Free template

The recruitment pack for veterinary practices

Most practices do not have a recruitment problem. They have a recruitment process problem. The advert says nothing a candidate could not have guessed, the interview is a chat, nobody writes anything down, the offer goes out ten days later, and the candidate takes the job that came back the same afternoon.

Editable Word document, free, emailed to you.

What is in it

• A job advert template built round the shift pattern and the caseload rather than the word “friendly”.
• A structured interview pack: fourteen questions to pick from, and a scoring matrix that asks for evidence instead of adjectives.
• A right to work check record with the declaration wording that gives you a statutory excuse.
• A conditional offer letter setting out every condition before acceptance.
• A reference request that asks closed questions, so you get answers rather than dates.
• A recruitment file record with a deletion date, because candidate data has a retention period too.

Publish the salary

Adverts without a salary attract fewer applications and worse matched ones, and the profession talks anyway. If you cannot publish a single figure, publish the band. Withholding it mostly filters out the people who cannot afford to spend an afternoon finding out the job pays less than the one they have.

Sell the rota, not the culture

Every practice in the country describes itself as friendly, supportive and forward thinking. Almost none say the rota is published six weeks ahead, or that lunch is protected, or that there is no out of hours, or that the four day week is real rather than four long days plus a Saturday. Those are the sentences a candidate repeats to their partner over dinner, and they are the ones that fill the vacancy.

Score before you discuss

The moment one panel member says “I really liked her”, the other scores move. Everybody scores independently, in writing, and then you compare. It produces better decisions, and if a rejected candidate later says the process was discriminatory, a scored matrix with written evidence is the difference between a defence and a shrug.

Check everybody’s right to work

Every employee, before their first day, no exceptions. Checking only the people you think might need checking is itself discrimination, and an unchecked employee leaves you exposed to a civil penalty. Do it properly and keep a dated copy, and you have a statutory excuse. Do it late and you have nothing.

Probation is a process now, not a grace period

Unfair dismissal is a day one right under the Employment Rights Act 2025. Probation still matters, but it is a period in which you run a proper process and write things down, not a period in which the rules do not apply. The offer letter in this pack sets the probation terms out plainly so nobody is surprised.

Use it with our guides to interview questions, right to work checks and the new starter pack for the fortnight after they accept.