Ten Steps to Building a Successful Veterinary Practice

By Wendy Sneddon

This book is a down to earth, practical guide which provides ten simple steps for success for anyone responsible for recruiting a winning veterinary practice team: whether they are recruiting employees and building their team, or changing culture and creating a supportive environment where employees are engaged and motivated. It is ideal for small business owners who can't afford to employ any human resource support.

Intensely practical, it delivers key facts for veterinary staff starting out in business. The book:

· Details how you can attract, recruit and retain the right people for a winning team
· Guides you on creating a well organised, supportive practice in which employees can flourish
· Provides you with a basic introduction to building a strategy and improving your marketing campaigns
· Covers the basics of sound financial planning and how to win clients and increase your revenues
· Looks at how to manage common pitfalls

With a wealth of practical templates and forms to use, this book adopts a straight-talking approach which will be welcomed by anyone starting their own veterinary practice.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CAB International
• Release date: Apr 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781786394941

Wendy Sneddon

Wendy Sneddon, RVN, MSc, FInstLM is an Author, Business Coach and Veterinary Practice Manager with a strong work ethic and passionate about her role. With nearly 30 years of experience within the veterinary industry, she has built a great understanding of how veterinary practices should be run, and what it takes to build an engaged, motivated team. She qualified as a veterinary nurse technician and has worked in a whole range of roles: in practice, as a locum, as a lecturer and as a practitioner in industry. She has a wealth of experience in HR, Recruitment, Financial Management and Training, with an expertise in setting up HR systems and people management: from recruitment to exit. Also she enjoys mediation and conflict resolution - the more challenging the better! Wendy is a fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management and an associate member of the CIPD. She is on the editorial board of the Veterinary Nursing Times and provides industry articles and publications. As the Veterinary Profession evolves, the focus is increasingly on business. Balancing business priorities with integrity is one of the biggest challenges we face. Veterinary practice employees who want to increase their standing in practice, earn more money and have a better work life balance, first must value what they do themselves, demonstrate their abilities and continually update their skills, and practices must charge appropriately for their services. Wendy provides support to those practice owners who want success!

Book preview

Ten Steps to Building a Successful Veterinary Practice

Ten Steps to Building a Successful Veterinary Practice

Wendy Sneddon RVN, MSc, FInstLM, Assoc CIPD

CABI is a trading name of CAB International

© Wendy Sneddon 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London, UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Sneddon, Wendy, author.

Title: Ten steps to building a successful veterinary practice / written by Wendy Sneddon ; edited by Lynn Wardlaw.

Description: Boston, MA : CAB International, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: This book is a down to earth, practical guide outlining ten simple steps for recruiting, retaining and managing people in veterinary practices. The book provides valuable guidance to new practice owners and managers-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020051512 (print) | LCCN 2020051513 (ebook) | ISBN 9781786394910 (hardback) | ISBN 9781786394927 (paperback) | ISBN 9781786394934 (ebook) | ISBN 9781786394941 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Veterinary medicine--Practice. | Veterinary services--Administration. | Veterinary medicine--Economic aspects.

Classification: LCC SF756.4 .S64 2021 (print) | LCC SF756.4 (ebook) | DDC 636.089/069--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051512

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020051513

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.

ISBN-13: 9781786394910 (hardback)

9781786394927 (paperback)

9781786394934 (ePDF)

9781786394941 (ePub)

DOI: 10.1079/9781786394910.0000

Commissioning Editor: Caroline Makepeace

Editorial Assistant: Ali Thompson

Production Editor: Shankari Wilford

Typeset by SPi, Pondicherry, India

Printed and bound in the UK by Severn, Gloucester

Contents

Testimonials

About the Author

Preface

Acknowledgements

1.Step 1: Why?

2.Step 2: Your First Time?

The main functions required in every business

Levels of responsibility

Foundations of a successful business

3.Step 3: Vision, Mission, Values and Culture

What do I mean by vision?

What do I mean by mission?

How are your vision and mission statement relevant when hiring?

Values and culture

What do I mean by values?

What do I mean by culture?

How is culture relevant when hiring?

Be clear about what you need

4.Step 4: How to Define What and Who You Need

Sample recruitment and selection policy

The recruitment process

The selection process

Exit interviews

Job description

Who you need

5.Step 5: Recruitment and Induction

About your company

What are you offering?

How do you want applicants to apply?

Interview and selection

The best start

Preparation for induction

6.Step 6: Performance Management and Employee Engagement

Day 1 plan for development

One-on-one reviews

Six-month appraisal

Engagement surveys

Performance improvement plan (PIP)

Employee engagement

7.Step 7: Employee Health and Wellbeing

Mental health challenges faced by vets

Absence management

Might your workplace contribute to poor mental health?

Employee’s return to work

Talking about mental health

External support

Making health and wellbeing central

8.Step 8: How to Build a Loyal Client Database and Marketing Your Practice

Providing a better client experience

How are you gaining new clients?

Marketing tips

9.Step 9: Financial Management

Managing finance in veterinary practice

Do you regularly review your profit and loss (P&L)?

10.Step 10: Three Key Strategies to Increase Your Revenue by 25%

Increase the number of new clients

Get your clients to come back more often

Increase the amount of money clients spend with you

Appendix 1: Organization Plan

Appendix 2: Values Worksheet

Appendix 3: Job Description Template

Appendix 4: Person Specification Template

Appendix 5: Advert Template

Appendix 6: Template Application Form

Appendix 7: Applicant Screening Form

Appendix 8: Suggested Interview Questionnaire

Appendix 9: Telephone Interview Questionnaire

Appendix 10: Reference Request Form

Appendix 11: Example Induction Checklist

Appendix 12: Example Appraisal Form

Appendix 13: Example Performance Development Plan

Appendix 14: Case Study: How Not to Treat Your People

Testimonials

I have known Wendy, working in several management and consultancy roles. She has experienced many of the challenges that entrepreneurs face, and her insights into how to make businesses flourish, especially in relation to the all-important people aspects will be invaluable.

Mark Johnston MA VetMB PhD MRCVS, Managing Director, Vetstream Ltd

Wendy is someone with a big vision and a very practical attitude. She has experience in many areas as well as her own personal awareness of what it takes to run a business successfully, so she speaks from the heart and the head, and that’s a winning combination. This book takes a simple and pragmatic approach, step by step, to help entrepreneurs figure out how to prioritize and manage their time so that they can work on the business, as well as in the business.

Georgia Parker, Cascade Coaching and Training

About the Author

Image of Wendy Sneddon

I am a firm but fair leader with the tenacity and determination to get through anything. I have a strong work ethic and I am passionate about enjoying what I do.

With nearly 30 years of experience in the veterinary profession, I have a great understanding of what practices need in order to build an engaged, motivated team.

My experience is in human resources (HR), recruitment, marketing, financial management and training. My expertise lies within people management, from recruitment to exit. I also enjoy mediation and resolving conflict – the more challenging the better!

I am passionate about employee engagement – we spend a lot of time at work, it should be fun! My mission is to help employers realize that they are the ones who hold the key to creating a happy, fun work environment, full of people who believe in their vision and values, and thrive in a nurturing culture.

Wendy Sneddon

[e-mail]

Preface

I have owned and managed several businesses, and have worked with many veterinary practices over the years. Of all the tough challenges we faced, there is one common struggle – managing people! I have heard it said that people leave managers, not companies. I have also found this to be very true. All too often managers are put in positions of responsibility by default rather than being selected for their aptitude. This can work, providing the new manager is offered training and support to make the transition; however, more often than not, there is little support – and so the challenges begin.

This is often true of veterinary professionals. They are highly skilled in their field, have great ideas, the drive and passion to get things done and succeed, but they can lack the skills in leading a team. The practice evolves around them, with little or no consideration for organizational development. Veterinary professionals who have taken that leap into self-employment, because they are fabulous at what they do, now have to make the transition into leaders – often without knowing or really understanding what that means. This is, of course, a sweeping generalization; there are many veterinary professionals who become great leaders!

‘You can’t expect employees to exceed your customer’s expectations if you don’t exceed your employees’ expectations of management.’

(Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks, 2008)

Leadership and management are disciplines in themselves; take your leadership role seriously! There is a lot of information to assimilate if you want to get it right and build a successful business.

Research shows that business success comes down to motivated, engaged teams. There are lots of initiatives to help you to identify how engaged your teams are, and these will provide great feedback for you to build a strategy to improve employee engagement.

You need to recruit the right people for your team. It all starts with you, changing your attitude and mindset.

This book has been written for veterinary professionals who are starting up or growing their practice and will help you to set up a basic system to attract, recruit and retain great people within your business. These simple steps will ensure you have the correct procedures in place, which, if followed, will help you to successfully recruit a winning team.

It will also help those practice owners who are struggling to retain good people, by giving them a framework to review their current foundations and to identify where they need strengthening.

By the time you have read this book you will understand what foundations you need to have in place to build great teams. You will know what systems you require to recruit and select great people, and how to keep them!

You will understand how to identify your ideal client and the marketing secrets to target them.

You will also learn the basics of financial management to help you understand how to keep your business profitable. This book has been designed to be a practical guide, to get you started in the right direction. I have included recommendations for further reading throughout. It is also worth saying that you don’t have to do all of this on your own!

Change Yourself First

When I was young,

I wanted to change the veterinary profession.

When I found, I couldn’t change the veterinary profession;

I began to focus on the practice.

I couldn’t change the practice, so I tried to change the team.

Now, older and wiser,

I realize the only thing I can change is myself.

Suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself,

I could have made an impact on my team.

My team and I could have made an impact on our practice.

Then my practice and I could indeed have changed the veterinary profession.

(Wendy’s version. The original poem has various attributions. You can read it at Cardinal Spirits (2016).)

References

Cardinal Spirits (2016) The Unknown Monk. Blog, 10 May. Available at: https://www.cardinalspirits.com/spirit-trail/the-unknown-monk (accessed 3 January 2021).

Schultz, H. (2008) How Starbucks Built a Global Brand. Talk at UCLA Anderson School