By Brenda Tassava Medina, CVPM, CVJ, MVLCE

“You’re looking for 5-star employees, yet you’re still paying for basic economy. If you want first class teams, then it’s time to upgrade your pay rates and change everyone’s expectations.”

What Matters to Employees?

What matters most to employees in the U.S.? We’ve seen all kinds of studies, most of them providing very similar data. Take Glassdoor’s 2019 economic research. It closely mirrors the annual Gallup poll specific to employee workplace satisfaction, in terms of results.

When asked what matters most to employees, respondents led with culture and values (22%), followed by senior leadership (21%), and career opportunities (19%) as the top three responses. Compensation and benefits doesn’t come up in the rankings until #6, after business outlook at #4, and work-life balance at #5. This is what we hear and read in study after study, and leaders and managers have been diligently working to address culture and values to keep employees happy. However, these studies aren’t specific to veterinary medicine. They include employees from businesses everywhere, of many sizes, from many different professions. It wasn’t until the 2019 Well-Managed Practice Benchmarks study that we saw results that are specific to the veterinary profession.

In ranked responses, more than 400 veterinary staff members responded to the question, “what is most important to you as an employee?” The top three responses are dramatically different from national surveys in that competitive wages was the number one response, followed by flexible time/schedule, and coming in at third was efficient, effective, productive coworkers.

The Solution

What conclusions can be drawn from this? Is it that the veterinary profession isn’t meeting the basic economic needs of those who dedicate their lives to the profession? Can it be that our employees are functioning near poverty income levels? Are we stuck in the rut of doing things the way we’ve always done them?

It’s time to align staff to doctor ratios with hourly pay rates that enable your employees to meet their basic needs, and then some! If you want employees who act like owners and care for your patients and clients the way you do, then it’s time to pony-up. Pay rates are directly related to the caliber of employee you can attract and keep, and in our profession it tends to be mediocre at best. As a result, we end up with too many team members and too many inefficiencies, just trying to plug the gaps. Streamline with excellence in mind, by pairing expectations with above average pay rates.

What if every support staff member who came to your team had a bachelor’s degree? Would their pay expectation be different? Of course, and so would your performance expectation of them. Consider this: paying a higher rate of pay and changing expectations to higher levels equates to higher levels of efficiency and production. That higher production actually costs less in the long run considering you are more efficient and able to hire fewer, higher quality employees. Think 2 employees @ $18/hour each, rather than 3 employees @ $12-14/hour each to streamline the team, while improving processes and incorporating higher levels of communication technology. Subtle shifts in your thinking can lead to big cultural gains for you and your team.