A staffing agency can be a valuable, yet underrated, tool in the search for employees who are a “right fit” for your medical facility. Many in the healthcare field opt to use staffing agencies for new hires, preferring them even over recruiters. These services specialize in the medical field, with an eye for caregiving personnel, and each prospective hire has been carefully screened and vetted, and has the expertise you need.
When you’re faced with the need for additional nursing staff in your hospital, clinic, or nursing facility, you don’t have the luxury of wading through the interview process. Your census numbers may be up, you may be experiencing a higher than normal influx of patients, or you may simply be growing. Whatever the reason, you can’t afford the risk that comes with being understaffed. Additional workers are needed immediately.
By utilizing the services of a staffing agency, you can be assured your personnel will be ready to jump right in. And that’s just one of the many benefits of sourcing your new hires through staffing services. Some of the more significant reasons for taking advantage of these specialized agencies are:
Experience
For many professional caregivers, burnout is a very real consequence of the career. Mandatory overtime, short-staffing, and more and more duties added to already-burdened staff, make part-time, or temporary work, seem ideal. When savvy and experienced nursing professionals desire a less-intense schedule, but still want to remain true to their vocation, staffing agencies are the first choice.
What this means for you is an experienced and seasoned professional who can rise to the occasion with minimal training-usually in just protocols and procedures particular to your facility and how you conduct patient care. Your new hire can fill in the gaps seamlessly.
Quality Candidates
Staffing services typically pre-interview your potential new employee prior to sending them your way. This means you’ll only be in contact with those nurses who can meet your facilities needs. Specific and detailed resumes will be gone over thoroughly to ensure the person with whom you meet is supremely qualified and experienced. You have nothing to lose, and much to gain when you seek out a new employee through a staffing agency.
Flexibility for You
Typically, when you contract with a staffing service, you have an expectation that your new hire will work for a certain period of time, and then you’ll option to keep him or her on board, if the need for additional staff is still there. If you find the employee is not a good fit, or if your census numbers fall short, for whatever reason, you have the flexibility to work with the staffing agency in order to accommodate your needs. When you hire through a recruitment specialist, or go through the trouble of finding someone by advertising the position, you don’t have nearly as much flexibility.
Interviews Have Been Conducted
With your busy schedule, you can’t afford to spend hour upon hour meeting with candidates who may or may not be qualified to fill the position you have available. Professional staffing services interview your candidates for you. All of the discussions regarding salary, benefits, PTO, and schedules have been discussed, so there are no surprises.
Save Time and Money
In the very busy world of healthcare, you need qualified professionals to hit the ground running. You can’t afford to waste precious time, nor essential staff members, on training new hires on simple procedures and those tasks they should have mastered through experience. Taking time to train new employees and bring them sufficiently up to speed in order for them to perform their duties takes time away from patient care, creates stress in the workplace, and can end up costing your facility money.
By using a staffing agency for your new hire, you’ve cut down on the interview process, and freed up much of the time you would have spent on training. The staffing agency understands your needs and will find the exact right person for the job. By utilizing the services of a staffing agency, you’ll save time, and money.
Avoid overburdening your current staff, forcing overtime, and creating an atmosphere of low morale. Find the personnel you need now through the services of a staffing agency. The ‘grunt work’ involved in looking for new people, slogging through resumes, and training your new hire has been done for you. You are in charge should you find the new hire isn’t working out, or you no longer need the additional staff. And, most importantly, your new hire will be able to enhance your patient care. After all, that’s what nursing is all about.
photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/giobi/2290445273/
