Practice success: the challenge of recruiting and retaining technicians.

Much attention has been paid lately to the tight labor market for veterinary associates and even tighter market for associates willing to purchase practices. Often overlooked, but just as critical to the success of any practice and its attractiveness as a potential target for purchase, are the qualifications, continuity, and longevity of the staff, and the market for those individuals. Practices that excel need performance, service, and commitment from their staff. Practitioners will recognize that one of the individuals whom they depend on most is their registered veterinary technician (RVT), or veterinary technician (VT). These individuals play multiple roles in supporting both the clinical and patient care activities of the practice, as well as in client service, marketing, and facility and inventory maintenance. Today's market for RVTs and challenges for newly graduated technicians are similar to those facing new veterinary graduates: limited numbers of spaces in schools; a wide open job market in many areas where the number of available employment positions exceeds the number of individuals available to fill them; high debt loads, when compared with starting wages; an expanding wealth of knowledge; more sophisticated equipment; demanding clients; and the need to work as part of a team. Practice owners and managers often face the same challenges in recruiting and retaining RVTs as they do in recruiting and retaining associate veterinarians. So what are the keys to recruiting and retaining standout technicians in a competitive market? Employee candidates can come from either a pool of currently employed technicians or new graduates. Many student technicians will have obtained jobs prior to graduation; therefore, direct recruiting at the school level or even prior to graduation by offering summer or co-op positions helps to expose the candidates to your practice. Guest lectures or interviews held at the school reduce the need for the graduate to travel, so that convenience may stimulate greater interest. According to Dr. Irene Moore, Program Coordinator at Ridgetown College in Ontario, the average graduate carries a debt load of more than $20,000 and often has to relocate close to home for financial reasons alone. Relocation assistance packages, through either financial provisions or home locater services, can help to ease the cost of relocating and attract interested technicians. Direct advertising in provincial or local newsletters, in journals, and at conferences is traditional, but effective, as long as the advertisements are through a channel or in advertising media directed to the technician, not the veterinarian. Networking and informal communications often lead to the movement of experienced technicians from one location to another. Other employees in your practice, sometimes with an attached incentive to refer another prospective employee, can prove a valuable source, as can industry representatives who visit your practice. While recruitment strategies are important to attract the right individual for your practice, retention strategies are critical to providing stability and continuity. While 90% of RVT graduates head into private practice following graduation, only 50% of them are still in private practice 5 years after graduation (Kim Hilborn, Ontario Association Veterinary Technicians, personal communication). In 2002, the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians and the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association will embark on a study to determine why technicians are leaving private practice employment in such high numbers. Regardless, there are some suggested and proven general strategies towards improving retention: Offer a competitive salary and benefits. Over 70% of RVTs in Canada earn between $21 000 and $30 000 annually (Dr. Irene Moore, personal communication). Staying competitive in retaining technicians means staying competitive with the marketplace wage in your area. To protect profit margins, many practice owners are turning to incentive or bonus programs that are based on the achievement of specific revenue or cost control goals over which technicians or other support staff members have some control. Benefits that interest technicians are not significantly different from those that interest veterinary associates, including opportunities for continuing education; payment of association fees; veterinary care for their animals; travel allowances, if multiple facilities are involved; sick time; uniform allowances; flex-time scheduling; and health and insurance plans, if available. Include your technicians in discussions and value their abilities. Technicians feel that they are part of the healthcare delivery team, that they are not simply veterinary assistants, and that every effort should be made to have them accessible to clients and to visibly credit them for contributing to the patient's care. Supporting this suggestion is the premise that, within allowable provincial Veterinarian's Act regulations, technicians will be given responsibility and authority over patient care and specific areas of the hospital operation, including such areas as staff training, inventory management, client follow-ups, etc. Allow your technicians the opportunity to grow. Delegation is an important aspect of survival for practice owners or managers when they are seeking some relief from their multitude of responsibilities, and an important aspect of intrinsic satisfaction and motivation for employees. Progres- sive or increasing delegation becomes important for retention, as simply performing the same clinical tasks or saying and doing the same thing repeatedly loses it luster after a while. Technicians should be challenged and their responsibilities increased and, or, rotated periodically. Among the specialty roles that they can adopt are developing expertise in new and emerging services and clinical areas, or moving into areas involving practice and staff management. Advanced training and certification are available in areas such as emergency and critical care to provide technicians with a forum to refine their skills. Practitioners rely on their technical staff to make the practice of veterinary medicine easier to deliver and more effective. Given the nature of today's labor market for technicians, they are an asset worth protecting through creative and tailored recruitment and retention strategies.

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