Looking for something genuinely different?
BBEVS is a family-owned veterinary practice working exclusively with birds and exotic pets. We do unusually good work on unusual patients, with good people, interesting problems to solve, and the freedom to change things when they aren't working.
Our patients have feathers, scales, shells, fur, fins and strong opinions about their human minions. We take what we do very seriously, but ourselves considerably less so.
We're looking for a Practice Manager to help us run the place: someone who's very good at people, systems, follow-through and making a busy practice work well.
We don't need someone standing on the sidelines with a clipboard, and we're not particularly interested in management for management's sake. We need someone who can bring some order to a complicated small business, help good people do their jobs well. The kind of person that gets a certain amount of satisfaction from finally fixing the thing that's been mildly annoying everyone for the past three years.
The job
BBEVS has grown and changed a lot over the past 20 years, and we're now being quite deliberate about what comes next.
We're family owned, and we want to stay that way. Independence means decisions can be made by people who actually work here, and when something isn't working we can change it without consulting a steering committee in another state.
But keeping the good bits of independence means making sure the practice itself works properly. We need good systems, clear responsibilities and sensible accountability. People need to know what they own, where their responsibilities finish and when something needs to go somewhere else. We'd also quite like to reach the point where half the practice isn't stored in one person's head.
That's where you come in.
You'll work closely with the Practice Principal and be responsible for turning a fair amount of what we decide into things that actually happen.
The role includes:
- keeping the day-to-day functions of the practice running properly
- maintaining oversight of workflows, systems and processes
- making sure things that have been agreed actually get done
- supporting portfolio holders, who each own different areas of responsibility within the practice
- helping staff understand what they own and where their responsibilities finish
- managing client complaints and difficult client interactions
- supporting rostering, leave and operational coordination
- spotting systems that are clunky, fragile, duplicated or held together by goodwill and an Excel spreadsheet
- holding people kindly, clearly and consistently accountable
- occasionally helping Front of House when another capable human is simply what the situation requires.
This is a proper management role, but it isn't one where we quietly hand you every difficult problem in the building and back away.
You won't be responsible for the practice financials, or expected to manage complex HR and employment matters alone. The Practice Principal will retain those portfolios.
You'll deal with the normal conversations, feedback, coordination and people management that are part of running a team. When something gets genuinely curly, you won't be left holding it on your own.
You might fit in here if...
- You like people, but you aren't frightened of accountability. You're organised, but don't require everyone around you to organise themselves exactly as you do, and you're reasonably good at telling the difference between urgent, important and simply very noisy.
- You notice when the same problem keeps happening and start wondering whether the system, rather than the person, might be the problem. You can have an awkward conversation without avoiding it for three weeks, turning it into a six-page policy, or setting the building on fire
- You communicate clearly, finish things and ask questions when you don't know. You're reasonably unflappable when the day develops a mind of its own, can be warm without being vague and firm without becoming terrifying.
- It would help if you like small, very opinionated creatures and believe that a good veterinary practice should work well for the people who work there, the clients who come through the door and the patients who would generally prefer not to be there at all.
What we offer
We want this role to be sustainable for the person doing it. There's not much point recruiting an excellent Practice Manager and then slowly burying them under the collective contents of everybody else's inbox.
You'll have:
- Five weeks annual leave
- One week CPD leave, pro rata
- CPD support and opportunities for ongoing professional development
- Competitive remuneration, scaled to your experience and the level of responsibility you're ready to take on
- a family-owned workplace where decisions are made by people who actually work in the practice
- genuine scope to influence how the practice operates
- a well-established team with strong clinical, nursing and Front of House capability
- a workplace that takes learning seriously
- the opportunity to work in a genuinely unusual veterinary business with some equally unusual patients
- a team that works hard, thinks hard and retains a fairly healthy appreciation of the inherent absurdity of veterinary medicine.
You don't need to come from veterinary practice management
You might already be an experienced Practice Manager. You might be an experienced veterinary nurse, technician or Front of House leader who's ready to step further into management. Or you might come from healthcare, allied health, professional services, hospitality or another busy service business where you've learned how to manage people, competing priorities and the occasional small fire.
We're more interested in whether you can lead people, build good systems, exercise judgement and get things done than whether you've previously had exactly the right job title.
We also don't expect all of those people to arrive at the same level. Someone taking a genuine step up into management will need different support from an experienced Practice Manager who's ready to take greater ownership from the outset, and the remuneration and scope of the role will reflect the experience and capability you bring.
If you've got a passion for our species but don't know everything about them yet, we can fill in your knowledge. Being our 'person' is the most important attribute.
To apply, please click the Apply button to email your cover letter, resume and three referees to Deborah Monks.