On Wednesday Feb. 1st, 2023, Eric Halpern, Chief Operating Officer, with Veterinary Resource Group, joined GeniusVets Co-Founder, David Hall, for a conversation about hiring veterinarians and technicians today. For anyone who missed it, or wants to see it again, the replay is now available here:
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Webinar Transcript Below
Hi everybody. Welcome to the GeniusVets Show for veterinary practice owners and industry pros. I'm your host and co-founder of GeniusVets David Hall. Today we're gonna be addressing one of the most pressing issues for virtually every single veterinary practice in the country. Staffing. Where are all the doctors? Where are the vet techs? Practice owners and managers across the country are searching far and wide for help to catch up with the booming demand for pet care, which was easily one of the most welcome side effects of the Coronavirus. But the fact is there's far more demand than there is supply when it comes to our beloved vets and vet techs. But I'm also here to tell you that there are doctors and techs out there looking for great places to work. And I know this because at GeniusVets, we have deep experience helping veterinary practices find the doctors and staff they've been searching for.
And today our guest on the GeniusVets Show may be the most experienced and qualified person in the country to talk about this right now. That's because this is exactly the problem that he solves for veterinary practices every single day through his company. Veterinary Resource Group is one of the nation's leading firms that veterinary practices retained to find and hire veterinarians and vet techs. They work with hundreds of veterinary practices across the US and Canada, and offer the industry's only lifetime candidate guarantee and a 90 day quick placement guarantee. Our guest today is Operations Director for Veterinary Resource Group Eric Calper. Eric Halpern is over 25 of years of experience in the recruitment industry with a focus on veterinary care. Over the last 10 years, Eric has introduced the veterinary world to traditional he healthcare recruitment, assisting hundreds of clinics and solving their most urgent need. The hiring of A D V M, Eric encompasses the world that he works within, living at home, not only with his wife, Rory and sons, Alex and Ethan, but extends his family through the parenting of get this five dogs, two potbelly pigs, two monkeys, kinkajou, and a red footed tortoise. Eric, I mean, you might wanna switch your title to zookeeper. That is a lot of animals you got there, my friend.
We live the, you know, 24/7 needing a vet every once in a while. So we live the vet world from vet tech to getting the nails done to find a good vet to having the vet, not have time and have to find another vet. So the struggle of finding vets is, you know, a lifelong, issue that we've seen. And, so I'm glad to be part of assisting in helping others be able to get a vet and have a, a good vet or a good vet tech at at any time.
You gotta find the exotics too, you know, the exotic vets. That's, that's an even a smaller needle in a haystack.
Most vets, I mean, they, they might see some exotic, but, I would say one outta 20 might be exotic focused, might be doing some, some aviary. We're not even talking the, the whole big animal side. You know, the big side is its own animal. It's interesting, to find, doctors that handle that. I mean, that is the, probably the toughest is the equine vets. I mean, cuz they have a five year, I would say, timeframe where it's just dangerous to be an equine vet. And that's, one of the areas that we try to find vets that wanna move from one side of the world of vet to another side of that's a little less, drama and a little, little safer.
Every single veterinary practice in the country, uh, is trying to hire right now. I mean, you know, I know this, I feel this, I speak at a lot of events. This is one thing everybody, you know, is very interested in. I think it's, it's one of the most, certainly the most engaging topics in veterinary care today. You know, as I say, I speak at a lot of veterinary events and one of the things is, you know, you're talking to a room of veterinarians who tend to be a bit introverted. You know, as a speaker you ask a, a question, you wanna engage the audience, you want a little bit of feedback. And say, you say something, you want people to raise their hands. Nobody, nobody's raises their hands. I mean, you can't like pay somebody to raise their hand, but if I ask, who's looking to hire a vet right now, boom. Every hand in the whole audience shoots up and like, every single time. So it certainly feels to me like demand is through the roof, everyone's hiring, but you're the here. What have you seen in the demand curve over the last few years, and what do you think are the factors that are driving it?
So, so first of all, I would say that, you know, nine outta 10 vets are used to the world of posting a job into classifieds and waiting for the phone to ring. And the days of the phone ringing, I would say are over for now, because the market is a temp to perm market where the vets that are out there, they want to get paid more and they wanna work less. So that inventory of doctors that might have applied to, you know, Billy's, uh, position in Omaha, Nebraska, doesn't have to, could go work two, three days a week and could make 1500, $2,000 a day. And I would say most practices probably haven't raised their prices. And if they have, they're not up to what needs to be to attract talent. And, uh, you know, as someone has pets, we're gonna pay what we need to pay. And, you know, they say inflation. We, we, we gotta pay more to have our pets treated, which you gotta do what you gotta do.
Yeah. That, that's a really interesting dynamic that you brought up about the, the temp market being a major factor of driving. You know, driving this, the psychology of, I wanna work less, I wanna work on my terms and I wanna make a lot more money. Uh, that's, that, that travel. I know in, in human healthcare, the travel nursing, uh, you know, has had a lot, has created a lot of that same pressure. So that's a very interesting dynamic.
Yeah, I mean, so I was gonna say, so, so resource group, we started on the human side. Let's address that. You mentioned resource group. That's on the human side.
So resource group, we started about 15 years ago as lead providers. So we used to provide all of the data to the hospitals, the recruitment companies of nurses to physicians of data that we'd collect from permanent physician jobs.com or permanent nursing jobs, or permanent rehab jobs, so forth. So we shifted gears as a company probably about five years ago and stopped selling data and started working for our clients directly. Okay. And we moved into the vet market, probably almost 10 years ago. And I would say the past couple of years we've seen the marketplace where the vets that most of our clients are in a smaller rural areas, and most of them, they can't afford to work with the relief companies. You know, and the typical doctor who might be working as a relief doctor himself, that's not really the relief ones that we're really concerned about because they're typically charging a fair amount to the practice where it could be six to $800, which is very fair.
I would say the typical practice is probably bringing in two to $4,000 a day. It's the companies, the relief companies where they're paying the doctor a thousand and then they're keeping seven, 800 for themselves and they're charging the practice, whatever, 17 to $2,000 a day. And most can't afford that. And, you know, and I would say most, most clinics and hospitals, most of 'em don't even know what a recruitment company is. You know, it's, uh, it's funny, we, we'll call in there. We, we make thousands of calls a day and most have never heard or worked with a recruitment company because it's, it's not, it's not typical. They're not a hospital, you know, that, uh, they're used to paying fees, because their typical HR person just puts ads in and just collects resumes.
You know, the vet office, they have an administrator, they have a vet tech, and they're all doing the same role picking up the phone, but no one's recruiting. The, they just post ads collect and pass 'em on. No one is calling into a practice to try to recruit someone. So it's, I would say it's good for us and the recruitment industry. We work for our clients directly. To give you a little background about, I mean, there's two sides of recruitment. There's contingent where contingent no one's really working for you. The client specifically, they might take on 20 to 30 clients in Atlanta, Georgia, and they find a veterinarian, and they'll send that veterinarian to all 20 practices, and whoever would pay them the highest fee, that's where they're gonna steer that doctor. And typically they'll get a 90 day guarantee period. So if the doctor, doctor left after 90 days, they're gonna pay another fee. So our company, we work for our clients directly, so we're a retain search firm. So our clients, they pay us half the fee upfront, right? So we work directly for you, our client, and we're only gonna work for you specifically. We're not gonna take on another client within a 30 mile radius. So when we send you a candidate, we're not sending a candidate to anyone else, uh, because you need us. And we're, I would say it's more of a partnership.
It's really unique because it re it removes that, that bias where, as you're saying, like the old model, and other, you know, other recruitment agencies, they take on multiple clients and they're just gonna funnel to whoever's paying 'em the most. Yes. And they come becomes a bidding war and all sorts of things like that. Starting to get in even into some ethical questions, you could say. Absolutely. You're only at working with, now when you say with, you know, only one client at a time, that's one active client at a time who's currently hiring.
So we'll take on, uh, it could be a wellness clinic in Atlanta, Georgia that there's no surgery and we'll take on another client in Atlanta, Georgia that is surgery. So there are two different types of clients. One is surgery, one is non-surgery, but we won't take on two surgery clients in a 30 mile radius. So we try to make sure that, you know, everything is, we're not, there's no competition. So we don't wanna have to have a doctor send to a, B, C and then whoever, that's not what we're about. We're about working for you and partnering for you, fill in your position and be able to use you as a reference and a referral down the road for us. I mean, that's our goal.
I already love what we're talking about, the real challenges and what's kind of driving this, you know, the costs going up and making some of these traditional, uh, paths that veterinary practices have used, become less and less and less affordable. Introducing kind of a new way, you know, to go about it. We haven't even addressed all the challenges yet. Let me ask you, what are some of the big ex biggest excuses that you're hearing from veterinary practices for why they're not, uh, able to attract doctors and staff on their own?
So, I mean, going on the, the typical mentality of a mom and pop practice, their thoughts are that doctors should want to come work at their practice because they've been around so long. They have a great, great reputation in the industry that unfortunately it shouldn't be about money. They really aren't up to speed of, you know, obviously it's getting the doctor to the door to interview, then all those facts of, you've been around for 25 years, you have great rapport inside that text. Everyone loves working there, but it's those things when a doctor is looking for a position, it's truly money motivated, unfortunately. So what we try to do is, before we take on a client, before we start our marketing campaign, our team does our, our type of marketing research where we need to find out what is the local competition.
What is, uh, what are the sign on bonuses? What are the bells and whistles that are being offered? So when we put your position together, when we post your position and we share with other doctors, it needs to be better than everything else that's out there. So we try to typically help most, uh, new grads coming outta school. They'll have a thousand dollars in student loans. So one of the things we suggest is half their student loans, you know, for the lifetime that they work for you.So if they work for you for 20 years, you know, that's the goal. You'll, you're gonna pay off maybe 200,000 in loans, you know? So I would say it's, it's the small bells and whistles, the retention bonus. There's doctors that they wanna offer, a bonus right on the start date, which I highly am against because unfortunately, they'll take the bonus and they'll go across the street and take another bonus. It's just the, the market is, we're, we're not, there's so many different layers of, you know, finding a vet and then you, you gotta worry about that still has to resign if they're working. Then we, we got counter offers.
Yeah. That's really interesting though. So you're, you know, you're talking about a real focus on the money.? And on the financial aspects of that as being a big lever, uh, to what's ma you know, in the decision making. But the truth is, I mean, every workplace satisfaction survey over the past nearly decade, you know, certainly over the past like eight years, rates, when, when, when people are asked, you know, what, how to rate, like, what's important to them and, and corresponds to workplace satisfaction, money is typically like number five on the list. It's not at the top. The number one thing that, uh, consistently hits the top of the list is whether people feel like they are well aligned with the mission, with the values, with the culture, of that business where they're working. You know, and, and, and I know at GeniusVets, we put our entire focus and we're with a lot of practices really successfully on focusing first.
If they're not able to attract people, we, we really encourage them to focus on, on the values and the culture that they've created in their practice. And secondly, their expression of that to the outside world. You know, because that's really the huge differentiator. It's like, you can go around to these corporate places. You've got a lot of these big, big corporate places. They're doing the, you know, $200,000 signing bonus. They're paying a lot of money and this and that. Wwe have clients who've gone through and built a great culture in their practice, and they do have have doctors who get swiped by corporate who's, who comes in offering these huge bonuses, but the majority of the time, they, these guys end up coming back. We have all these stories of doctors going in, techs going somewhere else, and then coming back just a few months later saying, I'm sorry. I'll work for whatever you guys wanted to pay me because I love it here. And that place was horrible. That is not run well. It is a, it is a caddy culture. There's infighting. It's just, it's not aligned. And I don't get a practice medicine the way that I want to practice medicine. That's a massive, massive differentiator.
Especially the new grads. They, they gotta pay their bills. Right now, the, the, the 10 year to 20 year type person who's been into industry, they've made their money already. So they have a different set of specifications. Yeah. It's not really money motivated now it's about practice way of life.They probably have no student loans anymore.
Yeah. They're just, they're just smarter. They're more experienced than stuff. But unfortunately, it's like the, the, the terrible thing for the industry is that there are grads that are coming out of vet school five years later. They're not veterinarians, because they found that they didn't like actually working in the industry because they went to work for some place that didn't allow them to practice the way they wanted to practice. It didn't have the culture that they were expecting. It didn't meet their expectations and hopes and dreams coming out of it. So they decided, this isn't for me and flushing out of the industry. And that's appening at, at, frankly, at an alarming rate. That's a massive problem. And that's why this, you know, uh, focusing on creating a place where people really, really want to work, it does help attract, but it also helps people stay and have the lifestyle they got into this for, you know, incredibly, incredibly important.
I, I totally agree with you. I mean, there are so many vets that are retiring. They are one practice. It's just them and five vet techs, and they were doing themselves over a million dollars plus a year. And they either sell their practice to corporate and they're just taking over and they're finding it. But most, you know, I would say folks that wanna buy a practice, they need a doctor there. So those doctors that are retiring, they need to find a doctor to be at the practice to sell the practice.
Yeah. Oh, so many practices. So many doctors, especially over consolidation, is really kind of cooling down because of what's happening. Everything from interest rates to private equity companies, you know, going, Hey, we're not sure where this is all headed. We're quite wealthy. We don't actually have to deploy our money so we can sit on the sidelines for a little while and let things cool off. S it's not going, uh, hot and heavy the way consolidation was over the past couple of years. It's still, it's still out there, it's still going on. But, it's really cooled off a lot. But still so many practices, they come to us and they're like, they're, they have a goal. They wanna sell their practice. They're a single doctor practice. They wanna sell. You can't really sell a single doctor practice. It's gonna work there. You gotta get to, you gotta get two doctors, you gotta get a third doctor.
And now it becomes something that somebody goes, okay, here's a going concern that we can buy this. You're gonna go off into the sunset, and we still have a place that's up and running here. You know? So it's, it's incredibly important. We also though we have, I mean, a lot of the people we talk to, they, they, they're, they're talking about it. They can't compete with corporate bonuses. These are the excuses that I hear all the time. Can't compete with corporate bonuses. No one wants to work anymore, which you kind of addressed. You know, they're dealing with the scheduling idealism versus like, the reality of, of this is a hospital and it's busy, and you're, you actually have to be here when people need you. We're not in a desirable location. Everybody's moving, you know, to the cities or the coast or the whatever, and they don't want to, you know, be in this rural place. I mean, do you think that these excuses are so legitimate that they can't be overcome?
They are all excuses. I mean, there's a buyer for everything. You know, locations, you know, the more rural location you would expect that they need to pay a little bit more, offer something, you know, because if it's rural, they still have clients that have to pay the money. So if they're rural, they need to be maybe charging a little bit more because there's no other choices, so they could pay the doctor more. We're, we're finding, you know, one of the, I would say the most untouched areas for recruitment is finding, veterinarians from Canada. So that's a market that we, I would say we place about 50 plus vets a year that come from Canada, because the tax rate in, in Canada, they're paying almost 50% in taxes, which is just, you know, I'm sure they get free insurance.
But still 50%, you know, so they'll come work in the States for a few years, make, you know, a nice bit of money, and then go back to Canada. You know? So that's just one of the areas that we find that those type of vets are open to going almost anywhere. There's a lot of vets that are from Mexico, from other countries that have to take, you know, certain certifications in the States. So those ones are open to going almost anywhere, you know, but it, it still comes down to, you know, it's, it's not just posting a position. It's a, if, if a vet practice isn't proactive, no one's gonna knock on the door.
I mean, I think one of the biggest things I truly believe, I mean, and I, and I know this to be true, it's not just my belief. I know this to be true because, for instance, my partner, Dr. Drake, at the Drake Center, they have no problem attracting doctors and staff. They've got a drawer full of candidates that are waiting in line to work there. And if they have a position open up, if someone needs to leave for whatever reason, uh, I think the only reason people ever leave there is some sort of a, of a life change or moving or something like that. Spouse got a different job in a different place or something. They've had, you know, that sort of thing. But they've just got, uh, kind of a significant supply of people that are, that are ready to, to, to work there.
A lot of our clients, uh, have gone from not being able to attract doctors and staff to having that same sort of plethora, uh, uh, ability to attract. And so, I believe the biggest difference maker in the recruitment process truly is understanding the process that a prospective candidate will go through, an evaluating a veterinary practice, and even determining whether or not they would wanna work there. Comparing practices to each other before ever reaching out or filling out an application. I'd, I'd really like to take a couple minutes to talk about that step-by-step process that a doctor or vet tech will go through when they're looking for a new place for work. So, like, what's the first thing that they do if they're going to evaluate, you know, oh, here's a place that's hiring. Guess what? Everywhere's hiring. But they find a job, they find an opening.
First thing that they're gonna do, if they're looking for open positions, they're gonna go to Google, they're going to indeed, they're going to veterinary job boards. Mm-hmm. , uh, like the one at, at GeniusVets or the AVMA, they're looking through job hosts. They're gonna go to the website of a veterinary practice, and that they think might sound interesting. They're gonna look at their social profiles, Instagram, Facebook, they're gonna look up their reviews, then they're gonna go back to the website. They're gonna, and, and decide, is this a place that I would consider, you know, working at? Now what you're talking about as far as the offer, the money that's on the table and those sort of things, when they come across a job post, yeah. They're looking at that. That's really, there's not a lot of differentiation that you can get in a black and white job, post words on the page, you know, like, Hey, this is what we're offering, this is what we're offering.
So it's, you know, there you have very little that you can differentiate and that you can create as a comparative analysis. So if they're gonna take any one of them seriously, and likely because you gotta to jump off a page because you crafted that well, and you made it sound interesting, and there's some differentiation there, but then before they ever reach out, they're gonna go and they're gonna look at that stuff. It's kind of like, you know, I don't know if a veterinary practice, uh, what it's actually like on the inside. They, none of these candidates know the people. They don't know what the culture's like, they don't know what those people are actually like at all. All they did is they read this black and white job post. It's like, me as a, as a consumer, I don't know if the, you know, radiology equipment at this veterinary practice is like the latest, greatest thing that's ever happened.
Or if it was, you know, built in the sixties, and is Warren in back there probably gonna give my cat cancer? I don't know what's going on, you know, back there. All I know is, you know, what it looked like in the facade, and that's all I can make my decision if I wanna choose this place or that. And candidates are going through the same thing, they can only make that decision. And so much of that is one or lost based on these front end factors. You know, I'm sure that you've got, you've got, you know, uh, uh, you know, have this, this issue where you've got places where it's a, it's a, it's a great ownership, it's a great team. They're willing to make a great offer, but you can't actually get people to go there and really show interest and, and why?
What I would say is information is everything. So you, Mr. Veterinarian has responded to a job opportunity in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.For one of our clients. We know that you have three to four other offers already. Yep. We know that maybe you've accepted maybe an offer and you're trying to better yourself. We know that maybe you haven't even resigned yet. So maybe you're looking to go back to your president employer and get more money. We certainly set them up in that conversation. So it's our job almost like a sports agent. So when we send you our client, the veterinarian to interview, we're gonna let you know that, hey, Dr. Smith has interviewed here, here, here. Here's are all the offers. This is what they're looking for. Because if Dr. Smith just sent you the resume, you're gonna talk about all of the, the benefits of working at your practice. They're gonna come into interview and no one's gonna talk about money. They're gonna leave their work.
That's not what has you happy on an ongoing basis is the dollars that hit your account, like the dollars hit your account. And they are what they are. I mean, veterinarians are not very money motivated people. I can tell you a fact. For instance, as a, as a guy in marketing and agency owner, I can go to a dentist and I can say it, I can show you how to make an extra $500,000 this year. And, you know, the reaction of a dentist is clear my schedule, this is an important meeting, and I have to talk about this right now. If I go tell a veterinarian, I can show you how to make an extra $500,000 a practice owner. I show you how to make an extra $500,000 this year. Their more, their reaction is more like, I have to go take a shower because I feel dirty.
You know, even having that kind of conversation, like, they're not in it for the money. They're in it, the money is there. Like, don't get me wrong, they're doctors and they do, and they do fine, they do well, but they're in it for the passion. They could have made a lot more money as a dentist or as a plastic surgeon. They're very true. You know, they're in it for, for the love and what's gonna determine whether each day they feel fulfilled and they love it, and how happy they are in their life is, is so much about their work environment. I mean, that is the ultimate sell right there.
We're telling the doctor who's gonna hire the veterinarian of what offers that they've already have. Yeah. So they know what to put on the table. So they put the strongest offer on a table. So now Dr. Smith sees that this is the best offer. They didn't try to put a low offer on the table. Dr. Smith wanted to send you the best message. They've interviewed a lot of people. So they're able to see that all the offers that Dr. Uh, candidate had, uh, had already received. So this way, now they have a great offer, and they were able to steer them where a and b, they didn't present you a good offer. Yeah. Your current employer, you're gonna go back there. Where was this money before? Now all of a sudden, they're gonna give it to you. So it has no, it has no merit, you know? So it's our job to pre-close that candidate at that interview with that doctor, rather than letting them go home. They need to make an offer and get an acceptance immediately. Understand urgency. I mean, that's the key to everything is urgency.
Urgency. Absolutely. And connecting is people, I mean, people make emotional decisions. You know, people make decisions, number one, emotion emotionally. And number two, they back it up with logic. That's why you can't argue somebody logically, somebody can have a wrong position that is factually wrong, and you can show them facts about why their position is wrong and they don't change their mind because people rarely change an emotional decision. They make emotional decisions and they back 'em up with logic. And so, if they really are there, because if they make a decision because they feel right about it, their gut tells 'em, this is where I feel like I should be. This is what I connect with. This is what I'm looking for. That is far more powerful than any logical argument that it could ever be made. Don't get me wrong. You're not gonna, you're not gonna go take half the pay for some place other than another place, you know? Uh, it doesn't matter how, how good you feel about it. But if it's coming down, if it's coming close, how do people, and I probably a lot of the offers are fairly close. What is it that pushes them over that, that connection with the people that were there.
That is definitely the deciding factor. I would say that most doctors, they don't realize the value that they have of earning potential. So we, we had, quick story. We have a wellness clinic in New Hampshire, Atwell Clinic, and this doctor, she just relocated from Oregon, was working for Banfield, big corporate company. She was only getting paid $90,000, 90,000 with a potential for another 15,000 in bonus. It's pretty expensive to live in Portland, Oregon. Yeah. So they were able to put something together where I believe she wound up with a total comp of, of almost like one 40, you know, so it was, she was already living in New Hampshire, so it was a wow where, hey, we couldn't get you the hundred and 10, but we were able to get you this. So it just made things cuz they could, they could interview forever. It's just wowing them along with, Hey, this is where I want to be.
But now financially they feel really good because they don't want to ask for the money. It's like vacation. No one takes a week vacation because they're, they just, they feel too guilty. Most doctors, they don't take vacations. Yeah. They roll over. I have one practice that they actually pay the doctors to go on vacation for two weeks. They shut down and they hire relief. So the doctors could all go on vacation and they almost make it like a, like a sales contest, which is a great thing to do where it's a force vacation for the doctors. They get refreshed them, they come back and they look forward to next year where the vacation might be.
Yeah. You got, I mean, that you just gotta do those things, man. You gotta, you gotta refresh and recharge. Not doing those things. I, that's the stuff that leads to the burnout that leads to the extreme fatigue, you know, that, that leads to some of the mental health problems that plague the profession is, you know, just this feeling. There's, there's always the fires to put out. There's always the animals that need help and that they feel bad going like, whoa, oh, you know, I'm gonna go to go take a vacation down to Port of Vallarta. Meanwhile, my, my, you know, my clients, these pets that I know and I love, they're here and they need help. They got an accident and they need my help. And so they show up and they show up and they show up. I, I, I totally, I think every practice should have that, that type of a policy forcing the vacations, you've gotta take your time off. There's a balance there, you know, between the like, oh, I don't think wanna work three days a week and the No, I'm here when I'm here. I'm totally here and I'm gonna work my tail off and I'm gonna do all this stuff and take care of everybody. But you also still have to have to go recharge. You have to get away and you have to. So you don't now take care of yourself.
Those are important policies. I mean, I can, I can already hear in some of the stories you're telling, you know, the experience that you have in working with practices and helping them position themselves in their negotiation, you know, and be able to, to, to win. The candidates in the, in this market, we're gonna do everything. I mean, w I had to help a, vet that we just found a position for in British Columbia. We gonna assist in funding a babysitter. So, so we wind up posting and trying to assist with, we wind up doing a little bit of what whatever we need to do to try to assist in a higher happening. You know, we're, we're here to do everything we can to make the process run smooth.
So that's what I'm talking about is the intangibles. It's those extra little cherry on top. It's the things that are the real differentiators because everybody's out there offering a lot of the, a lot of similar things. When you can figure out what those are and you figure out what that person really wants and what they really connect with in their life, I mean, now you can, can show them a path to this is the life that you wanna live and this is where you can do it. You know, that's what this place is all about. And that, that all ultimately that's what wins people over, you know? But for practices out there, I mean, for these practices, they're out there that are trying to do it on their own and they're being unsuccessful. It's, I mean, it's crazy to me that anybody, they don't have the be working with you. That's the thing. It's, is so time intensive.
It is 24 7. I mean, we, we have a call center. We work with all the schools across the country. We'll offer them scholarships to put towards their program if they share an alumni or a new grad with us. So we try to do anything and everything because you just don't know where. I always say to my clients, we're, we're zeroes before, we're heroes. We're, you know, until that doctor accepts, until that doctor finally starts, what have you done for me? Yeah. You know, and that's, uh, kind of the, the modeling. Yeah.
Seriously. E even if it goes smoothly, it just takes so much time to find the right candidates. I mean, and it can be even more costly if you hire the wrong candidate and if you have to replace them, you know, that's, I mean, that's really tough as well. So, you know, making sure that the match isn't just good on, on one side. It's not just, you know, finding any peg for the hole. You gotta find the round peg for the round hole, the square peg for the square one, and there's round and square, you know, pigs out there.
Doesn't matter how good you interview. You never know what's gonna happen. You know, with life, with, you know, the future, you know, someone interviewed great and six months later, you know, this person's not the same person. That's where our lifetime guarantee comes in, where we'll replace that person for you. You know, we give you that option at no additional cost. So that's really the separate of what we offer is no one else offers a lifetime guarantee. So it's same thing of going to Best Buy and buying a TV and you get a warranty and TV breaks in two years and you come back, Hey, gimme a new tv, you got a warranty, and they give you a new TV and you're happy. Yeah. So we, we give our, our clients the same opportunity. I mean, our typical turnaround time, I would say is 30 to 90 days.
That's about our process. But at the end of the day, there is no crystal ball. No one could ever guarantee you that you're gonna have it done in 30 days. You're gonna have it done in six months. There, there's no way to ever tell someone. We try to be as transparent as possible. Just we know based on what we do, this is kind of what had happened. But you as a client, maybe you're not gonna take it as urgent. You know, maybe you're gonna wait and not interview as quickly as possible. Maybe you're gonna be too picky.
There, I mean, there's a lot of factors out there, but the way that you have your guarantee structures, you know, uh, your, your guarantees structured, uh, I think is, is is really incredible. Let, let me ask you a couple of things. Like, so I, I'm, I know that you, you kind of represent both parties. I mean, you've gotta, you're constantly searching for a pool of veterinarians who are looking for somewhere to go because you Absolutely. You, you know, and you're, and you're constantly, you know, building your, your pool of veterinary practices that have open positions that are looking for account. Absolutely. How many veterinary practices across the country are you pro Are you working with right now? Somewhere in there? We're working somewhere between 102 hundred.
I would say, you know, in our database we probably have, I would say almost every vet vet tech in the country in our database. So sending out an email to these folks, that's the easiest thing. Most of them don't respond cuz they don't need to, you know? It's, it truly comes down to phone calls, right. Referrals, you know, because timing is everything. Yeah. I call you today, you're not interested, but three weeks from now, you know what? They don't wanna hire anyone and you left and now you're looking.
Call to What about, what about, I mean, so, so, yeah, so you're not really sure cuz everybody's kind of, a lot of these people might, they might be at a place they're not actively necessarily looking, but, but maybe they're not, maybe they're not really truly happy. Maybe they're not really filling it for some reason. So, so they're, they're, they're not announcing it, they're not going and, and signing up for something, but they're, they're keeping their options open. They're looking their ear to the ground finger on the phone.
We have candidates to come to permanent veterinary jobs.com every day. Looking for a position. Yeah. And we don't have jobs in every city. Marketing will then send out emails to all of the, uh, practices in Boston and we'll get calls back to see Yes, tell me more about this candidate. And then it's explained to him how we work. So yeah, we, we'd love to work with as many practices and help as many vets as possible.
I mean, that's really the amazing thing though. The, the fact that a veterinary practice can come to you, can go through, you know, kind of your process to work on their offer, to work on how they're presenting themselves, to work on all those different things and then put an offer in pulse it out there to every veterinarian and vet tech out there in the country. That is, I mean, that's what they're, that's what they can't do. They don't have a database like that. They don't have the ability to get out in front of people and they can come to you and they can get their offer out there and they can go fishing in the big old pond that is veterinary resource group.
They won't even call their practice across the street.
Unless the doctor calls them there, there, there is no, you know, going on to LinkedIn, sending messages, just little things that most practice owners, they don't want to duplicate. They don't wanna muddy the waters where I don't want someone to, to take my vet. So I'm not gonna call another practice to try to recruit someone. So that's our job. And we look more for referrals, you know, so we'll call into practices to look to see if they have an opening and if they know of an opening and maybe they're gonna refer themselves, Hey, this sounds like a good job for me. And if it's a practice owner and they said, Hey, I know that, you know, Dr. Smith down the road needs a vet tech, we'll offer their practice a credit towards a future hire. So we try to do whatever we can to, you know, no one does anything for free anymore, unfortunately. So we try to do whatever we can to facilitate helping someone in the future use our services.
So tell me about the, the 90 day guarantee. Let's say, uh, let's say I own a veterinary practice. I hire you. How does a 90 day guarantee work?
So 90 day guarantee works. Basically, as long as we present you a candidate within the first 90 days, there won't be a discount. If we send you a candidate at day 91, we're gonna reduce our placement fee by 25%. Okay. So we try to make it as simple as possible cuz we can send you a candidate tomorrow and it will take you five months to hire the candidate. We're not gonna reduce anything, but it's more of us sending a candidate cuz we need to be held accountable to fill your position quickly. Because you don't wanna have to spend the money on relief. You don't want to have to overwork other folks because you start overworking now instead of one opening, you have two openings. Yeah. So timing is everything, you know, so it's just, uh, really partnering together, you know, our company and our client's company and coming together, you know, with a solution and working together and changing as it goes, you know, and, you know, making things right. Do whatever we can.
So let's say, let's say you get someone hired and after a few months it becomes apparent that it's, it's just not a good fit. You know, it's just not working out. Then what?
Basically, I mean, you're gonna keep that person or you're gonna fire that person. But whatever you decide that hey, it's not a good fit. As soon as you let us know that, hey, Dr. Smith is no longer here, we're gonna find you a replacement. You know, obviously we want that. Maybe we need to talk to Dr. Smith. What's going on? And hopefully you've had conversations and you've let us know. Cuz we try to keep in touch with the candidate as the process goes on. Even after they're hired, we need to hold their hand to see what's going on. Because sometimes it's just a little office drama.
But, but so, so absolutely. So you, you, you're gonna get in and you're gonna try and, uh, you know, explore mediation. See if there's a miscommunication. Something simple. Yep. Cause a lot of times that's all it is. We don't.
Want anyone to leave. We don't want anyone to leave.
You don't, of course you don't want anyone to leave. And again, that just gets back in the whole hiring prize. But let's say there's a total breakdown. The person who was hired ended up not working out. It just wasn't a good fit. They moved on for whatever reason, you have that replacement guarantee. So that means that you're going to go in and get another candidate and work with them to get that No additional, no additional cost. It's pretty simple, it's a warranty.
Yeah. Every practice in the country should just be, be working with you. You got some great stories about, you know, how you've helped practices overcome what they thought was, was impossible, and meet this need. I mean, Eric, this is, this has been great man. Thank you so much for, for joining the program today. I appreciate it.
You know, helping us, helping us get a little little perspective on, on how you've been successful, at placing, you know, these candidates. I think it's been enlightening, super helpful. I'm sure so many practice owners and managers that are in our audience are curious. Uh, I'm sure many of them are gonna reach out, uh, and wanna work with you, get introduced that perfect for candidate they've been searching for.
I appreciate your time and we will be at the V M X conference as, uh, you'll be, uh, I'm guessing, uh, in some fashion.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, I tell you what, here's what we're gonna do right now for, for anybody who's been listening to this, you should have already, you'll have already seen in chat, we've been posting in chat, you know, throughout, that if you're interested in, in signing up and exploring, uh, veterinary Resource group, in, you know, casting your line and their pool of candidates and seeing if Eric and his team can help you find the veterinarian or vet tech that you've been looking for, uh, you're gonna click on that link, you know, it's been posted there in chat. Uh, just go ahead and click on that link and, uh, it's gonna take you to a form. Uh, you can go ahead and submit your information that doesn't obligate you to anything. You go have a conversation, have a conversation for yourself, tell, go tell Eric what you've been doing cuz I guarantee that he's gonna be able to deduce and, and find ways to improve the offer that you've been putting out there, the way you've been positioning yourself.
Just help you really refine that. And if you have the perfect offer, maybe you just haven't casted into the right pond yet and they got a big old pond at Veterinary resource group. So, go ahead and click on that link, fill out that form and you know, here at GeniusVets we'd love to talk with you as well. Just take a look at some of those, those evaluation points. You know, uh, cuz in the end you could get in front of, of all of the perfect candidates that are out there. But if the way that they are gonna look at you and evaluate you, cuz they're gonna look at your website, they're gonna look at your social, they're gonna look at your reviews before they ever reach out. And if you can't pass the I test from those things, they're not gonna reach out or they're not gonna be as excited when they do.
So let's make sure that you got the right stuff in place off your free consultation, to take a look. And, you know, that doesn't mean you have to work with us totally. You, we can give you advice on how you can fix up your presence and what you can do, so that you can kind of really make sure that, uh, you know, when you do get connected with someone when they take a look at you, that they're gonna be impressed that you're gonna go to the top of their list and they're gonna come to an interview situation already expecting the best already to find exactly what they're looking for. Hey, thanks so much for tuning in everybody. It's been fantastic. So like I said, click on that, click on that link, check it out for yourself. And, uh, hey, we hope to have you tune in next week. We got, uh, awesome guests every week of the year. We're bringing some of the best resources, not all resources in the veterinary industry, only the best resources in the veterinary industry tackling the issues that veterinary practice owners and managers are dealing with today. We want to help you put out those fires, help you run your practice, like, just like a dream. Just like the dream it should be. So thanks so much for joining the GeniusVets Show. We'll see you next time.
