Step 3 - Recruiting Strategy
Creativity here doesn’t mean you have to create fancy graphics or landing pages to attract the perfect fit for your veterinary clinic. Instead, we're talking about looking beyond traditional hiring strategies. For example, networking is an excellent way to find the right hire for your clinic. Start by reaching out to veterinary schools and partnering with their placement cells. Ensure that when veterinarians are in their final year or upon graduation, you have the opportunity to discuss available positions in your clinic. Another idea is to attend industry conferences and let your network know that your clinic is flourishing and hiring.
In the age of digital information, social media is not only used to post updates about your clinic but also serves as a perfect platform for reaching out to potential hires and showcasing your clinic's values and culture. Often, new hires will browse your website and social media pages to learn more about you and your clinic.
Here are a few ways you can use social media to attract interest and engage potential hires:
Create interest-based ads targeting vets in your location.
Post success stories about your team and the culture of your team.
Ensure that showcasing culture is part of your social media approach. You can consider having a dedicated section on your website and providing biweekly updates on social media channels that discuss the team culture and growth plan.
More details
The final idea is to add a referral section on your website, creating a space where people can refer their peers or colleagues to your clinic. After a successful hire, they would receive some kind of referral bonus
Step 4: Streamline Your Hiring Process
Now that you know how to find the right vet for your clinic, it's time to streamline the hiring process. Here are some strategies to help streamline your hiring process.
Screen Applications Quickly: You will need to make sure that you are able to screen the new applications as they come. One of the easiest ways to ensure that you don’t miss any applicants is having an email notification in place. For example, as soon as someone applies for the job on your website or any of the portals where you have listed it, you will get an email: “Hello [First Name], You have received a new application for your job position. Click here to review.” This will help you in keeping up with applications as they come. The next step is, if you find an interesting resume that ticks all the required boxes, you will need to respond as quickly as possible because if your perfect applicant has applied to your job, they might have done the same with others, and it’s best to reply when their interest is high. They might consider the clinic that gets back to them first.
Conduct Interviews: The next important step is to ensure that you can conduct interviews with the candidate. As part of the interview process, you will need to ensure that you are not just focused on technical skills like their qualifications or work experience. Yes, those are important, but in medical care, you will need an employee who will fit into your clinic's culture. They are representing your clinic and its reputation. You will need to ensure that they understand how to handle difficult situations, stay calm, and work as a team.
Act Fast: After you have conducted the interviews and found a candidate who meets all your requirements and seems like the perfect fit, you need to make sure you communicate with them without delay. Perhaps mention that you will get back to them about the next steps in the next few days—use that time to interview others. But ensure that you act fast. It’s fine to take time to review applications and compare candidates, but remember, in a competitive job market, top talent gets hired quickly. If you wait too long, they might accept an offer from another clinic.
Step 5: Retention
Hiring the right veterinarian is only the first step. As a practice owner, you also need to have a process in place to retain existing and new hires. Remember, retention not only demonstrates that your clinic values the employees and has a positive work culture. According to Quantum Workplace, the time, stress, and cost of hiring and training new employees are significant, and turnover can have a negative impact on Business . They also mentioned that replacing employees is expensive, with costs ranging anywhere from 16% to 213% of an employee’s salary. U.S. organizations pay up to $1 trillion in turnover expenses annually. And, specifically in the veterinary niche which has become competitive in the last few years with the entry of big corporations trying to hire the best veterinarians, it’s important for independent veterinary practice owners to have a culture that makes their team happy.
Here are a few ideas:
Talk to them regularly to check how they’re doing and discuss their goals.
Give them chances to learn and grow, like new training or bigger responsibilities.
Create a friendly and supportive workplace where they feel respected.
We know you already understand that keeping the top talent is not only going to have a positive impact on the care provided in your clinics, but it will also have a great impact on the profitability of the clinic.
Conclusion
Your staff is your biggest asset and ensuring that you have a process in place to hire and attract the best veterinarians is going to be the key in the growth journey of your clinic. We are sure that today you have learned some of the key strategies and will implement those. Remember, the veterinary niche is becoming increasingly competitive each year. From marketing to recruiting, the responsibility to ensure the smooth running of your clinics is on your shoulders. and we are here to help and be a part of your success story. We have helped multiple practice owners across the United nations in achieving growth and profitability with our all in one success programmes.
Hear from some of the practice owners.
"The DVM elite community has been so welcoming. It's a family that has made me grow. We have a book club, which has made me read more books, and I'm an avid reader. So for me to say that I'm reading more books than I ever have in my entire lifetime is amazing. And those books are personal growth books that you can bounce ideas off of with other people in the DVM elite community."
Dr. Diana
“You have nothing to lose with the DVM Elite program. The rewards have been absolutely amazing. We couldn't even dream as big as we are now... We have grown 400% since we have been a part of DVM Elite and that has totally transformed our lives”
Dr. Randy & Beth
“It's easy when you're in the practice, to just be focused on your own things, but you've got a wealth of experience from practices across North America with DVM Elite”.
Dr. Aron
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