There are mixed feelings, for both potential employees and employers, regarding the use of staffing agencies. On the one hand, staffing agencies do all the legwork of finding the right employee for the job and negotiating contracts. On the other hand, however, it removes the human relationship and the ability for employees and employers to set their own terms. Some see these factors as convenient, while others feel they are impersonal. Join us in today’s post as we discuss some of the roles that nurse staffing agencies play for both the nurse and the medical facility looking for trained professionals.
The Relationship Between Employers and Staffing Agencies
What Do Staffing Agencies Do?
Employers often seek the services of staffing agencies to help find qualified candidates, for full-time status or as temporary fill-ins. Staffing agencies, unlike automated keyword-driven job post boards, actively seek out nurses who hold valid credentials and are certified with qualified experience in their specialties. Staffing agencies can also handle credentials validation, background checks, and drug screenings. Staffing agencies screen potential candidates based on what they are looking for in a job, their availability, and preferred roles and hours. Because the staffing agency has a pool of qualified nurses and medical professionals when an employer is looking to fill a role, they have plenty of good candidates to narrow down and find the right fit.
What a Staffing Agency Can Do To Find Qualified Nurses
- Verify credentials — License, BLS, Specialty certifications
- Verify work experience, history, and vet references
- Conduct background checks
- Clarify job roles and expectations
This saves the employer the time and hassle of filtering through online resumes or interviewing candidates with no relevant experience, who are looking for benefits that are not a part of the open position, or who cannot meet the necessary requirements. Staffing agencies help to streamline the process and speed up the time it takes to fill a position.
Middleman or Advocate?
When naysayers are quick to claim that staffing agencies are nothing more than middlemen, we couldn’t agree more for certain industries or for small clinics that staff just a few people. For those who have the time to fill positions or do not often have positions to fill, we wouldn’t recommend a staffing agency. Additionally, for businesses or jobs that require little to no credentialing or verification, a staffing agency may, indeed, be a needless expense. However, for large medical facilities or facilities with round-the-clock patient care or high turnover rates, a staffing agency can mean the difference between having shifts covered, being forced to drop census, or hiring the first warm body that replies to your job listing.
The Relationship Between Nurses and Staffing Agencies
If you have been a medical professional for any amount of time, you know what high demand your profession is. When you do a simple search for “nursing job near me” or “ [insert your specialty] nursing careers” you are immediately assaulted with more than 2,000 search results including those offering outrageous starting bonuses and travel assignments. Chances are, you’ve undoubtedly been harassed by emails, texts, and phone calls from around the nation (and world) asking if you are looking for a job. These recruiters get your contact information from your nursing license, nursing school, social media (if you have your job role listed as “nurse,” and various other avenues.
What Do Staffing Agencies Do?
Staffing agencies help to eliminate the overwhelming number of irrelevant search results and help you avoid spending an hour on each application to relevant job postings. A nurse staffing agency will identify your interests and availability, verify your credentials, and help you make sure you have everything you need to be hired. Then, they will match you with an available position that fits you. This means that you may not even have to fill out an application and you’ll only have to submit all of your credentials and background screen information once. Staffing agencies contract with facilities and get notification of job openings before those jobs are listed on internet job boards — essentially, the good jobs are taken before you even do a search engine query! Staffing agencies will help negotiate contracts and specifics so that you aren’t put in the awkward position of asking for more.
What a Staffing Agency Can Do To Find Qualified Nurses a Career
- Conduct job searches FOR you
- Vet job openings to match your skills and preferences
- Verify you meet requirements
- Negotiate contracts, pay, benefits, and bonuses
In short, staffing agencies save nurses and medical professionals the time and energy of finding a job that they can use to take care of their patients.
Middleman or Advocate?
We believe that this is a no-brainer question. Nurses and medical professionals do not have the time or energy to spend days or weeks sifting through irrelevant jobs just out application after application that they don’t even get a callback or rejection email about. Save your efforts and let a staffing agency do that for you! You still have every right to turn down a job or request a different opportunity. If pay, contracts, benefits, or bonuses are not what you expected or what you need, staffing agency personnel will negotiate for you so that you don’t have to. Using staffing agency services costs the nurse nothing, so you’ve really got nothing to lose.
If you are a nurse or other medical professional or you are an employer in search of qualified nurses, consider the convenience and ease of using a nurse staffing agency. At Nightingale’s List, we are a nurse staffing agency in Southern California. We work with several local facilities and have medical professionals ready for job placement. Contact us to make the right match today!