Terms and Conditions - The Meraki Initiative

Please read these license terms carefully

By clicking ‘Accept’ you agree to these terms which will bind you.

If you do not agree to these terms, do not proceed with using The Meraki Initiative website.

Who we are and what this agreement does

We, Your Vet Network Ltd of Office 6, First floor South Devon House, Babbage Road, Totnes, TQ9 5JA, license you to use www.merakiinitiative.com (Site) and any updates or supplements to it and the content we provide to you through it (Service) as permitted in these terms.

Our purpose and aim to be a responsible business

Our intention is to accelerate cultural change to transform the veterinary industry so that everyone can fulfil their ambitions. We intend to bring together students, professionals and employers to ensure the right people end up in the right workplace by building shared value relationships. We will showcase workplace cultures to raise awareness of cultural best practice with the intention of inspiring leadership in one another. This will help create great workplaces as employers learn how to better meet the needs of their people, our society and our environment, ultimately improving the wellbeing, engagement and the sustainability of our workforce; resulting in a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole.

While doing that we will ensure that we will take all decisions mindful of our intention to benefit society as a whole and to minimise our environmental impact. For more information on this subject please email olly@merakiinitiative.com.

Your privacy

We only use any personal data we collect through your use of the Site and the Services such as your CV and other personal information in the ways set out in our privacy policy www.merakiinitiative.com/privacy-policy/. While the Site is available for use outside the UK where a lower level of data protection may apply, we will always, so far as permitted, comply with our privacy policy.

Use of the Site and the Services

The information and the Services available on the Site are provided for the sole purposes of:

Individuals looking to make industry connections, explore employment opportunities, career information and thought leadership content within the veterinary sector;
Veterinary employers seeking to market their workplace, recruit staff to work in the veterinary profession, explore thought leadership content and use any of our other services that include but are not limited to senior leadership coaching, consultancy services, survey tools to measure employee experience, and videography production services.

You may use, print and download information from the Site for these specific purposes only and for no other personal or commercial purpose. You may not otherwise copy, display, transmit or distribute any material from the site and if you do or if you perform any other unauthorised processing of information on the site it shall be deemed a material breach of these terms and conditions which, will entitle us to terminate access to the Site and the Services immediately on notice in writing.

Particular Services

Without registration

Read content

You will be able to read some content posted on the site. Some content may be gated. To view these articles in full you will need to register.

Workplace search

The ability to search for a workplace and view their profile but not their employment opportunity insights or the profiles of their team will be added shortly.

Registration and approval process

This is platform available to those studying or working in the veterinary profession. To register as an individual you understand and agree to provide proof of identity, professional qualification and professional regulatory body membership as required to confirm your identity and either study or work within the veterinary profession.

This is a free of charge service and in registering for this service you accept that you will receive emails about The Meraki Initiative, but understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.

After registration as an individual

Practice managers, veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses, veterinary care assistants, student veterinary nurses, veterinary students, veterinary technicians and veterinary technologists are able to register and create a career profile.

If you register on the Site, you will have access to the following Service:

The ability to see the details of veterinary employer’s workplace profiles offering employee experience and employment opportunity insights. Full content displayed on their profile will be added shortly.
You will be able to build up a personal career profile and store it privately unpublished or published.
You will be able to change the status and content of your profile as you wish.
Ways to publish and make your profile public:
1. If your employer has registered your workplace you may request to link your profile with your employer’s profile. To do this you must first have a registered and approved career profile. Find your workplace and on the workplace profile click the ‘I work here’ link. This will send a notification and an ‘acceptance’ link to the workplace. If accepted a link to your profile will be published under ‘Our team’ on your employer’s workplace profile. Registered and approved users who are able to view your employer’s profile will then be able to view your profile and email you. You will be able to unlink your profile from your workplace at any point.
Ways to privately share your profile:
1. When you ‘Express interest’ in a workplace profile you are sending a connection request to with them as a potential prospective employer. If an employer accepts your request, this adds your profile to their ‘Network’ contact list who is then able to view your profile and email you. This workplace will also appear under your ‘Network’ of contacts. You may un-connect at any point from such a workplace to remove yourself from their network list of contacts and their ability to view your profile.
2. When you apply to a job, the workplace profile administrators of the workplace to which you are applying will be able to view your profile.
You can ‘Follow’ a workplace profile privately without a workplace knowing.
You will receive job and news blog post notifications whenever a workplace profile that you have ‘Express interest’ in and connected with or ‘Follow’ posts a new job or article to their profile.
The ability to search employment opportunities requires your profile to be approved. These features will be added shortly and so approval may not happen immediately. In the mean time you are free to enjoy completing your career profile.
Other Services are being added from time to time.

After registration as a workplace

Any veterinary employer may create a workplace profile. Veterinary employers may be located anywhere in the world. An onboarding introductory meeting is arranged to confirm your authority to create a workplace profile and to approve registration. The approval and ability to publish a profile is launching initially for UK workplaces. The approval and ability to publish a non-UK workplace profile will be added shortly. Non-UK veterinary employers however in the meantime may start completing their profile after registering their workplace.

Professional nurse, veterinary surgeon and practice manager users may create a workplace profile.
You will be able to create a ‘Basecamp’ workplace profile to share an insight into life at your workplace, your caseload (clinical practices), any expertise within your team and the employee experience you offer on the Site to attract, engage and recruit new employees.
You will be able to change your recruitment status and content of your profile as you wish.
You will be able to list any workplace awards, accreditations and satellite workplaces.
You will be able to upload photographs.
You will be able to describe the student placement experiences you offer.
You are able to accept ‘Expressions of interest’ from students and professionals who have clicked ‘Express interest’ on your workplace profile, building your own network list of contacts. This is done and connections stored under your ‘My network’ in your dashboard and will allow you to access and view their career profile.
Registered users may choose to ‘Follow’ your workplace. This is a silent expression of interest, storing a link to your workplace in the user’s ‘Network’ but does not send your workplace any notification that they are following you.
You will be able to accept your employees request to link their career profile to display under ‘Our team’ on your profile. To do this your employees must first register to create a career profile. Once approved they can search for your workplace. When on your workplace profile they click the ‘I work here’ link.
Under ‘Manage blogs’ the ability to write and post to your profile ‘News’ and ‘Team insight’ blog content will be added shortly. A notification is sent to all users in your ‘Network’ and to users who ‘Follow’ you when you post a new blog article.
Under ‘HR manager’ the ability to post searchable job vacancies will be added shortly. These will initially be for veterinary surgeons, student nurses, veterinary nurses, veterinary care assistants, veterinary technicians and veterinary technologists. A notification is sent to all users in your ‘Network’ and who ‘Follow’ you when you post a job.
Under ‘Account settings’ a workplace admin may search for a user and add multiple workplace admins to the workplace profile.
The ability for your workplace profile to be searchable will be added shortly.
The ability for your job vacancies to be searchable will be added shortly.
Other Services are being added from time to time.

We accept no responsibility for the content that you share and publish on your profile. In publishing to share content and images, that may include photos and third-party workplace awards and accreditation logos, you acknowledge that it is your responsibility to ensure you have copyright and permission to do so and that the information accurately portrays your workplace.

Payment for services

Subscriptions

Advertised prices represent a trial launch price:

The premiums for both the paid annually and paid monthly subscriptions represent a one-year contract from the date of initial workplace registration. After this time period, prices are subject to change.
All ‘Create a workplace profile’ requests are given a 14-day free trial from when the request to ‘Create a workplace profile’ is received.
Subscriptions are invoiced after this 14-day free trial.
Payment terms are 7 days.
Where invoices are not settled within 14 days of invoicing (28 days after the request to ‘Create a workplace profile’ was received):
- If the workplace profile has already been approved – the workplace profile and the workplace admin’s personal account will both be deactivated and a £20 administrative fee incurred to re-activate their accounts.
- If the workplace profile has not been approved – the workplace admin’s personal account will be deactivated and a £20 administrative fee incurred to re-activate their account.

Video embedding functionality

Annual fee to have a video embedded into your workplace profile is £99

Other services

Additional free and paid services and profile upgrades will be added from time to time as more features are added to the platform.

Cancellation of services

Career profiles

Users may request to cancel their membership to have their profile deleted at any time. This is done in ‘Account settings’ and requesting to delete your account. Alternatively you may email your cancellation request to membership@merakiinitiative.com. Once a cancellation request has been actioned your career profile data is irrecoverably deleted.

Workplace profiles

Subscriptions may be cancelled at any time in ‘Account settings’ by requesting to delete your account. Alternatively you may email your cancellation request to membership@merakiinitiative.com. Subscriptions cancelled within 28 days of your request to ‘Create a workplace profile’ will not incur any charges. A cooling off period for annual subscription plans cancelled within 14 days of payment will be eligible for a full refund. Monthly subscription plans may be cancelled at any time to end their subscription service without incurring further charges. Once a cancellation request has been actioned your workplace profile data is irrecoverably deleted.

Headhunting and Recruitment

The Site and the Services provided may not be used by any recruitment adviser, agency or firm for any recruitment related purpose.

Only businesses that are veterinary workplaces that have registered are permitted to use the Site and the Services for the purpose of marketing their workplace and advertising employment vacancies to attract and build relationships with prospective employees.

Licence restrictions

You agree that you will:

Not copy any part of the Site or the Services, except as part of the normal use of the Site and the Services or where it is necessary for the purpose of back-up or operational security;
Not translate, merge, adapt, vary, alter or modify, the whole or any part of the Site, Documentation or Services nor permit the Site or the Services or any part of them to be combined with, or become incorporated in, any other programs, except as necessary to use the Site and the Services on devices as permitted in these terms;
Not disassemble, de-compile, reverse engineer or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Site or the Services nor attempt to do any such things, except to the extent permitted by virtue of sections 50B and 296A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Comply with the Acceptable Use Restrictions below and the Headhunting and Recruitment conditions above.

Acceptable Use restrictions

You must:

Not use the Site or any Service in any unlawful manner, for any unlawful purpose, or in any manner inconsistent with these terms, or act fraudulently or maliciously, for example, by hacking into or inserting malicious code, such as viruses, or harmful data, into the Site, any Service or any operating system;
Not infringe our intellectual property rights or those of any third party in relation to your use of the Site or any Service, including by the submission of any material (to the extent that such use is not licensed by these terms);
Not transmit any material that is upload, post or transmit through the Site, anything that:
1. Violates or infringes in any way upon the rights of others, including any statements which may defame, harass, stalk or threaten others;
2. You know to be false, misleading or inaccurate;
3. Contains blatant expressions of bigotry, racism, racially or ethnically offensive content, hate speech, abusiveness, vulgarity or profanity;
4. Contains or advocates pornography or sexually explicit content, or that is otherwise obscene or lewd;
5. Violates any law or advocates or provides instruction on dangerous, illegal, or predatory acts, or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them;
6. Advocates violent behaviour; or
7. Poses, in our sole opinion, a threat to personal or public safety, in relation to your use of the Site or any Service;
Not use the Site or any Service in a way that could damage, disable, overburden, impair or compromise our systems or security or interfere with other users; and
Not collect or harvest any information or data from any Service or our systems or attempt to decipher any transmissions to or from the servers running any Service.

Further, we reserve the right to suspend provision of the Site and the Services to you in circumstances where we reasonably believe that you have performed any unauthorised processing of information or have behaved in a way that is contrary to the rules of your professional regulatory body.

Support for the Site and how to tell us about problems

Support – If you want to learn more about the Site or the Service or have any problems using them please email info@merakiinitiative.com.

Contacting us (including with complaints) – If you think the Site or the Services are faulty or misdescribed or wish to contact us for any other reason please email our customer service team at info@merakiinitiative.com.

How we will communicate with you – If we have to contact you we will do so by email, by SMS or by pre-paid post, using the contact details you have provided to us.

You must be 16 to register on the Site

You must be 16 or over to accept these terms and register to use the Site.

You may not transfer the Site to someone else

We are giving you personally the right to use the Site and the Service and you may not transfer the Site or the Service to someone else, whether for money, for anything else or for nothing.

Changes to these terms

We may need to change these terms to reflect changes in law or best practice or to deal with additional features which we introduce. We will give you at least 30 days’ notice of any change by sending you an email with details of the change or notifying you of a change when you next connect to the Site. If you do not accept the notified changes, you may not continue to use the Site or the Service.

Update to the Site and changes to the Service

From time to time we may automatically update the Site and change the Service to improve performance, enhance functionality, reflect changes to the operating system or address security issues.

We may collect technical data about your device

By using the Site or any of the Services, you agree to us collecting and using technical information about the devices you use the Site on and related software, hardware and peripherals to improve our products and to provide any Services to you.

We may collect location data (but you can turn location services off)

The vacancy search service will make use of location data sent from your devices. You can turn off this functionality at any time by turning off the location services settings for the Site on the device. If you use these Services, you consent to us and our affiliates’ and licensees’ transmission, collection, retention, maintenance, processing and use of your location data and queries to provide and improve location-based services. You may stop us collecting such data at any time by turning off the location services settings on your device.

We are not responsible for other websites you link to

The Site or any Service may contain links to other independent websites which are not provided by us. Such independent sites are not under our control, and we are not responsible for and have not checked and approved their content or their privacy policies (if any). You will need to make your own independent judgement about whether to use any such independent sites, including whether to buy any products or services offered by them.

Intellectual property rights

All intellectual property rights in the Site, the Documentation and the Services throughout the world belong to us and the rights in the Site and the Services are licensed (not sold) to you. You have no intellectual property rights in, or to, the Site, the Documentation or the Services other than the right to use them in accordance with these terms.

Our responsibility for loss or damage suffered by you

We are responsible to you for foreseeable loss and damage caused by us – If we fail to comply with these terms, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or our failing to use reasonable care and skill. Loss or damage is foreseeable if either it is obvious that it will happen or if, at the time you accepted these terms, both we and you knew it might happen.

We do not exclude or limit in any way our liability to you where it would be unlawful to do so – This includes liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence or the negligence of our employees, agents or subcontractors or for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation. Otherwise our liability to you is limited to £500.00.

When we are liable for damage to your property – If defective digital content that we have supplied damages a device or digital content belonging to you, we will either repair the damage or pay you compensation.

We are not liable for business losses – If you use the Site for any commercial, business or resale purpose we will have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

Limitations to the Site and the Services – The Site and the Services are provided for general information and entertainment purposes only. They do not offer advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of information obtained from the Site or the Service. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information provided by the Site and the Service, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that such information is accurate, complete or up to date.

Please back-up content and data used with the Site – We recommend that you back up any content and data used in connection with the Site, to protect yourself in case of problems with the Site or the Service.

We are not responsible for events outside our control – If our provision of the Services or support for the Site or the Services is delayed by an event outside our control then we will contact you as soon as possible to let you know and we will take steps to minimise the effect of the delay. Provided we do this we will not be liable for delays caused by the event but if there is a risk of substantial delay you may contact us to end your contract with us and receive a refund for any Services you have paid for but not received.

We may end your rights to use the Site and the Services if you break these terms

We may end your rights to use the Site and Services at any time by contacting you if you have broken these terms in a serious way. If what you have done can be put right, we will give you a reasonable opportunity to do so. If we end your rights to use the Site and Services you must stop all activities authorised by these terms, including your use of the Site and any Services.

We may transfer this agreement to someone else

We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation. We will always tell you in writing if this happens and we will ensure that the transfer will not affect your rights under the contract.

You need our consent to transfer your rights to someone else

You may only transfer your rights or your obligations under these terms to another person if we agree in writing.

No rights for third parties

This agreement does not give rise to any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 to enforce any term of this agreement.

If a court finds part of this contract illegal, the rest will continue in force

Each of the paragraphs of these terms operates separately. If any court or relevant authority decides that any of them are unlawful, the remaining paragraphs will remain in full force and effect.

Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later

Even if we delay in enforcing this contract, we can still enforce it later. If we do not insist immediately that you do anything you are required to do under these terms, or if we delay in taking steps against you in respect of your breaking this contract, that will not mean that you do not have to do those things and it will not prevent us taking steps against you at a later date.

Which laws apply to this contract and where you may bring legal proceedings

These terms are governed by English law and you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in the English courts. If you live in Scotland, you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Scottish or the English courts. If you live in Northern Ireland you can bring legal proceedings in respect of the products in either the Northern Irish or the English courts.

Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 – Scope of Our Obligations

For the purposes of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003 (the “Regulations”), we are not an employment business and we do not introduce or supply work-seekers to hirers (or vice versa). Our Services are not covered by the Regulations. The Regulations seek to ensure that work-seekers are only proposed by Employment Agencies for roles for which they are properly qualified and that hirers are only offered work-seekers who have the appropriate levels of experience, training, qualifications and authorisation for the position to be filled. It is recommended that, if you are seeking work you undertake the steps set out in the Regulations to ensure your suitability for the role advertised or, if you are a recruiting, to ensure a work-seeker’s suitability for your the role. These could include:

If you are a work-seeker; checking the identity of the employer and the nature of its business, the commencement date and duration of the position, the position to be filled including type of work, location, hours and risks to health and safety, experience, training, qualifications and authorisation which the employer considers necessary or are required by law or otherwise to undertake the position, whether any expenses are payable by you as a work-seeker or whether there are any requirements imposed by law or otherwise for you to satisfy before taking up a position.
If you are an employer; checking the identity of the work-seeker and that the work-seeker has the experience, training, qualifications and authorisation required by law or otherwise for the position and whether there are any requirements imposed by law or otherwise for you, as the hirer, to meet to enable a work-seeker to take up a position.

In addition, where professional qualifications are required or where work-seekers are to work with vulnerable persons or children, you should obtain copies of the relevant qualifications or authorisation, obtain at least two references from people who are not relatives of the work-seeker and undertake a criminal records bureau check of the work-seeker.