When No One Applies: Troubleshooting Job Ads in a Talent Desert

Julie South [00:00:07]: What's the difference between clinics that fill positions in weeks and those that post the same job ad month after month after month after month after year with zero or unsuitable applications? After 16 episodes of job ad strategies, the answer might surprise you.

And here's the thing: knowing what to do and actually doing it are two very different things. So stay tuned.

Welcome to Veterinary Voices, the podcast that celebrates and showcases employer of choice veterinary clinics. I'm Julie South and this is episode 241. It's the final episode in our comprehensive job advertisement series. Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, the job board where direct hiring is reimagined - no recruitment agency involved.

Julie South [00:01:04]: You owe it to your team to be able to make job offers from job ads. Because let's face it, success when it comes to job ads should lead to your new hire starting within a few months. If that's not happening for you right now, then head on over to vetclinicjobs.com because the average there is five weeks from go to whoa.

Today we're wrapping up our job ad series with a reality check. If you've been following along for these 16 episodes, you should have seen results. You should be ready to make a job offer by now. If you're not, we need to figure out what's missing.

Stay tuned, because we'll go through three key implementation checkpoints, plus you'll get a final action plan to evaluate your job ad success this coming week.

Julie South [00:02:02]: We've covered a lot of ground since episode 225. We've talked about storytelling instead of bullet points, showcasing genuine and authentic culture, targeting the right people, protecting your existing team, and making difficult shifts appealing. That's 16 episodes of practical actionable strategies.

If you've been implementing and tweaking your job ads as we've gone along, you should be seeing different results by now. Better quality applications, shorter time to hire, maybe even some team members who are proud to share your job ads with their networks.

But if you're still sitting there with zero applications, or maybe applications from butchers, bakers and candlestick makers who love the sound of veterinary and wondering if you're in a talent desert, the first question isn't about your market. It's about your implementation.

Because when clinics focus on genuine employer brand recruitment marketing rather than generic 2010 style job advertisements, even challenging markets respond differently.

Julie South [00:03:19]: Let's be brutally and totally honest. It's easy to listen to podcast episodes and think, "yep, that makes sense" without actually changing anything. But knowing and doing are completely different things.

Maybe you've been too busy to implement changes. Maybe you thought your current approach was good enough. Maybe you implemented one or two strategies, but not the comprehensive approach that we've outlined. Or maybe you're still writing job ads the same way you always have, just hoping that somehow this time will be magically different.

If you're getting zero applications, before you blame the market, you need to honestly assess whether you've actually tried any of the strategies that we've covered. Because the clinics that implement these approaches and use the framework consistently see results.

Julie South [00:04:15]: Yes, even in today's competitive recruitment market.

The first checkpoint: have you moved from bullets to story? Go back and look at your current job ad. Does it tell a story about working at your clinic, or is it still just a list of requirements and duties? Have you implemented the storytelling approach from episodes 225 and 226? Are you showcasing your clinic's culture authentically and genuinely, or are you still hiding behind corporate templates?

If your job ad looks the same as it did 16 episodes ago, there's your first problem. The clinics getting applications have moved beyond boring bullet points to engaging stories that help the right people see themselves working there.

Checkpoint number two: are you targeting the right people the right way? Have you implemented the targeting strategies that we covered in episodes 237 through to 240? Are you writing for passive job seekers who need to be inspired, or are you still writing only for desperate job hunters? Have you made weekend and after hours emergency work genuinely appealing, or are you still apologising for difficult shifts?

If you're trying to attract everyone, you're probably attracting no one. The successful clinics have clarity about who they want and write specifically for those people using the psychological insights that we've discussed through this series.

And then checkpoint number three: have you built internal support for external success? This is the big one that many clinics miss. Have you sorted out your internal culture around part time work, after hours arrangements and team dynamics before trying to recruit externally? Are your existing team members proud enough of your workplace to endorse your clinic's advertisements?

If you're advertising opportunities that your current team wouldn't enthusiastically recommend to their friends, you haven't built the foundation for sustainable recruitment success.

Julie South [00:06:46]: This ties directly into employer brand recruitment marketing. You can't market externally what you haven't built internally.

Here's something important: have you been trying to implement these strategies on traditional or outdated job boards and feeling frustrated with the results? You might have the right message, but the wrong platform.

If you have been implementing these strategies, VetClinicJobs provides a platform that's perfectly designed to tell your genuine story, the flexibility to showcase authentic employer branding, present team culture through profiles and tell stories that reflect your clinic's genuine personality without character limits or corporate templates forcing you back into generic job posting.

The clinics seeing success with this series aren't just those with the biggest budgets or the best locations. They're the ones who have committed to authentic employer branding and found a platform that enables rather than restricts their storytelling.

Let's quickly recap where we've been. We started with reimagining job ads.

Julie South [00:08:07]: As stories, moved through culture showcasing and targeting strategies, covered difficult scenarios like part time and after hours work. We explored advanced concepts like protecting your team from poaches and attracting passive job seekers.

If you've implemented these strategies consistently, you should be seeing results. If you haven't, that's actually good news because it means you have a clear path forward with proven strategies rather than being stuck in an endless cycle of posting, praying and hoping.

Here's what I'd like you to do this week. This is your final takeaway action plan for this job advertisement series. Conduct an honest audit of what you've actually implemented versus what you've just listened to. Go through your current job ads with the checklist that we've covered today.

Julie South [00:09:08]: Are you telling stories or listing bullets? Are you targeting specifically or trying to appeal to everyone? Have you built the internal culture that supports external success?

If you find gaps, you know exactly what episodes to revisit and what strategies to implement.

For insights into what data is showing in relation to veterinary job advertisements in Australia and New Zealand, then email tania@vetclinicjobs.com - that's Tania with an I, T-A-N-I-A - for your copy of our monthly Veterinary Employment Job Advertisement Market Intelligence Report and mention you heard it here first.

This has been our comprehensive job advertisement series and I hope it's given you practical tools that translate into real results. But remember, this is the important thing: tools only work when you use them.

Next week we're starting fresh with episode 242. We're going to be diving deeper into employer brand recruitment marketing, the strategic thinking behind everything that we've covered.

Julie South [00:10:23]: In this job ad series, we'll explore how the most successful veterinary clinics think about attraction, recruitment, retention and building teams that become advocates for their workplace.

Thanks to VetClinicJobs for making this entire series possible. Until next time, this is Julie South signing off and reminding you that great job ads are just the beginning. The real magic happens when you build a clinic so good that your team becomes your biggest advocates.

Here's to inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self because you work with a team that lifts you up every single day.

Referenced URLs:

• https://vetclinicjobs.com
• https://veterinaryvoices.com
• https://smoothoperatingvets.com
• mailto:tania@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:lizzie@vetclinicjobs.com
• mailto:jocelyn@smoothoperatingvets.com