We have provided relief veterinarians in the Midwest since 1988, and have 30-40 associate veterinarians who have worked in over 400 practices. Unlike other "relief services" that merely broker names, we have assembled a large staff of professional relief veterinarians that have met our rigorous standards. This process has many facets including: interviews, reference checks, training, orientation sessions, performance reviews, ongoing training, and in-the-field regional managers. Continuity is always a valuable part of our service, and many of our doctors have been with us for years. This isn't to say that just any veterinarian can enter into our program.
Instead, we insist on veterinarians with specific qualities:
Personality and Communication Skills: It doesn't get much more important than this in the real world, and we know it.
Positive Attitude: We consider this the single most important trait for a relief veterinarian.
Experience: There really isn't a replacement for having been there before. Our relief doctors average over 10 years of experience, and we require a minimum of 2 years of experience.
Surgical Skills: Much has been written about not using relief veterinarians for surgery - we disagree! Our doctors are all competent surgeons. In fact, a number of our clients use us for specific non-elective surgeries or surgical days to deal with blocks of (mainly elective) surgeries.
Flexibility: This is our calling card. We believe in doing it your way - your policies, your protocols, and giving you the work hours you want.
Lighthouse's Standards of Quality make us the Best
Doctors and the Best VALUE in the Relief Industry!
Part of the Lighthouse relief staff at a recent company outing
WHEN DO YOU NEED A RELIEF VETERINARIAN:
Vacation
Maternity Leave
Continuing Education
Sickness: Due to our size, we are often, able to help on short notice
Personal Emergencies: As with sickness, our short-notice availability can avoid canceling appointments on short notice.
Staff Transition: (The time between an associate veterinarian's departure and their replacement's start.) Because of Lighthouse's multiple doctor system, we are uniquely able to help you with this problem on short notice, and we can stay as long as you need us.
Major Illness: Again the short notice and indefinite nature of these crises make Lighthouse uniquely suited to take care of your practice.
Relieving Surgical Backlog: If you have the "good problem" of being backed-up on your elective surgeries, then you probably also have the "bad problem" of losing business and possibly clients because of it. The solution to both of your problems is to call a relief veterinarian to get you back on schedule.
Advanced Skills: As veterinary medicine has progressed, many areas of practice now require a special dedication of time and desire, such as surgery, dental work, exotics, and some areas of large-animal care. By bringing relief veterinarians to your practice with these abilities, you can offer these services without hiring additional associates.
Growing Practices: Relief veterinarians can provide additional help as your practice grows from 1 to 2, or 2 to 3 doctors.
Routine Days Off: This is an excellent opportunity to bring additional advanced skills into your practice as previously mentioned while maintaining service to your regular clients and allowing you time off.
Maintaining a staff of associate veterinarians may be the biggest challenge facing multiple-doctor practices over the next 10-20 years. We have studied successful personnel systems in our clients' practices for 15 years. Plus we solved these problems ourselves as we became one of the largest employers of veterinarians in the Midwest!
Our Goal:
Our goal is to solve the personnel problems of veterinary employers, while concurrently working with associate veterinarians to find or create the perfect position. We are best understood as matchmakers, mentors, buffers and a catalyst to the employment process.
Philosophy:
At Lighthouse Veterinary Personnel Services®, we realize that problems hiring associate veterinarians are actually a joint manifestation of three separate components: Recruiting, Hiring and Retention.
We assess your clinic's needs and problems then craft a plan specifically for your situation. In other words, first we diagnose the problems you are having, and then we customize a treatment plan that meets your specific needs. Our philosophy makes us unique in the personnel industry. To understand a little better, let's examine the three general problem areas that create the "symptom" of a staff shortage:
Recruiting: This is getting the right message to the type of associate you need, in such a way that motivates them to examine employment with your clinic. A common sign of a problem in this area is a lack of good applicants for your positions.
Hiring: There are a number of components that come together to take a promising recruit and transition them into a new associate: good job descriptions, benefits plans, compensation packages, interview techniques, follow-up conversations, job offers, negotiations, employment contracts and employee manuals. Signs of problems in this area include: associates that call about positions then either don't come for an interview, or ultimately decline employment offers, as well as hiring associates that you know are wrong for the position.
Employee Retention: It does little good to recruit and hire associates if they quickly leave your practice. This rapid turnover is disastrous from a practice growth and financial standpoint. The problems that cause this scenario can be, and often are, complex and difficult to identify. Being veterinarians, as well as having one of the largest staffs in the Midwest gives our management team a special insight to identify and solve your clinic's unique problems.
"Due to their years of experience in a number of practices, we feel they are uniquely qualified to provide this service. I only needed to interview one good person; (Lighthouse) evaluated the practice and the (our associate) veterinarian and found a good match."
There are many aspects to the recruiting, hiring and retention challenge, and the solutions are different for each practice. Typically, there are multiple problems, and one problem can impact multiple areas. Some of our services are briefly discussed below, as well as which of the problem areas they address:
We recruit through a variety of mechanisms, such as direct mail, advertisements, direct recruiting at veterinary schools, and word-of-mouth. One of our most important tools are the contacts we have made during 15 years of business. Often these associate veterinarians will call us before starting a traditional job search, such as replying to journal advertisements. We then combine their desires with the opportunities available through our clients to "craft" a better match than either party could create independently.
Pre-screen applicants: (Recruiting and Hiring)
This prevents you from wasting your limited time interviewing the wrong associates. (Many doctors initially sound great, but aren't fundamentally suited to your practice.)
Help build competitive job descriptions: (Recruiting, Hiring and Retention)
Work hours, emergency duty, mentoring, species orientation, types of cases to be seen, work days, evening/weekend treatments, support staff, management responsibilities, and marketing expectations are some of the more obvious factors.
Create attractive, compensation packages: (Recruiting, Hiring and Retention)
Maternity/paternity leave, sick leave, health insurance, malpractice insurance, disability insurance, retirement plans, profit-sharing, continuing education (days off, travel, food, lodging, registration, timing, etc.) licensure, dues, and local association meetings, are some of the benefits and policies that associates consider when evaluating your position - often more than salary.
Assist with negotiations and communications: (Hiring and Retention)
There are many levels of communication in the courtship of an associate, and we can guide you through them, often acting as a sounding board for each party. Job offers are an important aspect of this process, and we can help to craft acceptable proposals. Most associates are not comfortable with the negotiations. We facilitate communications during the negotiations phase, allowing you to reach an acceptable agreement with desirable associates.
Shorten the time and cost of hiring an associate: (Creating Value for your Practice)
There is no delay in waiting for advertisements to run, and we have veterinarians already in our system who are currently looking for a position. Running fewer ads, decreasing the time your clinic is understaffed, and avoiding mismatched candidates potentially saves you considerable time and money.
Try out prospective employees before offering them a position: (Recruiting, Hiring and Retention)
If the potential associate is available, we can often send them into your practice through our relief service. This trial allows you to better evaluate an associate's skills, potential, and personality in the actual work environment.
Practice evaluations to determine, identify and treat higher staff turnover. (Hiring and Retention)
Many practice owners make the well-intentioned mistake of trying to fight a high turnover problem by inefficiently overcompensating in their recruiting and hiring systems. Put another way, you may be treating the symptom instead of the disease. We are veterinarians, clinic owners, and employers of one of the largest staffs in the Midwest. Our management team's special insight can help you identify and solve your unique problems.
We are available to work with your team to develop personnel systems that strengthen your practice. Many of our services are discussed in the previous section as part of the solutions to problems in hiring associates. However, we may be especially useful to your practice if you are experiencing high staff turnover. You may also find our service valuable as you face unique situations or important decisions.
Some areas we may help you:
Evaluating your practice to determine causes of, and possible solutions to high staff turnover
Developing winning compensation packages and benefit programs.
Developing winning associate job descriptions.
Development of associate contracts and employee manuals.
Consulting on individual personnel problems.
Other issues or questions arising in your veterinary practice.
(Our management team is comprised entirely of practicing veterinarians, and we have personally worked in over 200 veterinary clinics. We are also clinic owners, as well as one of the largest veterinary employers in the Midwest. This experience often lends itself well to creating real-world solutions to real-world problems.)
