Specialist Headhunters
01423 861727
The Role
TAKING A LEAP INTO LEADERSHIP
We tend to find vets reach a certain point in their career where they start to feel like they want to have more of a voice; the ability to bring forward suggestions and ideas, to make positive change and really make a difference to the lives of pets, their owners, and your team. Many vets are craving more of a sense of purpose about their roles and would like to contribute more to the success of a practice and be influential to its ongoing growth. You begin to develop this “itch that can’t be scratched” by clinical work alone, and we know much of what vets are searching for can be achieved by taking on a leadership position.
A number of vets we have spoken to over the years have had a passing thought about a leadership position but find themselves quickly ruling it out because they feel they are not ready, or don’t have enough experience in certain areas, or because there’s certain aspects of the traditional Lead Vet / Clinical Director role that really don’t appeal. The practice owners know that people thrive when they can do more of what they love and so are more flexible in the responsibilities of the role to ensure it plays the strengths of the individual.
Taking on a Lead Veterinary Surgeon position at any point in your career brings new experiences and new exciting challenges and people often find this reignites some passion for their career, it provides renewed energy and a new perspective to work from. Taking on a leadership role can help you realise confidence and independence that you perhaps didn’t know you had. And, whatever your future career path, you learn such valuable skills from a clinical, managerial and commercial point of view to take with you into the future, whether you own your own practice further down the line or not.
There are 2 branches owned by the same partners, and they'd like to take on a Lead Vet at one of them. The practice is 9 years old but still has so much potential in terms of growth and development, and so as the Lead Vet you would oversee the day to day running of the practice, with autonomy of your vet responsibilities, being a point of contact for questions and queries from colleagues and clients, as well as spotting areas for improvement such as protocols, improving clinical standards, work flows and efficiencies. In addition to being a clinical lead, if you have an interest in management and the business side of things, this interest would be welcomed and nurtured too. In fact, the practice owners are open to someone joining the business partnership in the not so distant future.
EXCEPTIONAL WORK LIFE HARMONY
- Monday to Friday 9am - 6pm (there is potential for flexibility on those hours).
- Currently the practice is closed on weekends, so no weekend work is required.
- Last appointment 40 mins before closing to ensure you leave on time.
- No OOH (referred to a hospital practice).
SALARY
- Salary depends entirely on skills and experience. They pay competitively and are willing to invest in finding the right person for their team.
- 5.5 weeks holiday
- An extra day off on your birthday
Key Points
Work-Life Harmony
Monday to Friday, 9am - 6pm
No weekends!
Last appointment 40 mins before closing to ensure you leave on time.
20 minute consultations to provide a nice flow to the day.
Communication & Feedback
Frequent clinical and personal 1:1s.
Practice meetings every week.
The whole team are involved in practice decisions.
Practice owners show appreciation to their team and recognise their hard work.
Support
Support should never be squeezed into the edges. Here the vets have structured, organised, and hands on training and mentoring, whatever their level of experience.
The Practice
The team’s values are compassion, support, respect, integrity, reflection, improvement and fun. These values are demonstrated in all areas of the practice – within the team, towards the clients, and towards the patients.
Working for a practice that is clear on the values means those values will be demonstrated in everything they do. “How someone does anything is how they do everything” is a quote that comes to mind here. Being clear on the practice’s values means that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, everyone knows the standards of clinical and customer care that is being delivered. There won’t be space for anyone who doesn’t align with the mission of the team, and this creates coherence and unity. On an individual level, it helps you to feel like you’re playing a key part in making a difference to the lives of clients and their pets. It feels like you’re part of the journey of the practice and creates a sense of contribution and purpose about your role.
Their mission is to become the number one choice for first opinion veterinary care in the area. they achieve this by offering a financially appropriate level of care for their clients and providing a good service for the patients. Virtually all of their appointments are 20 minutes, and constantly adjust what they do to make veterinary care more accessible to clients. They are not afraid to move with the times and try new things to find what works.
They strive to improve through continuous education and sharing of knowledge. All of the team will discuss cases, no matter what role they are in, whether it’s the Client Care Assistants asking about cases and wanting to learn more, or the vets asking other vets for their opinion on things, everyone is interested in what’s going on and interested in furthering their knowledge and learning through each other. No question is a stupid question in this practice.
They have a strong passion for inspiring the next generation of veterinary professionals. They do school visits and have work experience students with them pretty consistently throughout the year, as well as EMS students.
They are also driven by working as a supportive team to achieve their common goal in a fun and uplifting environment. Quite often they’ll have music playing through the back, and people will enjoy a little sing song together, or have a dance around the prep room. They also make time to have lunch together, especially if they’ve had a tough morning, they are not afraid to take themselves away from situations and sit down and just have a chit chat. Outside of work, they’ve recently started doing quiz nights again, which was put on hold due to covid. It can be a serious environment that you work in, so they believe in having a bit of fun and light-heartedness whilst remaining professional and completing the work at the same time.
LEADERSHIP
Flexibility
The partners make a big effort in terms of colleague job satisfaction and wellbeing. This includes discussing and making adjustments to people's contracts to make their career work for them and achieve a great work life harmony. Some have chosen to increase their holiday allowance because they love travelling. Another team member has reduced their hours during the week, adjusted their weekend rota slightly and increased their CPD budget to ensure they have space to study for their certificate. They want their team to feel empowered to make choices and create a balance that is right for them.
Feedback
Separate clinical and personal 1:1s are done frequently for the whole team.
The whole team across both practices come together every Friday morning for a practice meeting.
Regular (quality) communication in a practice solves 99% of problems people experience. You will feel seen and heard as an employee when you have space to talk about your clinical work and more personal issues. Any issues you're experiencing won’t linger and build into something bigger; you can deal with them sooner and focus on what really matters.
Positivity
They encourage a positive attitude throughout the whole team and pay special attention to the little things to brighten up people’s days. They have many special ways they do this, including their "Good Things of the Day" board.
Feeling Valued and Appreciated
The practice owners consistently show appreciation to their team and notice their hard work and contributions. They say, “thank you”, and they listen and take people’s concerns seriously. There’s no hierarchy here, the whole team are involved in decision making. The partners will put their ideas out to the team and invite both feedback and criticism. There’s no cliques. The whole team are involved in every aspect of the practice.
Support
The practice owners are passionate about helping people to develop which is reflected in the effort they make to visit schools and have work experience and EMS students in the practice throughout the year. They are equally as dedicated to helping their own team develop and will spend the time needed to help someone move forward.
The Team
There is a 5 vet team across 2 practices but they are in constant communication and always supporting each other. Both practices are busy, but the team are generally quite laid back and it means it isn’t an intense place to work. It’s a young and enthusiastic team full of likeminded people, which is great from a clinical point of view because they have similar thinking on things.
Working with a like minded team means you’ll be on the same page when it comes to clinical standards and approaches to cases. It also means that everyone will be more open minded to new ideas and innovations, and flexible and adaptable in their thinking and actions, rather than being set in their ways.
The vets have 8, 8, 4, 2.5, and 1 years' experience with interests and certificates in surgery, imaging, and behaviour.
Their nursing team is pretty solid and stable which is testament to how well taken care of they are. The nurses earn a good salary, they have ownership over their hours, and they get a lot of job satisfaction from their roles because they are trusted with responsibility and get to do a lot of consulting and procedures in the practice.
The majority of nurses here have been trained by the practice and have grown into their roles. The last time they recruited to replace a nurse was 4 years ago!