Why Starting From Scratch Costs You — The Hidden Price of Stopping Your Culture Storytelling - ep 245

Why Starting From Zero Costs You — The Hidden Price of Going Quiet - ep. 245 - Veterinary Voices

Julie South [00:00:00]:

Over the last few weeks, we've talked about the recruitment cycle that keeps you stuck, why your client-facing consumer website can't recruit, and the false choice between advertising when you're hiring or doing nothing when you're fully staffed. 

This week we're looking at what that "doing nothing" phase is really costing you. Not the obvious job board fees when you're actively hiring — because you know about those. We're talking about the real hit: the indirect costs that pile up every time you go silent between hires and start your next recruitment from scratch. 

So stay with me to the end because I'm going to give you a five-step action plan that you can put into place this week in your clinic, including calculating what going dark has actually cost you, and how to share your first culture story.

Welcome to Veterinary Voices: Employer-brand conversations that help veterinary clinics hire great people. I'm Julie South and this is Episode 245.

Veterinary Voices is brought to you by VetClinicJobs, the culture storytelling platform for forward-thinking vet clinics.

Julie South [00:01:31]:

There's a third option you didn't know you had.

Most clinics think that recruitment has two options. You're either actively advertising for a role — you've got a job ad out there — or you're doing nothing because you're fully staffed. 

But there's a third option: culture storytelling. Sharing what working at your clinic actually looks like in real life. 

And you do this even when, and even if, you are fully staffed. Especially when you're fully staffed. 

This isn't about always being in recruitment mode. It's about never going dark.

Julie South [00:02:14]:

Here's what culture storytelling actually looks like. Imagine — or maybe you can relate even. It's quarter past one and the school calls. 

Sally needs to leave. Her daughter's unwell. Because of this, you move two dentals to Wednesday. 

You alter some afternoon consults. Isabella covers while the lead vet swaps a procedure, and Sally leaves at 1:30 without apologising for being a parent.

A week later, sadly, Isabella's mum takes a tumble and breaks her hip. You run the same plan so Isabella's at the hospital when she needs to be there.

That's the kind of everyday proof that has vets and nurses thinking, "I could work there. I'd love to work there."

Not job ads. Not the polished posts for awareness days or professional celebrations. Real moments that show how your clinic actually shows up and actually works.

Julie South [00:03:35]:

So what happens when you don't? 

Well, when you're fully staffed and you stop telling stories like the Sally and Isabella examples, when you stop sharing what it's really like to work at your place, the people you want to remember you — they forget you. 

They haven't heard from you in months. So the next time you post a job ad, you're starting stone-cold. Back to ground zero. Again.

Your ad has to warm people up before it can get anyone to act. And while you're waiting for that to happen, we've got four things that are costing you money. There's more than that, but here's just four.

Your recruitment drags on for weeks or months. You panic-spend on extra platforms because maybe the boss is adding pressure, and you put social boosts out there trying to speed things up. 

Warm body hiring starts looking reasonable — and wrong hires always backfire. 

Your team covers the gap with extra shifts while you don't do surgeries because you're short-staffed.

And those great vets and nurses who were keeping an eye out while you went quiet, while you went dark? 

They never saw you. So they're now working somewhere else that didn't go dark and kept their storytelling active.

Julie South [00:05:04]:

All well and good, Julie. What are we talking about in dollars? Okay, here's what hypothetically six months of recruitment looks like when you've been silent beforehand and you're starting from scratch.

The hidden costs — these are the ones you don't see on an invoice. These are the costs that you spend doing recruitment when it's not your number one day job. 

Let's say $1,000. Then you've got the team covering the gaps, fatigue, and sick leave. Let's say $5,000. 

Then you've got the missed consults and the surgeries that you didn't do because you were short-staffed: $13,000. So that's $19,000 that most clinics never add up.

Then on top of those, we've got the visible costs. You know what job boards cost. 

Let's say over six months you spend $500 a month — there's $3,000. And then let's say you do some social boosting. Let's add another $400 to that. 

So that's almost $3,500 sitting on top of the hidden $19,000.

And here's the thing: you're not hiring staff. You're trying to bring back awareness from the dead. You didn't have to spend all of that money.

Julie South [00:06:38]:

I promised you an action plan. Here it is. Five steps to take away and put into place this week.

Step number one: Open up your calendar or your diary and count from when you posted your last job ad to when someone accepted the offer. If you're still advertising, then use the start date to today's date.

Step two: Count the waiting weeks — those weeks when you had no suitable applicants, no interviews. You sat there wondering whether anything was ever going to happen.

Step three: Estimate your monthly cost of a vacancy, like I talked about earlier. The lost revenue, the overtime, the locums.

And then step four: Calculate your start-from-scratch cost. The number of waiting weeks times the monthly vacancy cost, plus your panic spending. That number? That's what going dark costs you.

Julie South [00:07:51]:

And here's your final step. This week I want you to share one real culture story. Not a job ad, not a polished corporate post. One real moment like the Sally and the Isabella examples that show how your clinic actually works and actually shows up. 

Post it on LinkedIn, put it on your clinic Facebook page, email it to your team and ask them to share it. 

But just get it out there. Because culture storytelling isn't something you do when you're desperate to hire. It's something you do so you're never desperate again.

You've just calculated what going dark costs you. You've seen what culture storytelling looks like. You know the pattern now. Silence costs money. Storytelling builds momentum.

If you want help building a culture storytelling rhythm that stops this pattern for good, then please get in touch: julie@vetclinicjobs.com or message me on LinkedIn. I'll put links in the show notes so you can have the direct link. 

And when you do post your culture story — your first one — tag me in. I'd love to see it.

Julie South [00:09:35]:

The expensive part of recruitment isn't the job board fees. It's going silent between hires. 

You've heard about what culture storytelling looks like, what happens when you don't do it, and what it costs in actual dollars. 

And now you've got a five-step action plan to calculate your own cost and share your first culture story this week. 

And remember to tag me in because I do want to know what that looks like, how it reads, what happens.

Next week in Episode 246, we're going to be looking at how to build a simple culture storytelling rhythm that keeps you front-of-mind without overwhelming you.

This is Julie South signing off and inviting you to go out there and be your most fantabulous self — because you're hiring great people who are excited about going to work on Monday mornings, and they deserve to work somewhere that doesn't go dark between hires. Somewhere they can actually find when they're ready to make their move.

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