Recruitment Momentum - Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped and Hinders Your Job Ad Success - ep.255
Recruitment Momentum: Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped Most veterinary clinics don’t realise they’re stuck in a recruitment cycle — they just feel the exhaustion of it. In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores recruitment momentum and why starting from cold every time you need to advertise keeps clinics trapped in an expensive, effort-heavy loop that never really gets easier. Through a simple but familiar comparison, Julie shows the difference between recruiting from...
Recruitment Momentum: Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped
Most veterinary clinics don’t realise they’re stuck in a recruitment cycle — they just feel the exhaustion of it.
In this episode of Veterinary Voices, Julie South explores recruitment momentum and why starting from cold every time you need to advertise keeps clinics trapped in an expensive, effort-heavy loop that never really gets easier.
Through a simple but familiar comparison, Julie shows the difference between recruiting from cold — urgent, interruptive, and stressful — and recruiting from warm, where vets and nurses already know your clinic and recognise it as their kind of place.
This episode follows directly from last week’s conversation on network expansion, and explains why momentum isn’t about speed or volume — it’s about familiarity built over time, while you’re fully staffed.
Stay to the end for a question that reframes what clinics should really be measuring when they think about recruitment success.
In This Episode
00:00 – Introduction and why recruitment momentum matters
01:18 – What starting from cold actually looks like for clinics
01:37 – Urgent job ads, interruption, and the “post and pray” cycle
02:09 – Two clinics, two approaches: cold vs warm recruiting
03:09 – Why most clinics reset to cold every time they hire
03:36 – The toll of recruiting from cold on time, money, and belief
04:13 – Why vets and nurses scroll past unfamiliar clinics
04:46 – Groundhog Day recruiting and losing momentum while fully staffed
05:47 – Cold start recruiting vs recruiting with momentum
06:25 – Recruitment momentum as a long-term deposit, not a quick fix
07:43 – What’s changed: filtering interruptions, trust taking time, and passive watchers
08:34 – Why continuous culture stories matter even when you’re fully staffed
09:34 – Recruiting from warm with calm invitations, not urgency
10:10 – How VetClinicJobs supports recruitment momentum through Culture Centres
11:15 – Closing reflections on sustainability, momentum, and recruiting from warm
About Julie South
Julie South is the founder of VetClinicJobs and host of Veterinary Voices.
She works with veterinary clinics that want to move beyond reactive job advertising by building recruitment momentum through continuous culture storytelling — so when they do need to hire, they’re never starting from cold again.
Struggling to get results from your job advertisements?
If so, then shining online as a good employer is essential to attracting the types of veterinary professionals who're a perfect cultural fit for your clinic.
The VetClinicJobs job board is the place to post your next job vacancy - to find out more get in touch with Lizzie at VetClinicJobs
Episode 255: Recruitment Momentum—Why Starting From Cold Keeps You Trapped
Julie South [00:00:00]: Welcome to Veterinary Voices—culture storytelling conversations for forward-thinking vet clinics. I'm Julie South, and this is episode 255.
Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, helping forward-thinking vet clinics tell their culture stories, not just post job ads.
Last week we talked about network expansion. Why job ads trap you under the follower count ceiling while culture stories amplify through networks you'll never access yourself.
This week we're talking about recruitment momentum. Why starting from cold every time you need to advertise keeps you trapped in an exhausting, expensive cycle that you can't escape from.
Stay with me to the end. I want to leave you with a question about the effort you're spending to recruit from cold when you could actually be recruiting warm.
Starting From Cold
Julie South [00:01:18]: Right now, somewhere in Perth, a clinic needs to advertise.
They haven't recruited in 18 months or so. They're starting from cold.
Nobody knows what working there is like. Nobody's been following their story.
They write a job ad. Post it everywhere.
"Hiring now. Apply today. Join our team."
I'm sure you can imagine how many exclamation marks are in those statements.
Loud. Urgent. Interruption.
Julie South [00:01:37]: They boost it. They pay for reach. They pray someone somewhere sees it and applies.
It's an uphill slog. Starting from the bottom. Pushing hard just to get traction.
Three months later, they're still advertising. Still pushing. Still spending. Still praying.
Starting From Warm
Julie South [00:02:09]: Meanwhile, across town, another clinic also needs to advertise.
But they've been sharing culture stories for the last six months. Vets and nurses have been quietly watching them. Following them.
They post: "We have a vacancy. If we sound like your kind of clinic, let's chat."
Calm. Confident. Invitation. Not interruption.
Julie South [00:02:37]: They don't get flooded with applications. They don't need to.
Within days, a few vets and nurses reach out. People who've been following their stories. Who already know this is their kind of clinic.
One is enough. The right one.
One clinic is recruiting from cold. Unknown. Interrupting. Shouting.
The other is recruiting from warm. Familiar. Invitation. Normal volume.
Julie South [00:03:09]: And the difference isn't luck. It's momentum.
Post and Pray Recruiting
Most clinics are still using the post-and-pray recruiting method.
They do nothing while they're fully staffed. Someone needs replacing. So then they start advertising again from cold.
Unknown clinic interrupting strangers with job ads. "Apply now. Hiring now. Join us."
Julie South [00:03:36]: From the clinic's perspective, it's exhausting. An uphill slog every single time. Massive effort just to gain traction.
Time, money, staffing all stretched thin.
And over time, something quieter breaks. The belief that hiring could ever feel any different.
When urgency becomes normal, calm starts feeling impossible.
Julie South [00:04:13]: From vets and nurses' perspective, it's just noise. Another unfamiliar clinic. They scroll past.
So applications don't come. Or they come from people who aren't really interested. People who are just spraying, applying everywhere.
And the cycle continues.
They do fill the role eventually. They stop everything again. And they do nothing again while fully staffed.
And they wait until they need to advertise again.
And guess what? They're starting from cold again.
Julie South [00:04:46]: Now, this isn't unlucky. It's what happens when you reset to cold every single time.
Sadly, because most clinics are head down, tail up, they don't realise they're caught in this exhausting cycle. It's just the way it is.
Julie South [00:05:47]: The thing is, most practice managers and owners—like I said—they're so head down, tail up, they don't get time to put their head above the water and see that they've fallen into a post-and-pray system that doesn't have to be this way anymore.
Some clinics have fragments of momentum. A story here. A post there.
But when they stop while they're fully staffed—because they think that's the way it is—that momentum just quietly drains away.
On some level, they may recognise that they're trapped. They may feel a bit of Groundhog Day. "Here we go again. Starting from scratch again and again and again."
But they don't know how to change it.
Cold Start vs. Momentum
Because starting from cold isn't just harder. It's fundamentally different from starting your recruitment with momentum.
Julie South [00:06:25]: Cold start recruiting feels urgent, stressful, and uncertain. It's interruption-type advertising. A hard uphill push from the bottom every single time.
Momentum recruiting, on the other hand, feels calm, confident, and even anticipatory. Because it's an invitation. An easier flow from familiarity.
And when you stop everything when you're fully staffed, you lose all momentum that you might have gained. You reset to cold.
So every time you need to advertise, you're at the bottom of that uphill slog again.
But when you maintain culture stories even when you're fully staffed—even if and even because you're fully staffed—you're making deposits into what I call a recruitment momentum account.
Julie South [00:07:43]: You're building recognition. Familiarity. Warmth.
And when you do need to advertise, that momentum pays returns.
Because vets and nurses already know you. Already trust you. Already want to work with you.
That's not working harder. That's working from momentum instead of cold.
Why Momentum Matters Now
The system changed in ways that make momentum recruiting absolutely critical today.
First, vets and nurses filter out unfamiliar interruptions.
When a clinic they've never heard of posts "hiring now" with lots of exclamation marks and capital letters, they scroll past.
But when a familiar clinic says "We have an opening," it's a calm invitation. And they pay attention.
Julie South [00:08:34]: Second, trust requires time.
You can't build it in a job ad. Trust builds through months of culture storytelling. Showing how teams actually work.
Time you don't have. You can't gain back when you're starting from cold.
And then thirdly, the best vets and nurses aren't actively looking. They're watching.
When you only show up when you need to advertise, you miss them.
When you maintain momentum—continuous culture stories—they already know you. When they're ready to move, you're there.
Julie South [00:09:34]: The system changed. And no one told you there was a better way.
What's Working Now
And here's what's working differently now.
When culture stories exist continuously—built when and while and if you're fully staffed, being told and shared all year round—you're building recruitment momentum even when you're not advertising.
Vets and nurses see your culture stories. They recognise your clinic. They follow along.
Then you need to advertise. You're not starting from cold. You're recruiting from warm.
You post an opening. There's no urgency to it. You're just issuing a calm invitation.
Julie South [00:10:10]: There's no panic. You're saying: "We have a vacancy. If we sound like your kind of clinic, let's chat."
A few vets and nurses will reach out. Vets and nurses who've been watching. Who already know your culture. Who've already decided they actually want to work with you.
That's what I call recruiting with momentum.
The Infrastructure
VetClinicJobs gives clinics a culture centre. A permanent home for your culture stories. Built for vets and nurses. Not buried in client noise or dependent on algorithms.
So when you do need to advertise, you're never starting from cold again.
The Question
Julie South [00:11:15]: I promised you a question.
Instead of asking "How do we recruit faster when we need to advertise?" ask yourself this instead:
What momentum are we building right now while we're fully staffed, so that when we do need to advertise, we're starting from warm? Starting with an invitation instead of a cold interruption?
Because people don't respond to unfamiliar interruptions anymore. They respond to calm invitations from clinics they already know.
Momentum doesn't make hiring instant. It does make it sustainable.
Next Week
Next week, in episode 256, we'll talk about recruitment ROI. Why measuring success by cost per hire misses what actually matters.
This is Julie South, signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self.
Because when you build recruitment momentum continuously, you're not trapped in that exhausting cycle anymore.
You're recruiting from people who already know you're their kind of clinic.
And that changes everything.