Heartbeat: Trip to Oz leads to top number of recruits

May 20, 2019

Our recruitment team are celebrating after a successful trip down under resulted in 174 conditional job offers to Australian nurses.

Colleagues Amir Ali, Head of Engagement, Retention and Nurse Recruitment, Glynis Fenner, Trust Bank Manager/Senior Nurse, Nicola Taylor, Acting Group Director of Nursing for Primary Care, Communities and Therapies, and Heather Bennett, Head of Service for Women and Child Health, went on the 16-day tour of the country to drum up recruits.

And they were overwhelmed with the response they received after visiting four different jobs fairs, in as many cities which included Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.

Amir said: “We interviewed candidates on the day, but we ensured that we were prepared before we went out there. We worked hard to streamline the process, which meant that successful candidates would receive an email offer immediately.

“They also underwent the correct compliance and processing checks within a short timeframe which meant we were able to confirm conditional job offers on the day in most cases.

“We also prepared the right information to hand out to prospective candidates and were really able to sell our organisation to them. We were inundated with queries throughout the day and were kept very busy. If there were candidates who couldn’t make the event, or were not available for an interview on the day, we carried out Facetime interviews afterwards.”

Amir added: “It was our first time in Australia, and we were up against two other Trusts at each of the events. However, we recruited more than the other organisations.”

The first event was held in Melbourne where 80 people attended and our team made 25 conditional job offers.

In Sydney 75 attended, and we made 22 offers. Meanwhile Perth saw 180 visitors, and 71 were recruited. In Brisbane, 150 attended and 56 offers were made.

“The calibre of nurses was really high and we hope to welcome our first cohort of 25 within the next five to six months,” Amir added.

“Going along to the Australian events has proved extremely successful for us as an organisation and will have a great impact in improving our nurse vacancy rate.”