Pulse - December 2021 - 12

" A lot of customers are
not nice and have been
taking it out on team
members. Curbside
service and longer wait
times for appointments
add to the irritability. "
- Mark Opperman
that a record 4.4 million U.S. workers voluntarily left their
jobs in September alone, and the trend is catching the attention
of business leaders in all sectors.
" In a recent survey of 117 CEOs conducted by Fortune
and [the audit and financial advisory firm] Deloitte, 73%
said a labor/skills shortage is the most likely external issue to
disrupt their business in the next 12 months, " Allen reported.
" In that same survey, 57% of CEOs said attracting and recruiting
talent is among their organizations' biggest challenges,
followed by 51% who said one of their biggest challenges is
retaining talent. "
Allen posits that what's really behind the Great Resignation
is " a collective shift in our mindset fueled by the pandemic-
one in which many have reevaluated the very idea of what it
means to work. Millions around the world have decided that
life is simply too short to do work that risks their sanity, their
safety or their soul. "
Dr. Felsted makes a similar point in stressing that practice
culture and the work environment are important factors in
hiring and keeping employees.
Flexibility is critical, she said.
" Many people would rather work 4/10 than 5/8 and have
more personal time flexibility. But you have to check local
laws about when overtime kicks in, " such as after 40 hours
worked in a week as opposed to eight hours in a day. Local
laws vary for non-salaried employees.
" People want to have lives outside of work, " Dr. Felsted
stressed. Sometimes that can be achieved by boosting benefits
rather than pay.
Adding an extra week of vacation can improve staffers'
morale, she said.
" Flexibility can also mean working from home, " she said,
though she acknowledged that that can be difficult in a clinic.
" But maybe you can arrange that for an afternoon or one
day a week. Maybe it could be a rotating position, allowing
someone to answer the phones from home. "
Opperman agrees that additional factors are important in
hiring and keeping staff.
" Other things, like the lack of advancement opportunities
in many practices, affect retention, " he said. " That shouldn't
12
be a problem, but it is. It shows a lack of effective management,
not hiring or promoting effectively. Lots of practices
are not doing that.
" Lack of benefits is also a concern, " he said. " Not a lot of
practices offer retirement benefits; the number is fairly low.
Lots don't offer health insurance. "
A partial solution, he suggests, could be offering a stipend
or a minimal percentage of such benefits.
The typical clinic today has a very challenging work environment,
he said.
" A lot of customers are not nice and have been taking
it out on team members. Curbside service and longer wait
times for appointments add to the irritability.
" Business is still hectic as the animal population has
increased.
" An already challenging work environment is sometimes
compounded by a clinic culture that lacks positive reinforcement
and training to advance. It's not just compensation. We
need to keep team members happy in the practice as well. "
Paying more will absolutely help with support staff, Opperman
said. " Underpayment needs to stop. I've been preaching
for years that veterinary medicine is an underpaid profession
and that we need to pay better.
" But we need to realize that if we do pay more it does not
mean we are going to resolve our recruitment and retention
problems. There are more factors to consider. "
Once a decision is made to raise staff pay, one question is:
By how much?
" There are definitely resources out there for determining
staff compensation, " Dr. Felsted said. " The Veterinary Hospital
Managers Association and the American Animal Hospital
Association have compensation guides, and both are useful.
" But the problem with both is that they might not be
very timely. Knowing what was paid a year ago might not be
enough to get the kind of people you want.
" Another difficulty is that these guides are not specific to
local areas. For that, you can consult the Bureau of Labor
Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook [https://bit.
ly/3HmUgub]. That information is very granular, including
information at the local level. "
The best thing, she said, is to get local data.
" Check with friends and colleagues about what they pay.
Contact technician or veterinary schools as they might have
new data. The biggest way to know if you're paying enough
is, can you hire and keep people? There might be other reasons
as well, but you have to consider pay. "
Doctor pay is a little easier to determine as their pay tends
to be based on production, Dr. Felsted said. But even there,
base salaries are getting higher.
" The comment you often hear from practice owners and
managers is 'We can't afford raises,' " she said. " You're going to
have to figure out a way to afford them or you won't hire and
keep any people. "
Yes, she acknowledges, raises can eat profits. But if you're
super busy, you can increase revenue and raise your profits.
" Do more marketing to bring in more clients, " she advised.
" Be more efficient, reduce your inefficiencies. It's a balancing act.
DECEMBER 2021
PULSE
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Pulse - December 2021

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