Vets Now
Vets Now: bite-sized learning
Video Arts in conversation with Michelle Fraser, HR Manager
Vets Now is the UK’s leading provider of Out Of Hours emergency veterinary care. The company employs over 360 people.
The company is growing at a phenomenal rate – that must throw up some issues for learning and development
The growth is an issue and so is that fact that our employees work in very small and isolated teams. In the last year we’ve been working on developing our management training programme to help our senior clinicians lead their team – because they are all effectively running their own small business.
What skills gaps are you trying to address?
Our senior vets come into the business as fantastic clinicians: they’re really good at the veterinary side of things. However, they often don’t have much experience of leadership and managing people and the specific skills that come with that.
Our clinicians work out-of- hours so they needed something that they could use at two o’clock in the morning when they haven’t got a lot of support from head office. That’s when we decided to use Video Arts to help us develop the manager guides. So now, as well as telling them about our policies and procedures, it shows them how to deal with situations, when and where they arise, using specific video learning clips from Video Arts. Now we can reach all of our people, all of the time without relying on face-to-face training, which is really important.
Why do you like using video learning?
For us it allows the managers to see how other people approach situations. The programmes are designed to show the right way and the wrong way so they can see the good and the bad.
And why did you decide to work with Video Arts?
They use familiar faces which means the acting is good, and there’s often a little bit of humour which helps get the message across – it’s not as dry as some.
We don’t like to be prescriptive in telling people what to do but we do want to keep improving the way we do things. Video Arts lends itself well to our culture by helping people to assess and improve the way they work.
Top five most popular video clips among Vets Now managers:
1. The appraisal interview
2. Feedback for performance
3. Performance review
4. It’s your choice: selection skills
5. The ultimate stress show
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