Every practice posting an open req right now is competing for the same shrinking pool of credentialed vet techs and DVMs, and the practices offering the best paycheck are not automatically winning that race. Something else is deciding it.

Adrienne Kruzer, BBA, RVT, LVT, makes exactly that case in a recent piece for Veterinary Practice News. Compensation matters, she writes, but it is one piece of a much longer chain: how a candidate finds you, how you treat them during the process, and what happens after they say yes.

Where the Pipeline Actually Starts

Corporate groups run dedicated recruitment programs and school partnerships. Most independent practices do not have that infrastructure, but Kruzer argues the opportunity is still there for practices willing to build local relationships instead of a national program. Career fairs at vet tech and nursing schools, guest lectures, hosted externships and shadowing days, and job listing networks through local programs all put a practice in front of candidates before a role even opens.

The same logic extends to conferences and associations, she notes, as long as a practice targets the ones that actually match its specialty and culture. Sponsoring a booth at an equine conference will not help a general practice hire a CrVT who wants to work with exotic pets. Fit matters more than reach.

Referral bonuses round out the recruitment side of the equation. Paid out only when a referral is hired, they give existing team members a direct incentive to bring their best colleagues along, rather than leaving recruitment entirely to job boards and a hospital's own outreach.

The Candidate Experience Is Part of the Offer

Kruzer is direct about this: a slow or impersonal hiring process costs practices candidates who never see the compensation package at all, because they have already accepted somewhere else. Prompt communication, a memorable interview process, and small gestures like a team outing or hospital swag signal something to a candidate before they have signed anything: this is what it is like to work here.

Retention Starts Where Recruitment Ends

Compensation is table stakes on both sides of the equation, but Kruzer's retention advice centers on full utilization, appropriate recognition, and proactive burnout prevention, particularly for credentialed vet techs. A hospital that hires well but leaves its CrVTs underutilized or unrecognized will keep running the same expensive recruitment cycle every year.

Her prescription for finding out what actually keeps people is straightforward: ask them. Surveying current staff about benefits and needs, and running honest exit interviews when someone leaves, produces better answers than guessing, and both feed directly back into how you recruit the next round of candidates.

What This Means for Your Practice

  • Local school relationships and referral bonuses often outperform broad reach recruiting for independent practices without a corporate pipeline.
  • A slow hiring process can cost you a candidate before compensation ever enters the conversation.
  • Retention and recruitment share a playbook: full utilization, recognition, and honest feedback loops keep people from becoming a line on next year's job posting.