WHEN it comes to supporting colleagues, Poultry Health Services (PHS) has it cracked.
Team members get together and catch up at relaxed breakfast club meetings when they review the past month, discuss clinical cases, share ideas and look ahead.
Generous helpings of moral and clinical support are served up with the coffee and pastries –ingredients that have helped PHS to earn its reputation for being a great place to work.
PHS is one of the UK’s largest commercial poultry and game bird veterinary practices and was recognised as the Employer of the Year at the inaugural National Women in Agriculture Awards, organised earlier this year by Mark Allen Group, publisher of Farmers Weekly.
PHS provides a range of services to clients to improve the health, welfare and performance of flocks, including diagnostic testing, performance and data reviews, farm visits and post-mortems.
Veterinary director Dr Sara Perez leads the team of 25 vets and 12 support colleagues across seven practices in Sheriff Hutton in North Yorkshire, Edinburgh, Preston, Tarpoley, Sutton Bonington, Shrewsbury, Leominster, Hereford and Devon as well as two laboratories in Scotland and Yorkshire.
Sara said: “I believe that supporting each other is the key to a happy work environment. We make time to discuss cases we’re working on and how we can support our clients, and also share knowledge from the various CPD sessions attended so that everyone can benefit.
“Growing team spirit is vital to us as a business and for retaining the team. By getting the right people and creating the right environment, we keep attracting the right people. Our goal is to support individuals who are eager to build a career and are motivated to work.”
“We organise an annual team-building day when we discuss highlights of the past year and aims for the next 12 months. The last such gathering included an escape room challenge as well as a session on relaxation tips to use at work.
“Everyone comes away from this event having had a great time, with a new skill and with a better understanding of the business goals.”
Other factors that make PHS an attractive workplace include the high levels of support given to graduate vets as well as to working parents.
VetPartners is proud of its culture of support and belonging, and colleagues returning from time away to start a family are given all the help they need, while new graduates are supported so they can adapt from university life to working full time in practice.
“It is part of our ethos, and that of VetPartners, to offer a smooth transition between vet school and the reality of practice,” said Sara. “I had a brilliant internship at my first poultry vet job in the UK which was very hands on. This was mainly because I had to ‘be the hands’ for the vet I was shadowing since he had a fractured wrist!
“This style of on-the-job learning has influenced our graduate programmes, and we encourage our graduates to be hands on and get experience by ‘doing’. Where we can, we also offer one-to-one, student-to-vet experience. Knowledge sharing is crucial in our sector given universities don’t focus on poultry medicine, so vets often arrive with basic poultry health knowledge.”
PHS vets are also encouraged to gain clinical as well as confidence and interpersonal skills – and to share their knowledge and experience to help each other.
More than half of PHS’ vets are women, and the practice offers regular ‘keeping in touch days’ to female vets returning to work following maternity leave, part-time and flexible working, as well as refresher clinical sessions.
Sara said: “We find this works well. They organise their days off and rota between themselves, and then the wider team support and cover during school holidays. Having a strong sense of teamwork and a supportive environment encourages others to help infill the gaps where possible.
“We’ve found that by supporting our team with their young families it helps grow loyalty and commitment in the long term – for example, when their children go to school, they may be able to work more hours or help cover others.”
Senior managers have weekly virtual team meetings to discuss clients, operational aspects and HR, as well as quarterly lunch and learn sessions and monthly technical forums where the vets choose a topic they want to know more about and experts are invited to run a session.
Sara said: “We are also an approved practice to coach new vets through the RVC. During the appraisals, every individual’s objective for the following 12 months is discussed. These can be very varied; some vets and scientists may want to undertake post graduate qualifications whereas other members of the team are more interested in gaining practical skills like how to deal with difficult situations, mental health first aid courses or sustainability in practice.
“I believe that the best working environment is achieved by having a wide range of skills, all complementing one another to offer clients the best possible service, while motivating our team to improve themselves every day in a happy and relaxed environment.
“One of our vets is a VetPartners ‘well-being champion’. As part of her role, she sends a weekly ‘well-being Wednesday’ email which includes inspiring messages, music and exercise suggestions to help us take a step back from our work. She also shares personal challenges and experiences to encourage open conversation.
“Work-space atmosphere is important to us – we believe in the oxygenating power of plants and the calm they bring. This, combined with feel-good factor of being a dog-friendly work environment (not in clinical areas) helps create a relaxed environment.
“The best part of my role as director is seeing people progress in their careers from starting with us as new grads. We are a cosmopolitan group with vets from Italy, Poland, Spain, Ireland, France, Australia, Portugal, Romania and New Zealand so I often see people at international congresses who trained or worked with us. Hopefully everyone knows the door is always open for people who want to come back if they have tried other venues.”
If you’re interested in a career at PHS or any of our veterinary practices across the UK and Europe, visit our careers page or you can email careers@vetpartners.co.uk for a friendly chat.