Business Sustainability Workstream

Gathering comprehensive data to inform business planning is the first important piece of work being undertaken by the Vet Futures’ Business Sustainability Group.

New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) CEO Kevin Bryant, who is supporting the Veterinary Business Branch of NZVA, which is leading this workstream, says the profession is currently lacking good data about clinics across the country. This makes it difficult to produce benchmarks and plan for the future. The Veterinary Business Branch (VBB) already run benchmarking surveys for remuneration and fees and are looking to add business KPIs as another survey stream.

Once this information has been gathered, Vet Futures aims to provide business tools, resources, and training to help veterinary practice owners and managers increase their profitability. The Business Sustainability Group also hopes to help remove work duplication and introduce best practice business systems to support employment and leadership-related issues.

“These initiatives will have big downstream effects, because if a clinic can increase its profitability, it can then increase the amount it pays people, which in turn helps with staff retention,” Kevin says.

Another area the Business Sustainability Group is keen to explore is the culture in veterinary clinics, which varies widely across the country. “Some people love their job, feel valued, know their views are taken into consideration and that there are opportunities for development. For some, the opposite applies,” VBB says.

“If we can highlight what a good workplace looks like, it will help provide a benchmark for people to say whether they are in a good place or not, and clinics can make improvements. There are many talented people out there and we want to keep those people in the profession and the wider industry.”

Kevin says the Business Sustainability group is keen to get started on its work with the goal of completing two or three projects in the next year.

There is also an opportunity for people to understand the difference between competency and proficiency and the impact a proficient workforce has on both business sustainability and wellbeing. A proficient workforce needs to be paid well for what it does.

If you have a specific interest in business sustainability and would like to be considered for this working group, please contact Iain by emailing [email protected]