I RECENTLY received a letter from Companies House. It began: “Dear Director, Congratulations on your recent appointment as a company director. Directors have many obligations and legal responsibilities…”
The term “company director” conjures up images of middle-aged men and women in suits in London rushing about looking busy, important and wealthy. Today, as a company director I have: assisted the dead-dog-man extract a 90kg mastiff from the deep freeze, mopped up floors, emptied bins and carried out several menial DIY tasks. Those guys in suits are really missing out… (I have also done some proper vetting, but you see my point).
This column will be a (possibly) monthly look at veterinary life both in practice and some of the wider issues facing the profession. It is based on my working days and as such most opinions expressed are mine, unless they really offend someone important (again) then you’ll know I’m just passing on something I heard through the grapevine. Names may be changed to protect the guilty.
Interview
One of my first experiences on this side of the employee/employer divide was interviewing for a new receptionist. It was a part-time post and we had over 60 applicants. Several were from sacked solicitors and estate agent staff, many with years of service to one firm on their CV. This was a sad symptom of our current recession.
In one interview we strayed into the realms of bookkeeping and I found I was being asked some pretty tricky questions. I suddenly realised I was bluffing my way through my own interview and quickly changed the subject.
I asked a friend (a real company director, a wealthy one with a suit and everything) if he had any tips on staff recruitment. He advised: “Trust your first impressions, oh and don’t recruit anyone insane – actually I can’t say that, it’s discrimination.”
It was amazing how strong first impressions are, several of the 10 or so we interviewed could be put into the “yes” or “no” category within a few seconds. People say you decide on buying a house in about the first seven seconds of walking in the door.
It is a very difficult thing to pick the right person, especially when you have so many good applicants. Most people/ books advise you to follow up on references, which I did for several applicants after interview.
To speak to their previous employers on the phone was, in most cases, quite enlightening and much better than requesting a written reference which will at best be gushing with praise or at worst a bland, coded, non-committal tract. I think they are more likely to tell you the truth when not having to commit it to print.
My first impression of another of my new roles has, however, changed over the weeks. That is of trying to formalise our health and safety policy for the “Practice Standards Scheme” (PSS).
My first impression was that H&S is dull, complex, tedious, long-winded and mostly pointless. I have definitely changed radically over the last few weeks. I now think it is dull, complex, tedious, long-winded but actually quite important to do and useful.
Risk assessments
I have been using Maggie Shilcock and Georgina Stutchfield’s new practice management book and the HSE website as guides. As recommended I have got the staff to do risk assessments for their own areas of work and the tasks they do. It has made them think about some of the risks and made us as employers realise how clued up or not they are.
Some risks are slightly overstated (a nice example is one of our nurses who wrote that a risk to nurses from working with anaesthetics was her own death) and some are not appreciated, e.g. lay staff handling drugs.
We were discussing risks in pregnancy and whilst everyone was aware of radiation as a risk, many of the lay staff had no idea that some commonly prescribed medications carry a risk of abortion, or just how dangerous or pharmacologically active some of the other stuff is.
Useful process
The review process is useful and shows the staff that you care about them and that you have considered hazards and risks and ultimately made their (and your) environment as safe as possible. Those who do have a heightened sense of risk may be reassured and those in blissful ignorance will be better informed and more able to keep themselves safe.
When it’s all been looked at and written up it’s important to go through it with all the staff. You don’t want to be writing, “If you’d read the H&S file this would never have happened” in their “get well” card. A lot of the stuff is a legal requirement you have as an employer. On a mercenary note, if you didn’t do it and got sued after an accident you would be on a pretty sticky wicket.
There is a lot more to the PSS than H&S but that seems to form a large part of the written material, and a large part of what most practices probably haven’t already done.
■ In the next instalment: a look into the mind of a stressed vet where it’s all got too much, internet pricing, RCVS council expenses revelations and a DIY guide to lion taming. At least one of those issues I’m too scared to investigate. Find out which next time…
