Flexibility from the leader’s perspective

From the ability to run an errand to knowing a shift can be easily covered, there are many ways to interpret what “flexibility” means to veterinary teams and how it relates to keeping good teams in practice. Here, we consider job flexibility from the perspective of the leadership team: how job flexibility is interpreted, its importance, and how some teams are doing it well. 

What does flexibility in the workplace mean? 

Flexibility can mean different things to different people depending on both their understanding of the word and their specific needs.  

It can include changeability in the number of hours worked or shift start and end times. It could mean the ability to plan out a schedule in advance around other events and the ability to change the plan at the last minute due to an emergency or illness. It might also mean varying the type of work performed to accommodate medical needs, training purposes, or a desire for variety.

While flexibility is often associated with working moms who need flexible schedules to accommodate their childcare responsibilities, it is by no means a need exclusive to this demographic. Socially and culturally, it is becoming more accepted (and even expected) that parents of any gender would share childcaring responsibilities that would affect their scheduling needs in the workplace. And, childcare is far from the only reason why employees need flexibility.   

Jennifer Jones-Shults, DVM, owner of Veterinary Emergency Care and Veterinary Rehabilitation Hospital in Cary, North Carolina, reports that less than 50% of the requests she receives for flexibility from her employees have anything to do with parenting at all. While she stresses that the reason for the request shouldn’t matter, the ones that she does hear about include needing to care for aging parents, wanting to travel, and being able to leave early to attend a concert, among others.   

Flexibility doesn’t just depend upon the needs of the individual team member, said Dijana Katan, DVM, medical director of VCA Ocean Beach Animal Hospital in Longview, Washington. It also involves adapting to the changing needs of the workplace such as the absence of another member of the team, changes in the practice’s opening hours, or other practice needs that might necessitate changing schedules or assigned job duties.   

The importance of flexibility 

Toccoa Wolf, DVM, owner of Sitka Animal Hospital in Sitka, Alaska, calls flexibility a “mindset that can lead to increased productivity, happiness, and fulfillment for employees.” She believes it can result in a more positive and supportive workplace culture that can benefit not only the practice personnel but the business itself.  

“Creating a workplace environment where team members feel supported and empowered to prioritize their personal lives is a core value that I prioritize as a practice owner,” she said. For her, this includes allowing employees to attend family events, take mental health days, and take time off for activities that allow them to feel fulfilled and energized outside of work.  

Flexibility also can lead to innovation, Wolf said. When employees are given autonomy and ownership over their schedules and encouraged to bring their ideas and creativity to the table, the result is often the implementation of positive changes within the practice that she as a business owner might not have otherwise considered.  

The practice benefits from flexibility in other ways as well. With hiring demand continually high for both veterinarians and other practice team members, job flexibility can serve as an important differentiator for practices trying to recruit new talent and retain their current team members.  

As further evidence of this, Modern Animal, a group of 20 veterinary practices located throughout California and Texas, surveyed over 300 doctors to find out what was most important to them. Chief Medical Officer Christie Long, DVM, reported that having a good work schedule ranked at the top of the list of what survey respondents valued most.  

Ways to accomplish flexibility 

Katan noted that multiple members of her team commute significant distances to get to work every day. She determined that delaying the opening and closing hours of the practice would better accommodate the commute times for these team members—and made that change. She also adjusts individual employees’ schedules to work around family obligations.  

Additionally, she gives each veterinarian the freedom to determine how to distribute their appointments between sick, well, urgent, and surgery to accomplish a schedule that works for them. “I think the best way to accomplish flexibility is by having open conversations with everyone in the workplace to determine what the needs are, and brainstorm to benefit everyone,” she said.  

Wolf makes sure her team knows they can take mental health days when they need them, in addition to other reasons for requesting time off. “By removing the pressure associated with requesting time off for personal reasons, I aim to create a work culture where employees feel valued and respected,” she said. Her practice’s two-hour lunch break policy was instituted to ensure that everyone on the team gets an hour-long break each day as well. She reports that these efforts have helped her nurture a team that feels “motivated, valued, and happy to contribute their best work.” 

Long said that to ensure personnel don’t end up having to stay at work past the end of their shift, Modern Animal schedules are capped at 16 appointments per day. Instead of “squeezing in” extra appointments to an already full schedule, each practice has a veterinarian working an urgent care shift each day to accommodate sick or injured pets that need to be seen the same day. The result of this, Long explains, is that veterinarians working a regular appointment shift can move some of their 16 scheduled cases around or turn some into drop–off appointments to be able to leave early on occasion. 

Jones-Shults feels strongly about the importance of limiting the number of hours worked per week. “I have hard rules around scheduling,” she said, explaining that none of her employees are scheduled to work more than 36 hours per week. Most employees work the full nine-hour shift, but those who wish to work fewer hours can work with Jones-Shults to transition to a shift as short as four hours once they have been fully trained.  

No matter how long the shift is, Jones-Shults is very intentional about making sure doctors and staff members are able to leave on time. This requires efficiency aids such as templates, as well as scheduling practices like building time into the schedule for record writing. 

Beyond shift scheduling 

Flexibility is not limited to hours worked. For some, it may mean variety in work environment or even the ability to work from home.   

While veterinary practice doesn’t often lend itself to these alternatives, some companies have found ways to make it work. Modern Animal and Petfolk, another group of veterinary general practice and urgent care centers throughout the US, both maintain in-house relief teams comprised of veterinarians who have expressed a willingness and desire to work in different practice locations in their area as the company’s needs require. Some even travel to other states to work if they have a desire to travel. Modern Animal also employs telehealth veterinarians who work from home conducting telemedicine appointments and conducting client communications for veterinarians who are out of the office.   

Befitting the term itself, there are an infinite number of ways in which flexibility can be utilized by veterinary leadership to benefit the whole team. In the next article in this series, we will speak with associate veterinarians and practice team members about their experiences with job flexibility and what it means to them.  

This article is part of our Stay, Please series, which focuses on providing resources (as identified in our Stay, Please retention study) to retain the 30% of all veterinary professionals considering leaving their clinical practice. Here at AAHA, we believe you were made for this work, and we’re committed to making clinical practice a sustainable career choice for every member of the team. 

Photo credit: © AAHA/Mickey Thomas 

Disclaimer: The views expressed, and topics discussed, in any NEWStat column or article are intended to inform, educate, or entertain, and do not represent an official position by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.