If you work in the healthcare industry, you’re likely familiar with the fact that staffing issues are a commonplace and universal issue with facilities and healthcare providers, one that consistently affects the quality of life and care for those in our society who need it most. Healthcare staffing agencies represent the frontline effort towards combating this issue and are an invaluable and indispensable resource for those companies who need to fill positions quickly. For workers, going through a staffing agency is an excellent way to achieve higher pay, better benefits, and a lifestyle that provides more freedom and personal agency than a traditional hiring process.
Everyday Heroes
A common mantra repeated in the healthcare industry, often a fast-paced and stressful job, is to remember: “What if it was your grandma needing care?” While we cannot always live up to this, it’s a noble goal and one that provides most people who work in this field with the motivation to get through the day. Few workers within this industry do it for the money, as there are far more lucrative and easy jobs available.
Healthcare staffing companies provide the means to accomplish this, as no one can reasonably perform to their best ability working in a facility or building that is chronically understaffed or short-staffed. More importantly, it presents serious and very real issues of personal dignity and suffering for those who are placed in the care of a hospital or facility. Many organizations rely on staffing agencies or travel agencies to fill critical positions that need to be filled, sometimes immediately.
Types of Healthcare Jobs
While many think of the nurse, doctor, or CNA when they picture a healthcare worker, it is a common misconception that these are the only critical workers in the healthcare field. Many other types of professionals and licensed individuals are necessary, such as:
- Information Technology (IT) workers
- Janitorial/Laundry staff
- Public Health government jobs
- Administrative/secretarial work
Without these critical components to the healthcare industry, the whole process would lose its momentum and collapse. While the direct patient care staff, such as nursing, represent perhaps the most visible and directly interactive jobs, positions such as tech support, janitors, and clerks or secretaries act as the lubricant, or “oil”, that keeps the engine of a hospital or facility running. Without these dedicated workers taking care of paperwork, washing bedsheets, taking out the trash, or dealing with phone calls, the nursing staff would be sorely lacking and would find themselves having an extremely difficult time completing their jobs and taking care of patients.
How Staffing Agencies Provide a Better Life for Workers
Besides these excellent reasons to contract through staffing agencies, along with wider opportunities and greater convenience, staffing jobs can provide a higher quality of life for the worker. These agencies can allow you to choose where you want to work with a greater degree of flexibility and can facilitate a smoother transition between jobs if you find yourself unsatisfied with your current one.
For example, if you are willing to work with a staffing agency and become a traveling nurse, your average yearly salary jumps from around $80,000 per year to over $100,000, according to Indeed. This is because any hospital or facility contracting through an agency is likely more desperate to fill the position, and you will find yourself working a job that was sorely needed. Specialized workers in the healthcare field are becoming a more and more scarce commodity, and you should always be paid what you are worth.
Additionally, these agencies allow you to have more freedom where you live, and can facilitate a lifestyle that, while not for everyone, is extraordinarily free and simple. If you’ve ever dreamed of being able to simply pick up and move if you want to, and maybe even have housing provided for you through your work contract, a healthcare staffing agency is the best place to start. Additionally, these agencies provide services such as online medical certificates, further enhancing convenience for both employers and employees.
Finding Fulfillment
The healthcare industry is full of surprises – just ask any CNA or nurse, and you will find that is true. It’s not an average job, and it takes a special kind of person to handle it. However, if you find yourself with the credentials or certifications to do it, then contacting a staffing agency is the best way to make sure you are being paid what you are worth and living the life you deserve. If you’re reading this and don’t have any credentials or certifications, don’t sweat – many facilities will offer to pay for Nursing Assistant training for you, usually provided you work there for an allotted period of time.
This is an excellent way to get your foot in the door to a career you can be proud of, and that will offer you a higher quality of life, pay, and benefits.
Sometimes you need a recruiting company to help you with your brand. You might require additional resources to help you get the ideal employees for your brand. Think about why you want to use different services to grow your company. Here are some reasons to use a staffing service.
Helps You Save Time
You might be in a pinch and don’t have the time or resources to scout people for your job. Some admin staffing can help you review resumes, perform background checks, and find qualifying candidates. It’s imperative to have some assistance because you might miss the little things.
You can’t run a brand then skip the small details. You may neglect the best candidates for the position because you don’t have time to look at the fine print. Also, you’ll save time to do other things in your company.
You have a better chance of building a successful brand when you put the time into things you excel at in your company.
Better Use of Money
You might need temporary staff to handle a project for a few months. While you can use your current employees, you might not have the time and money to train them. Also, it can add up to overtime and other things that cost.
However, a temporary staff gives you flexibility. Quality workers can do the required assignment and help you reduce your costs. A staffing agency can help you hire these people on a needed basis.
You won’t have to worry about workers’ compensation, unemployment benefits, or payroll taxes because they’re under a contract. Also, you don’t have to worry about firing them because they’ll leave once the agreement is complete.
Choosing specialized staff helps reduce your overhead and get you what you need immediately.
Find Permanent Employees
Even if you hired a temporary staff, you might want to put them in your brand for the long term. They may have great chemistry with your full-time employees. Also, the new energy allows you to get a competitive edge against your rivals.
A recruiting service can do all the groundwork for you to help you gain the ideal workforce. Think about how this can be a long-term payoff to ensure that your brand stays relevant.
Build a strong relationship with a staffing company to help you build your resources to help your business sustain for years to come.
Things continue to be up in the air as far as work during this pandemic. Some employers want their employees back in the office and others are fine with them being remote. It’s hard to keep them all happy, but something should be done.
When it comes to covid agency jobs, here are some things to keep in mind when it comes to employee satisfaction.
Be More Flexible
We are well into the 2020s and technology exists to allow people to work remotely. Internet speeds make this a largely painless experience and employees also like saving on gas and tolls. It is easy to set up teleconferences.
Interpersonal communication is largely electronic now and the need for being in the same office, especially with something like covid, lessens. If the job can be done at home, consider offering that. Of course, there are some jobs that need to be done in person and employers should think of other ways to satisfy their employees.
Keep Their Workloads Reasonable
One thing that can get employees sick is if they are tired and run down. That will suppress their immune system. Carefully look over at their schedules and make sure that you are not putting too many hours on their plate.
Yes, there may be some jobs that require more hours, but consider staggering that work more among other people. Otherwise you will possibly face a shortage when people get sick and miss work.
Be Sure They Have Safety Equipment
This is important if you do have to have them in the office. Make sure they have protective things like hand sanitizers, masks, and gloves. Your bathrooms need to be stocked with copious amounts of soap so that they can do important hygiene measures.
Also, check your ventilation systems. If air is improperly circulating, then that can also increase people’s chances of getting sick. Their work environment needs to be a safe one or everyone suffers.
It is still unclear when this whole pandemic might be considered to be “over” and when it is in a situation where it just needs to be managed. Your employees are valuable and you want them to know that they are seen as people and not just statistics on a spreadsheet to be moved around. If you do the above, then chances are good that your business will be fine.
In today’s market, the job-seeking individual has two, basic options when it comes to finding work.
The newest and most well-known tradition (that has taken over since the birth of the internet) is when the potential employee would (completely on their own accord) go ahead and search through a seemingly endless list of job postings across a plethora of available internet job boards.
Of course, if you are a bit more old school, you might still utilize the local newspaper (and still nothing really compares to beating the pavement in the hopes of finding ‘Now Hiring’ signs.)
But genuinely employable job-seekers across the country have found, depending on the job board of course, that these postings tend to include a large amount of what I like to call ‘spam-work’, or jobs that make certain promises they have no intention of fulfilling.
Things like ‘work from home’, ‘remote work’ and ‘sales positions’ are, a lot of the time, completely dishonest, and never what they are touted up to be.
Rest assured, the second option we, thee employable, have at our disposal not only eliminates otherwise deceitful and dishonest job ‘opportunities’, but also eliminates a lot of the stress that comes along with job-hunting.
A staffing agency can help.
What Is A Staffing Agency?
A staffing agency works as a hiring organization that operates in between a company and a job-seeker, thus allowing both employer and employee to remain confident in getting and receiving exactly what’s being promised.
These companies are paid by the employer, the amount typically dependent upon the hourly pay rate the employee will be receiving upon hire.
Staffing agencies serve as the medium. They do the necessary research of the job position (what it entails and exactly what is being asked of the worker) and they do the necessary research of the potential employee (drug screening, online application testing, intensive interviewing and researching of references).
The benefit to the employer comes from the staffing agency’s expertise on human resources, and their ability to evaluate each and every individual whose resume comes across their desk. Their value comes specifically from putting the right people with the right positions, regardless of job type – permanent or temporary.
The Benefits Of Using A Staffing Agency To Find Work
- They will assist you with the formulation of your resume and cover letter, potentially creating multiple documents specific to each potential hire.
- They will find you work based on your specific skills, experience and abilities.
- The staffing agency will break down exactly what is expected of you, creating a job contract that goes over in detail the sort of relationship you will have with the company you will be working for.
- The potential for a temporary job turning into a full time job exists, as you are technically an employee of the staffing agency.
- An employee can be staffed at different locations and at different companies altogether, allowing for new learning experiences and training, and a generally diverse work environment.
- You can build a relationship with a staffing agency that allows you to find work during any season and within a specific mileage from your home.
Here is a link to an article that breaks down even further specifically what a staffing agency does.
The healthcare sector is the most severely impacted industry since the inception of COVID-19. While healthcare professionals are battling with rising unemployment rate and severe infection risks, the industry is experiencing a huge shortage of skilled workers. This is where the role of COVID-19 staffing agencies comes into play.
Since workers have been self-isolating due to the fear of contracting the virus, healthcare providers are struggling to stay operational. Staffing agencies help healthcare operators meet their employment needs by connecting them with eligible professionals.
A COVID staffing agency fills temporary, remote, and full-time positions at healthcare organizations. This helps bridge the demand-supply gap and ensure a safe working environment for healthcare employees.
What jobs does a COVID staffing agency provide?
COVID-19 staffing agency provides a range of healthcare jobs for both skilled and entry-level workers. This includes professionals like certified and licensed nurses, direct support professionals, personal care assistants, among others.
The job profile of these workers mainly includes providing care and support to people affected directly or indirectly by COVID and assisting them with their needs.
Benefits of staffing agencies for healthcare operators
Across the globe, healthcare operators are tremendously impacted due to the COVID-19 virus. While the demand for healthcare workers has spiked, the supply shows a major shortage.
Staffing agencies bridge this gap and provide various benefits to healthcare operators which include the following:
- These agencies conduct regular testing and monitoring of workers to ensure a negligible chance of COVID transmission.
- All workers provided to healthcare operators undergo background checks, receive basic training, and follow all safety regulations.
- COVID staffing agencies make sure that workers are not overworked, mentally exhausted, or unskilled for the role they are hired for.
What does a COVID staffing agency offer for workers?
During these uncertain times when unemployment is at its peak, a COVID staffing agency offers 2-to-6 weeks of continuous work to healthcare professionals. Workers can even seek full-time employment by negotiating payment rates with their operators.
These agencies also make sure that all workers receive personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, face shields, PPE kits, etc., from their providers. Professionals also get to avail compensation benefits if they contract COVID-19 during the job.
How much do COVID-19 staffing agencies pay?
COVID staffing agencies do not directly pay their workers. The rate of pay is decided by the healthcare organizations, which employ these workers. This differs from $25 to $50 per hour (or more), depending upon the role. Travel expenses, health insurance, and other benefits are also offered to temporary workers.
Workers are the backbone of the healthcare industry. Unfortunately, the demand for healthcare staffing is higher than its availability.
The following strategies will give you an edge in healthcare staffing.
Maximize the number of applicants
- Liaise with educational institutions, certifying agencies, and training facilities to put to graduates’ minds that you might have positions for them after graduation.
- Put up postings on general hiring sites like Glassdoor and Indeed to display available spots.
- Ask current employees to recommend qualified people to open healthcare staffing positions.
- Liaise with healthcare portals and recruiting agencies
- Ease candidates’ application process.
Segmentation of Roles
Segmentation, as with indexing, allows you (and the applicants) to effortlessly find what you are seeking.
Some categories you can use are:
- Position
- Certification(s)
- Experience
- Aptitude
Verify the Provided Information
Sites like National Healthcare Workers Association (NHCWA) offer free online certificate verifications.
However, the job applicant must have an account with NHCWA containing the necessary certificates prior to the healthcare staffing center submitting a written request for verification alongside the candidate’s job application.
To avoid fraud, only accept verification from the official organization email; not the applicant.
Assess the fit
Beyond qualification, consider the integration of the employee into the culture; sharing the same ethos, values, and direction is as good.
Given that employees spend significant time in healthcare facilities, the environment should be conducive to their productivity.
A mismatch between personal preference and company culture tortures the staff, quality of work and gives employees an incentive to leave.
Hardly (28%) do executives in an organization understand their company’s culture. It is wise to take a look and fine-tune it before assessing candidates for a fit.
Retain Employees
Matthew effect (Matthew 13:12) works in favor of organizations that emphasize employee retention.
Keeping in mind that the high turnover rate in the medical field is influenced by many factors beyond your control, providing conducive conditions to retain quality talent is pivotal.
Gestures of care like ongoing training, adequate leave, affiliate facilities put you up for a long productive relationship with the employees.
Improving the facility and its equipment gives employees an easier time, lowers the workload, and reduces the time employees use. By the end of the day, employees will feel fulfilled since they have impacted the healthcare center.
Conclusion
Embracing and revising your recruitment plan will supply your facility with top-notch staff— temporary and permanent.
However, healthcare center internal affairs play a significant role in ensuring that potential employees are interested and the present staff stays intact.
Staffing agencies are responsible for recruiting and managing talented candidates for a variety of positions. Some employees scoff at the prospect of using them, while others swear by them.
Although there’s no hard and fast rule that you should go with one, utilizing these agencies can help your career for the better.
To find a job through an employment agency, here are some steps you can take:
Step 1: Find the right fit
The field of recruitment is vast and it’s counterproductive to go through it all at once. This is why you should only look for agencies that are experts in sourcing jobs related to your interests.
If you’re a healthcare professional, look for healthcare staffing companies. If you belong to architecture, go with the ones who specialize in that.
Step 2: Get acquainted with their modus operandi
Once you have an agency in mind, acquaint yourself with how they work. Do they offer interview prep and resume services or do they only offer access to jobs?
Some agencies need you to pay their commission rather than the employer. While others have the employer take care of everything.
It’s important you figure this out in advance before signing up.
Step 3: Figure out the types of jobs they offer
Employment agencies will bring you both temporary and permanent jobs. Some agencies even recruit people temporarily and convert them into permanent hires once they are happy with their performance.
Temporary jobs tend to pay higher, while permanent ones offer job security. It’s important to communicate your requirement to the staffing service. This will help you find a job that’s appropriate for your needs.
Step 4: Prepare for the interview
You must treat your agency interview with the same level of professionalism as the one with an employer. Your skill and behavior will help the employment service find a job suitable for your level.
If you carry yourself like an upper-level executive and have the experience to show for it, the agency will get you a similar job. Alternatively, if your behavior is entry-level, the jobs that’ll come your way will reflect that.
Step 5: Wait and follow up
Once you give a solid interview and communicate your expectations, it’s advisable to wait for a few days. In most cases, you won’t even have to follow up.
In a few instances when you have to wait, use that time to brush up your knowledge and uplevel your skill. When you’re ready, follow up with a succinct email or phone call.
When it comes to keeping the healthcare system running as smoothly as possible, a lot of places look to healthcare staffing agencies to send them employees.
It is a Massive Network
The healthcare field is a big one. There are many different specialties of medicine whose doctors are spread out all across the country. That requires a large web of recruiters and hiring agents to be able to smoothly facilitate the entire thing.
The sheer enormity of the scope of the network is by design. This way, there are very few gaps that need to be filled on a map.
They Do a Lot of Recruiting as Well as Hiring
Healthcare staffing agencies are constantly putting feelers out to see who is interested in a job in the field. That means that they are often being proactive as well as reactive. This can speed things up tremendously.
The reason that you want them to do that is because they may find people that might not have applied initially or may have taken a long time to find. The sooner they do this, the sooner you can get people in doctor’s offices.
There Is a Screening Process in Place
A lot of people may apply to work in the healthcare field. That means that there are a lot of resumes to sift through. Would you want to spend your time doing that?
The healthcare staffing agencies will do that for doctors. Their job is to find the best candidates to work for them. That means that they will weed out the unqualified… which may include their doing a background check on applicants.
They Aim to Make Life Easier For Doctors
Running a healthcare practice is complicated enough – doctors spend enough time studying to be the best that they can be and to add staffing can be a big time drain. The healthcare staffing agencies aim to bring more simplicity in that area, so that the doctors can focus on what they really need to do: Diagnose patients and help them get the best treatment possible.
You may wonder how they get money from doing this. Typically they may get a certain percentage of the person that they send over’s salary. They may also negotiate a flat fee.
While it may seem expensive, doctors have to weigh the benefits that they get – time to be able to do their work and not worry about staffing. That seems like a fair trade.
Here are some things that a good healthcare staffing agency will do to make sure that you get the best candidates for your practice.
They Have a Wide Network
You want to find an agency that has contacts with many potential candidates. The last thing you want to do is have one that has to scramble themselves to find people to send your way. That will ultimately be a waste of both your time and theirs.
The healthcare network is a big one. When looking around, try to gauge how well-plugged they are. Are they talking to a lot of people or does it seem like they are doing website searches themselves?
They Will Go The Distance to Find You Candidates
When it comes to hiring people, there will be a LOT of candidates for an agency to sift through. You want an agency that will be careful when it comes to vetting candidates. That means digging through a laundry list of criteria…. which is work that they will gladly do if they want repeat business.
This includes making sure that the people they send your way are temperamentally fit for the job, have a reasonable commute (you do NOT want someone who is late all the time), and have all the capabilities to do the work that you give them.
They Also Know Everything About What You Do
Not only are the agencies figuring out the best candidates, but they also need to have a crystal clear idea of what your office does. That means they know all the medical services that you offer and who would be qualified to be able to step in and work alongside you. This is crucial to keep any miscommunications from happening.
They Know How to Cover Themselves
This is not meant to be read as covering themselves in a “passing the buck” sense of the phrase. No, they will have guarantees in place and will work hard to rectify the situation if there is a mismatch. This way, their willingness to ensure that everything works out is the mark of both their confidence in their matching abilities and their dedication to their clients.
Great staffing agencies offer a lot to those that hire them to bring in medical talent. This is just a small sample of what you should look for, but if they hit these markers, then you are already well on your way to bringing in fantastic healthcare workers.
If you run a healthcare facility or nursing department, you probably know that it can be hard to find the right employees. But one of the best ways to deal with staffing issues today for nurses is to hire traveling RN nurses. Consider some of the benefits of these nurses below.
First, many hospitals have staffing shortages, but hiring staff permanently may not be the best solution. Some health staffing needs may be short-term. For example, there may be a temporary increase in patients because the flu season arrived. You can use a temporary traveling nurse to staff up as you need, but you don’t have any long-term commitment.
Or, you may have some employees that are on a break or are pregnant and you need to replace them temporarily. The flexibility of traveling nurses can be just what you need.
Hard-To-Fill Positions
Some hospitals have positions that are harder to fill. Many traveling RNs work in specialized areas, such as pediatric nursing, where there is a lot of turnover. The expense of replacing the employee full-time could be too much, but bringing in a short-term traveling nurse could work well.
Cut Staffing Costs
It used to be that hiring a traveling nurse was more expensive than a full-time nurse. But now, employment costs are on the rise, so using traveling nurses could be more cost-effective. Hiring a traveling nurse reduces the need to fund benefits and overtime for full-time nurses.
Expand The Hiring Pool
If you try to fill a full-time staff position, you are more likely to be more limited in the talent pool. Most of the nurses who apply for your position will be local. If you look for traveling nurses, you could be hiring from a talent pool that spans the nation. You’re more likely to get a high-quality nurse if you are pulling from a larger pool of applicants.
Fewer Politics
Many nursing managers like to bring in nurses on a short-term and traveling basis. When people work together for a shorter time, there may be fewer personality conflicts and politics. If some people don’t get along, the traveling nurses will soon be departing for another job. Most traveling nurses take at least 2-3 jobs per year.
Hiring traveling nurses can be a great choice for your healthcare facility, so definitely give it a try when you need to hire staff.
