6y
From our Columbus Hospital Director: Thank you for providing your feedback. We agree that being and emergency and specialty hospital we have an environment that is a great place to build on foundational skills and learn new skills including advanced technical skills.
As you may know last year we created a more defined Clinical Services Career Framework which provided two things, a compensation analysis across our organization and a career progression pathway.
We now have a career progression where, as you become certified (CVT or VTS), you move into more senior jobs and get pay increases. This helped to define steps team members can take to continue to grow within the organization and the profession. Also, through our defined Continuing Education program team members can further their education in the Veterinary field with financial and educational support by MedVet. This includes support in enrollment and completion of a Veterinary Technology program or supporting a credentialed technician in getting their VTS. We also provide an annual CE allowance for our employees to attend conferences and lectures to complete their CE requirements for license renewal.
The results of the compensation analysis helped us to ensure that our compensation remains competitive. Throughout the process, we invested significantly into our team members, as we are very aware of the importance of financial wellbeing and how it relates to the Employee Experience that we aim to deliver. This was independent of our annual performance-based increases that most of our Clinical Services team members are eligible for. In addition to getting annual pay increases four months early, ALL Clinical Services team members got an additional increase on top of that. We will continue to evaluate the market closely to ensure our team members are fairly compensated for the work they do. In our most recent employee experience survey we received feedback that we had improved on this crucial part of the employee engagement. We've also increased our 401(k) match and in 2019, health care costs are, on average, LESS than they were in 2017. We're always looking for ways to provide more to our team members while also remodeling hospitals, buying equipment, etc.
Dr. Linda Lehmkuhl, Chief Executive Officer, recently visited the Columbus hospital to discuss our vision, mission, values, and purpose, which tied in the importance of organizational growth. We are uniquely positioned as a veterinary owned and led organization, which our growth will continue to allow us to maintain. We are medically led and we are not owned by a big corporation or private equity firm. We are a "care first" organization. The leadership of the Columbus hospital are veterinary professionals themselves with many years of clinical practice in specialty and emergency medicine. I am sorry you feel there is a disconnect between the people doing the work and those making decisions. Along with being veterinarian owned and lead we have a management model in place to help with ensuring that the clinical teams have a voice at the table where hospital decisions are made. These clinical managers work amongst their teams so they can advocate for them and work through concerns prior to change being implemented or processes being rolled out. Please consider discussing your concerns with them or the MD/HD in order to ensure we close the gap you are experiencing.
