Onboarding your new veterinarian hire begins from the moment you receive the acceptance from your candidate, and it doesn’t end until you’ve fully integrated your new employee into your organization.
It takes time and attention to detail to get those key onboarding elements right, but it’s an important investment in the productivity of your new employee and in your veterinary practice.
Onboarding your new hire might be more important than you realize. If you do it right, you may improve their productivity by more than 70% and retention by 82%. That’s incentive enough, and streamlining the process will make it easier for you and your other current employees to do your jobs without the added stress and dysfunction of a haphazard onboarding process.
The quality of your onboarding process will affect the performance and longevity of your new veterinarian hire, and it will also improve your employee’s engagement and satisfaction. Develop a comprehensive onboarding process, with a checklist, to ensure that you cover all your bases. Onboarding can be an overwhelming process for new hires at your veterinary practice, but you can make it more streamlined by making sure you have all your paperwork ready and answering their questions as you go along. With our comprehensive HR software, HR for Health helps you expedite the onboarding process for your new hires. So, they’re up-to-speed and compliant without the intimidation factor.
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7 Tips for a Successful Onboarding
Steps To Follow
Your goal is to effectively complete the transition of your new hire from candidate to employee, which includes all the paperwork, for your veterinary practice.
Include an offer letter
Always provide an offer letter to your new hire for your veterinary practice. In the letter, you should include key pieces of info like:
- Start date
- Rate of pay
- Exemption status
- Job title
- Supervisor
- Practice address
- An at-will statement
- Instructions related to I-9 processing within the first 72 hours of work
- Request for their acceptance signature
With this initial document, you’re making sure you’re both on the same page. You’re also streamlining the process and clarifying potential areas of confusion. You should also include the tentative end date if you are only offering temporary employment. Include a contingency statement in your offer letter if there are any factors that may affect their employment with your practice. For example, if you require a background check or employment verification, or a response from references.
For clarity, you can include a statement like: “This offer is contingent on a successful reference check.” At HR for Health, our software has an offer letter template you can automatically send to your new employee. You can also include contingencies for employment in the letter.
Don’t wait until their start date to follow up with your new employee. Keep in touch with them, so you can provide guidance and encouragement. You can also offer tips on how they can best prepare themselves as a new employee at your veterinary practice.
At HR for Health, we make the onboarding, orientation, and management processes quick-and-easy, with our integrated software solution. With electronic time clocks, early and late clock-in alerts, to-do lists, and e-signature functionality, your onboarding process should be a snap for you and your new employee. Schedule an appointment with HR for Health to learn more about how to streamline your onboarding process.
Use a “New Hire Checklist”
A New Hire Checklist is a great way to streamline the onboarding process and ensure you’ve covered all the items on your HR to-do list. Beyond the I-9 and W-4, there are an average of 12-18 required forms per state. These forms and documents are important, and you’ll need to keep the signed copies in case of an audit.
At HR for Health, we offer onboarding paperwork based on your state’s requirements. It’s one of our most popular features. With our software, you can electronically send the forms, with auto-populated details, to your new employees. So, when they register in our system, they can review and sign the forms automatically. You don’t have to think twice.
You can establish your process for collecting and storing this information. Furthermore, you’ve got a lot to keep track of, so keep your checklist handy and make sure it’s up-to-date. Here are some other to-do items you’ll want to add to your checklist:
- Set up their email
- Add your new employee to group lists
- Set your new employee up with a computer and any technology required
- Provide the uniform
- Provide keys (if applicable to their role)
- Setup security access
At HR for Health, you can add this checklist and your other signed documents to the software for safekeeping. Then, you can easily access it when it’s time to onboard a new employee for your veterinary practice.
If your new hire is a supervisor, HR for Health can customize their view and access in our software. Then, when they start, they’ll have the security profile and permissions they need to start strongly in their supervisory role at your veterinary practice. Schedule an appointment with HR for Health to learn more about how to make the most of our HR onboarding paperwork.
Recommended Reading
Federal New Hire Documents Checklist
Shed light on your practice’s culture
As you’re onboarding your new employee, you’re introducing your practice’s culture. Use your employee handbook to showcase your practice’s values, while protecting yourself from litigation. Consider welcoming the employee with a team lunch.
How To Engage with Your New Vet Hire While Onboarding
Research shows engaged employees will be more positive and perform better compared to disengaged employees. As you’re onboarding your new veterinarian hire, this is the perfect opportunity to focus on your new employee as you communicate with your existing employees.
As you onboard your new employee, you must set clear expectations. You’ve already given them your offer letter, which highlighted their new job duties and responsibilities. With your employee handbook, you’ll also give them an overview of the tools and technologies they will use, with a training roadmap for their role.
Role-Specific Training
For most new hires at your veterinary practice, you’ll need to identify the trainer and the training schedule. Be sure to share your training schedule with your new hire. Here are some quick steps:
- Include the schedule and training details in your welcome email.
- Prepare a welcome kit for your new employee, so they can access the specific tools or resources they’ll need on their first day.
- The supervisor should be involved with the training schedule, with the welcome email and welcome kit, and with the regular training check-ins.
The role-specific training should offer all the details your new employee needs to succeed in their new job at your veterinary practice. Your ongoing check-ins are an opportunity to identify knowledge gaps, so you can address them with the trainer, supervisor, and employee.
Your goal is to close those gaps to ensure success.
At HR for Health, we include performance reviews you can use to set goals and track performance. Our certification tracker keeps tabs on regulatory training like sexual harassment, and our CE unit tracker offers at-a-glance updates on continuing education credits. Schedule an appointment with HR for Health to learn how we can help you with training.
Hold supervisors accountable for employee engagement
Your managers and supervisors play an essential role in engaging with your new employee and helping them feel welcome and appreciated as part of your veterinary practice. As they foster open and transparent communication, they also encourage loyalty and connectedness with your entire team.
As you track the progress of your new employee, you can use HR for Health’s performance review template to map out performance conversations like one-on-ones. When you make these conversations a standard, up-front part of your onboarding process, they should be less intimidating. It’s all part of your process of ensuring everyone at your practice succeeds.
Communicate Expectations
You’ll start by communicating your expectations via your offer letter. Then, you’ll continue sharing what you expect as you proceed with onboarding your new vet hire. Your employee handbook is another great way to communicate your expectations with your new employee. You should proactively follow up with your employee to see if they have any questions or concerns.
At HR for Health, we offer a customized employee handbook with clearly outlined policies and expectations. Schedule an appointment with HR for Health to learn how we can help with your employee handbook and better communication with your employees.
How HR for Health Can Help
At HR for Health, we understand the nuances involved in onboarding your new veterinarian hire. We know how to help you streamline the process to ensure minimal disruption to your team. Schedule a consultation to learn more about how we can help with onboarding, as well as ensure your team has an employee handbook that’s up-to-date and compliant.
