The impact of positive work environment in veterinary medicine

(Photo courtesy of Flourish Veterinary Consulting)

In the summer of 2022, Flourish Veterinary Consulting crafted a survey in SurveyMonkey to investigate how positive leadership and work environments can affect veterinary professionals in the industry. The results showed that positive leadership made veterinary professionals less likely to quit or leave their job/role.¹

Founder of Flourish Veterinary Consulting, Josh Vaisman, became interested in the science of leadership and stated, “We know that leadership makes a difference in the lives of employees. Maybe positive leadership will make a positive difference.”¹

The survey had a total of 597 participants and all data was collected anonymously. It consisted of 3 sections:

• Demographics questions
• A 16-item “4 Ps of Positive Leadership” assessment tool to measure team member’s perception of positive leadership in their workplace
• An 18-item “Workplace Experience” section to measure team member’s sentiment and overall workplace experience

In the first section of the survey, participants were asked to rate their agreement with statements like, “In my workplace, my leader regularly tells me about the positive impact my work is having.”¹ The 16 responses to the items in this section were combined into an “Average Positive Leadership Experience Score,” indicating the participants’ overall perception of their direct leader’s leadership style.

Flourish found that team members who worked for a positive leadership style (scored high in positive leader questions) were also 27% more likely to answer "yes" in staying in their job and 13% less likely to answer "yes" in considering leaving the veterinary profession overall.¹ From these results, Flourish concluded that, typically, veterinary professionals who work for “Positive Leaders” don’t quit and are more satisfied in their position.

Flourish also found that the quality of the relationships at work—especially the relationship with managers—might be among the strongest predictors of job satisfaction.

Learn more about all the results from the Flourish study at https://www.flourish.vet/positive-workplace-study-results

Reference

Leadership & Workplace Experience Study. Flourish Veterinary Consulting, LLC. Published February 14, 2023. Accessed February 21, 2023. https://www.flourish.vet/positive-workplace-study-results