Why a Veterinary Recruiter is Better than LinkedIn for Hiring Top Talent
With half a million active users, LinkedIn might seem like a goldmine for finding veterinary talent. And it is, to a degree. There are, indeed, a lot of qualified veterinary professionals who are present on LinkedIn. That doesn’t mean, however, that it’s your best avenue for recruiting talent. In fact, there are a number of compelling reasons why working with a veterinary recruiter may actually be a much better option. Let’s explore a few of those reasons below.
Information Overload
If you’ve ever attempted to recruit for your clinic using LinkedIn, you probably quickly discovered that there is a LOT of information located there. So much so, in fact, that it can be a bit overwhelming. This is especially the case when time is of the essence and you need to get a position filled quickly.
There’s certainly a good chance that you’ll find what you’re looking for on LinkedIn, but it will take time for you to find it – and in many cases, much more time than you anticipated. There’s also a decent chance that you won’t find what you’re looking for. As a result, you can be left feeling frustrated and even further behind the eight ball.
Turning Info into Intel
When it comes to effective veterinary recruiting, it’s not so much information you need, but intel. There’s a difference. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “intel” as “useful information concerning a subject of interest.”
In other words, it’s not just info you need, but specific info about your prospective employees that is actually useful. You need information that is relevant to what your needs and preferences are. And you need this specific, useful information in the quickest way possible. Having to wait can have significant consequences.
Let’s say you’re attempting to fill a high-level position in your clinic, such as a practice manager role. When you turn to LinkedIn, not only will you be overloaded with a ton of candidates and information that you don’t necessarily need, but you’ll have to sift through all of that while dealing with a time crunch.
A LinkedIn search will reveal lots of information about things like names, job titles, work experience, etc. What it won’t reveal is intel, such as which candidates are happy in their current positions (and which are unhappy), which candidates are most likely to make a career move and what it would take to convince those top-notch candidates to make that move.
Finding this information can be done, but it’ll take time. And if you don’t take that time to find the intel you need on a specific candidate, you could end up hiring someone who is a poor fit, which could ultimately cost your practice dearly in lost time and productivity.
This is the difference between searching on LinkedIn versus using a veterinary recruiter.
In the Trenches
Veterinary recruiters eat, sleep and breathe veterinary recruiting. They are on the front lines and in the trenches, day in and day out, speaking with hundreds of individuals each and every month. They engage with veterinary professionals at every level – from interns to senior management and everyone in between.
An experienced veterinary recruiter will already have an established network of resources available at the ready to draw from when someone needs a job filled. And since this is all they do, they are highly skilled at pinpointing the best candidates and extracting the appropriate intel quickly and efficiently.
Best of all, they do it all on your behalf so you can spend your time focusing on more important things, like growing your practice and increasing revenue.
More than Just Influence
When you work with an experienced veterinary recruiter that has a track record of success, you get much more than just influence. You get intel. More importantly, you’ll get a customized approach to your hiring needs. A skilled recruiter will be able to understand precisely who would be the best fit for your practice. Instead of wasting weeks pouring over LinkedIn profiles, you’ll end up with a shortlist of candidates that have already been vetted and match your criteria – typically within a matter of just a few days.
So, is LinkedIn still a viable recruiting tool? Sure. But you have to ask yourself what the best use of your time really is. The answer to that question will lead you to the right decision.
Curious about what it’s like to work with a veterinary recruiter? Get in touch. We’d be happy to answer your questions and discuss how we might be able to help you build your dream team.
