In this episode, Katie and Mike discuss simple strategies to help your practice stand out to job seekers – from how to write an engaging job posting to ways to ensure that your unique culture shines through the entire recruitment process. We also speak to Lee Baker from Veterinary Education Today about the excellent content we can look forward to at the VET Toronto Conference at the end of October. 

Writing the Perfect Job Ad

Pay Applicants for Job Interviews

Ways To Make Your Company Stand Out To Job Seekers

Attract Talent

In this episode Katie and Mike talk about ways that leaders and managers can use communication, transparency and empathy to help maintain employee engagement and trust during an economic recession. This episode’s listener question asks how to set up and maintain personal boundaries when the boss expects after-hours client and colleague communication.

Links:

Managing Employees During Downturn

Supporting Employees In The Workplace

Lead Through Tough Times

3 Ways Leaders Prevent Ab Economic Recession From Becoming A Trust Recession

3 Steps To Prepare For The Engagement Recession

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline talk about the importance of empathy and compassion in leadership.

We are excited to share two new segments to the podcast where we share some marketing insights, as well as answer listener questions related to HR.

Click here to submit a question anonymously.

Articles Mentioned

Empathy Is The Most Important Leadership Skill According To Research

Effective Leaders Move Beyond Empathy to Compassion

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Dr. Joop Loomans to reflect on the 37th World Veterinary Association Congress in Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates.

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline talk about the most wonderful time of the year…employee reviews. We discuss why employees dislike performance reviews, how they help employees improve, their importance to the company and how to implement them.

Articles Mentioned:

More Harm Than Good: The Truth About Performance Reviews

This Year, Performance Management Must Become Agile

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by guest Stacy LeBaron, Board Treasurer of the United Spay Alliance. The United Spay Alliance is a national animal welfare organization dedicated exclusively to promoting affordable, accessible, and timely spay/neuter services as the solution to the crisis of cat and dog homelessness. In this episode, we discuss people management in the non-profit sector vs. private practice, the shortage of veterinarians and more.

Links Mentioned:

United Spay Alliance

Feline Fix by Five Months

The Community Cats Podcast

 Understanding and Addressing Moral Distress

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss leaders who realize change is needed, how to be an involved leader and the roles leaders need to take for effective change.

In part two of our HR Program Fundamentals series, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss having a core purpose in your veterinary practice.

In this episode of Hire The Smile, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline begin the discussion of fundamental components of an HR Program, starting with core values in your vet practice.

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by members of the Oculus team to share their 2022 predictions for the veterinary profession.

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall is joined by Kirsti Clarida, president of the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians (OAVT) to discuss the importance of RVT roles in vet practices and the regulations that OAVT provides.

Visit the OAVT website here

Articles Mentioned:

Doctors are trained to be kind and empathetic – but a ‘hidden curriculum’ makes them forget on the job

In our last podcast episode of the year, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline review the most prominent articles and discussed topics on the podcast in 2021. 

Podcast Episodes and Articles Mentioned:

1.    Hire the Smile: Redefining Burnout

Podcast mentioned: Why Burnout Happens — and How Bosses Can Help

2.    Hire The Smile: Mindfulness to Prevent Veterinary Burnout with Dr. Tovah Caldwell

3.    Hire The Smile: Part 2 - Mindfulness to Prevent Veterinary Burnout with Dr. Tovah Caldwell

4.    Hire The Smile: Managing Toxic Employees

5.    Hire The Smile: Managing Disruptive High Performers in Your Vet Practice

Article mentioned: Managing a Top Performer Who Alienates Their Colleagues

6.    Hire The Smile: Step Up or Move On

Article mentioned: 5 Reasons Business Owners Don't Fire Bad Employees--and 5 Bigger Reasons Why They're Wrong Firing With Compassion

7.    Hire The Smile: From our Dream World to our Current Reality in Veterinary HR

Article mentioned: Stuck in the Middle: The Plight of Average Performers

8.    Hire The Smile: The Customer Isn’t Always Right

Article mentioned: The Customer Is Not Always Right

9.    Hire The Smile: Rethinking Compensation

Article mentioned: How poverty changes your mind-set

10. Hire The...

Katie and Mike define Quiet Quitting and debate whether it’s truly a new phenomenon or not. They go over the factors that seem to contribute to this new form of disengagement and talk about some strategies practices can employ to address it. This week’s Listener Question asks an excellent question about how to make a practice’s Core Values more “live” and relevant to employees’ day-to-day work lives.

Is Quiet Quitting A Response To Quiet Firing?

Why Quiet Quitting Is Nothing New 

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Dr. Yteke Elte to discuss employee engagement. Dr. Yteke Elte is an equine veterinarian and team leader at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the contributing factors to veterinary practice owner burnout and provide valuable insight on what you can do to help minimize burnout.

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the great resignation, why people are leaving their jobs and what you can do to help attract and keep staff. 

Articles Mentioned:

Are we in a veterinary workforce crisis?

The Reason Behind the Great Resignation That No One Is Talking About

2022 Canada Salary Guide | Robert Half

Living wage by region

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss multiple articles surrounding transparent salaries, the average performer, mass amounts of workers quitting their jobs and more.

Articles Mentioned:

This Company Makes All Employees’ Salaries, Appraisals, and Promotions Public

Stuck in the Middle: The Plight of Average Performers

A record number of workers are quitting their jobs, empowered by new leverage

This is what a profit margin squeeze looks like

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall is joined for a second episode with Dr. Tovah Caldwell to further discuss how mindfulness impacts the work-life of veterinarians. Together, they discuss three common themes developed in Tovah’s research: professional identity development, perspective taking and the mind-body connection

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss how to identify a toxic boss, how to address them and things leaders can do to attract and retain veterinary staff.

Articles Mentioned:

How to Tell Leaders They’re Not as Great as They Think They Are

10 Things Your Corporate Culture Needs to Get Right

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Dr. Tovah Caldwell to discuss mindfulness tools for health, wellbeing, and longevity in veterinary practice.

In this podcast episode, Joop Loomans of Oculus Insights is joined by Dr. Melissa Mckee and Dr. Philippe Benoit to discuss the 2021 Equine Regenerative Medicine and Orthobiologics Online Summit. From PRP to Bone Edema, learn how the Summit assists in everyday equine vet practice and what topics to look forward to for the 2021 summit.

For more information, visit www.equineregenerativesummit.com 

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the impact toxic employees have on the bottom line, how to deal with them and how to help them with direct feedback.

Articles Mentioned

Nine traits of a toxic employee

It’s Better to Avoid a Toxic Employee than Hire a Superstar

How to Work with Someone Who Creates Unnecessary Conflict

How to Manage a Toxic Employee

Productivity Hacks

Slack

Apple Watch – Monitoring Sleep

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the different components, processes, and benefits of completing a Human Resource Audit for your veterinary practice.

Articles Mentioned:

Google employees who opt to work from home may earn less than they did before

Do you know what your employees are thinking and feeling about how they are doing in their roles? When was the last time you delivered some genuine appreciation or maybe tackled some constructive feedback? Are you finding it challenging to make time for formal performance reviews? What if there was one simple trick to making all your feedback dreams come true?

In this episode, Mike and Katie talk about the benefits of two-way feedback and delve into the different types of one-on-one check-in meetings. We also answer a listener question related to how practice owners can deal with the challenges and burnout relating to practice ownership. 

Articles Mentioned:

Why People Crave Feedback and Why We’re Afraid to Give it

Want Fewer Employees to Quit? Listen to Them

Give Feedback Like a Coach

How to Conduct Stay Interviews

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Dr. Bob Van Der Heijden to discuss a new and exciting method of staff training called Gamification. Gamification focuses on improving team performance through online and offline activities with added game elements to encourage behavioural changes in the workplace.

Learn more about our Gamification services: https://www.oculusinsights.net/staff-training

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss what your vet practice can do to keep the team you have, rather than find new staff members by managing workload and client expectations.

Articles Mentioned:

The Customer Is Not Always Right: Here Are Five Reasons Why

HR Wins:

Iceland tested a 4-day workweek. Employees were productive — and happier, researchers say.

Tour de France 2021

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss why staff are hesitant to give feedback and what you can do to get employees to be more open to providing feedback.

Articles Mentioned:

The Courage to Be Candid

How To Encourage Candid Employee Feedback: 14 Tips For CEOs

The ROI of Anonymous Employee Feedback

Build Your Reputation as a Trustworthy Leader

Productivity Hacks:

Reminder App - remind by location

Regular exercise time

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline address the unwillingness of people returning to work and the impact that minimum wage rates have on this. Following many articles, we discuss work environment, living wages, how other industry rates impact the veterinary profession and the importance of respect, stability and meaning in a job.

Articles Mentioned:

Those $300 pandemic checks aren’t the only reason restaurant employees might not want to go back to work

What Your Future Employees Want Most

What Matters More to Your Workforce than Money

Dan Price announced a minimum salary of $70,000 to all of his 120 employees back in 2015. It paid off big time

How poverty changes your mind-set

HR Wins & Fails:

Toronto E-commerce company Knix Wear raises $53-million after CEO nixes involvement of any investor who questioned her pregnancy

Made-in-Canada solution: 'Hockey hub' vaccine clinics are getting the job done faster

• Blinkist
• Having the ability to say NO

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss five tips that will help your veterinary staff and practice as everything begins to reopen. We will be discussing leadership, communication, appreciation for staff, workload and future thinking.

HR Wins & Fails: Footage reveals Ohio state senator driving during Zoom call Canada’s new entrepreneurs, ineligible for government assistance, are bearing the brunt of lockdowns goodnews_movement

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss a common challenge in many vet practices, dealing with a high performer colleague that is also disruptive or difficult to handle. We discuss tips for dealing with this type of personality, why this person is this way, and methods to ensure you are hiring people that align with your workplace culture and core values. Stay tuned for the end of the episode, where we share some productivity hacks that can make your life easier.

Articles mentioned:  The ‘good’ doctor: It’s time to stop treating character like an afterthought in medicine – and everywhere else Managing a Top Performer Who Alienates Their Colleagues

Productivity Hacks: Pocket  The Pomodoro® Technique

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss how to properly set attainable soft skill and hard skill goals based on performance reviews.

Articles Referenced In This Episode: Popular Goal Setting Techniques Managers Should Avoid

Why We Set Unattainable Goals

HR Wins: Kitchener mom's book on diversity inspired by bullied 5-year-old, who says 'all colours are beautiful'

HR Fails:  London, Ont., meat plant shut for 2 weeks amid COVID-19 outbreak affecting 82 workers 

Referencing Forbes article A Psychologist’s Secrets To Holding Tough Conversations by Kevin Kruse and the book Difficult Conversations: How To Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the elements of having difficult conversations and what you can do to make them easier and more effective. 

Fails: Federal Court approves class-action lawsuit claiming RCMP  doctors sexually assaulted recruits Amazon's denial of workers urinating in bottles puts the pee in PR fiasco

Wins: How Kim Ng, Major League Baseball's First Female GM, Finally Got the Top J Reddit - MadeMeSmile

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss how to receive feedback as an employee and as a leader. Following the book, Thanks for the Feedback by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, we discuss the three triggers that govern how we react to feedback and how to change behaviour on a surface level vs. changing your overall mindset. We also refer to the article, How Leaders Can Get Honest, Productive Feedback by Jennifer Porter where we talk about the importance of modelling the behaviour you’d like to see from your team, how to receive feedback to better ourselves and lastly, how to ask others to help you make the desired changes based on the feedback given. 

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss mentorship in veterinary practice from defining what a mentor is, the benefits of having one and what qualities make a good mentor.

Articles Mentioned:

How Doctors Can Be Better Mentors

Physician Mentorship: Why It’s Important, and How to Find and Sustain Relationships - NEJM Career Center Resources

Don’t Let Mentoring Burn You Out

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Dr. Ivan Zakharenkov to discuss further research on why the veterinary profession experiences severe burnout and how corporate groups buying veterinary practices can do great things for the profession.

Dr. Ivan “Zak” Zakharenkov is a veterinarian and an entrepreneur committed to creating products that empower the healthcare team to live their passion. It was Ivan’s own personal journey from practicing veterinary medicine for 12 years and experiencing severe burnout that led him to explore the psychological triggers of burnout and business methodologies that veterinary organizations can apply to eliminate them. Researching this topic, Ivan obtained an MBA degree in International Healthcare Management and wrote a dissertation “Implementation of lean thinking to improve the employee experience.” Today Ivan is leading VIS, a technology company helping veterinary groups adopt a management methodology that combats burnout while accelerating business performance. Here is a link to Ivan's burnout study: https://vetintegrations.com/insights/burnout2020/

For more information or to contact us please email info@oculusinsights.net or find us on all of the social media channels. 

In today's episode with Dr Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline, the conversation surrounds articles that discuss how sandwiching criticism between compliments is confusing and counterproductive and how voicing your good intentions can help soften how others receive negative feedback. 

The Simple Way to Make Giving Feedback Easier

Stop Softening Tough Feedback

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss burnout and reference the below podcast episode and article.

Why Burnout Happens — and How Bosses Can Help

https://pca.st/episode/5832032f-0310-426c-9fbe-969b361c6fc2

Christina Maslach has been studying the causes of burnout, and its impact, for decades. She says that, in a year when everyone feels overwhelmed and exhausted, it’s more important than ever for managers to recognize when and why employees are suffering and take steps to solve those problems. In her framework, burnout stems from not only large workloads but also lack of control, community, and/or reward and values mismatches. She notes that leaders have the ability to pull many of those levers to help their workers. Maslach is the author of The Truth About Burnout and a forthcoming book on the topic.

Do You Know Burnout When You See It?

http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/~r/harvardbusiness/~3/-caHFVQIqd0/do-you-know-burnout-when-you-see-it

This article from the Harvard Business Review talks about understanding the subtle warning signs of burnout, taking steps to mitigate it before it’s too late,  getting creative about how to relieve some of the pressure on burned-out employees, and work collaboratively with them to understand what they need.

As always please reach out to us with any questions or ideas! Links below or find us on all of the social media platforms. 

Oculus

Advice By Oculus

info@oculusinsights.net

In today’s episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss a topic close to both of their hearts,  employee performance reviews. The foundation of the discussion surrounds two articles, each with a different approach to employee performance reviews.

For more information or to connect with us please follow us on social media or  visit www.oculusinsights.net

Are Peer Reviews the Future of Performance Evaluations?

Why this manager put workers in charge of their own raises, career development, and reviews

A wristband that tells your boss if you are unhappy

In today's episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss the premise that the customer is not always right!  The discussion begins with an article about customer entitlement and the effect that has on staff, drawing comparisons to the veterinary industry. The second article talks about how some overworked practices are trying to reduce the number of problem clients on their books.

As always if you have any questions or would like to hear us discuss a topic please reach out to info@oculusinsights.net or visit www.advicebyoculus.com and www.oculusinsights.net

Articles:

Practices using pandemic to shed problem clients – report

The Customer Is Not Always Right

Book:

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss their Human Resources Wishlist for 2021 in lieu of a Year in Review of 2020. Let us know your thoughts! 

As always please reach out to us at info@oculusinsights.net or on all of our social media channels. 

www.oculusinsights.net

https://www.facebook.com/OculusInsights

https://www.instagram.com/oculusinsights

In this episode, Dr Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss gratitude and appreciation and how it can help employees to focus on what matters, according to behavioural experts. They talk about the value of gratitude and having a culture of Thank You!

Wins and Fails Articles:

Building a Better Workplace Starts with Saying “Thanks”

The science behind gratitude at work

O.C. Tanner’s Global Culture Report: How pats on the back can improve workplace culture

In today's episode, Katie Ardeline and Dr. Mike Pownall talk about developing resiliency in veterinary medicine. They introduce a new service, Advice by Oculus, which provides online, personal, performance coaching and business advisor sessions that are convenient, accessible, and confidential for the veterinary profession.  Please reach out to us on social media or at info@oculusinsights.net with any questions or ideas!

Wins and Fails Articles:

How to train for resilience

To Build Grit, Go Back to Basics

In this episode, Dr Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss articles surrounding responsible leadership.

If you have any questions or topics you would like discussed please reach out to info@oculusinsights.net or reach out on social media.  

Articles:

4 Reasons Emotionally Intelligent Leaders Impact the Bottom Line

Today’s Leaders Need Vulnerability, Not Bravado

Heavy drinking, sex tapes, and a pyramid scheme: Yelp insiders speak out about the company's high-pressure sales culture

In this episode, Dr Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss employee engagement and the value of surveying your employees for a successful veterinary practice. As always, they close out the episode with their discussion of “Wins and Fails” If you have any questions at all please reach out to our social media channels or email info@oculusinsights.net

Wins and Fails Articles:

49% of Canadians are considering quitting their job – here's why

Rescue Dog Helps Save Endangered Whales By Sniffing Out Their Poop as a Conservation Canine

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America's Obsession with Economic Efficiency

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline are joined by Oculus colleague, Dr. Rob Kieboom. Together they discuss the importance of finding the right candidate for your veterinary team and different employment processes.

COVID is returning with a bit of a vengeance, the second wave is real. In this episode, we talk about a few articles that discuss how COVID-19 is impacting employee engagement and work environments.  If you have any questions at all, please email info@oculusinsights.net or message us on social media.

Articles:

4 in 10 workers 'less motivated' since COVID-19 crisis

What we really need is employee DISengagement | The Context Of Things

Wins and Fails:

Shut Up and Work: Covid Gag Rules Leave Everyone in the Dark

This Company Is Laying Off Employees Via Text Message

Ted Lasso - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u7EIiohs6U

I met Kathrin Siemer at one of our Oculus Summits in Europe around 8 or 9 years ago. One of the themes of that Summit was HR. It was such a pleasure to meet someone who shared the interest that I had for taking great care of the people that we work with. At the time she was the practice manager for a rapidly growing equine practice in Germany. I was able to visit the practice 3 years ago and I was so impressed at how their people first attitude helped propel their growth. When I found out that Kathrin started her own coaching business I knew we had to have her on the podcast. I hope you enjoy her insights on what makes a great Human Resource program.

https://www.kathrin-siemer.de/

https://www.tierklinik-luesche.de/ 

In this episode, Dr. Mike Pownall and Katie Ardeline discuss two articles pertaining to trust, empathy and caring for your people. 

Everything Starts with Trust

What would Bill Campbell do?

Visit www.oculusinsights.net or email info@oculusinsights.net if you have any questions about anything we have discussed or anything pertaining to your veterinary practice. 

Welcome to episode 5 of Hire the Smile, the podcast where we discuss human resources for veterinarians. In this episode, Katie and Mike are joined by Sue Armstrong of Oculus Insights as they discuss how many of the external factors we are facing now impact how we manage the people we work with. Also, we dig into our Human Resources Wins and Fails.

The articles discussed in today's episode are:

U.S. Employee Engagement Hits New High After Historic Drop

Why Examining Employee Experience Strategies is a Must During Uncertain Times

COVID-19 is evaporating casual connections and why that’s bad

CultureLab Podcast

Against the Rules with Michael Lewis