You’ve been recruiting nurses at Cariant Health Partners for five years now. What do those relationships mean to you, that you’ve cultivated over the past few years?
The relationships to me are family. They are people who continually work for me. They represent Cariant in the best way because they understand how we started and how we’ve grown, and where we are at this point in time. They mean the most to me because they’ve hung on this long. Most of my people have been with me now for four full years.
What do you think has helped you build such strong relationships with your travelers?
Do what you say. If I tell them I’m going to do something and I don’t do it, I’ll lose them. If you promise you’ll do something, make sure you follow through. Always follow through. That’s the biggest thing.
There’s a lot of pressure in recruiting, be it the money side of it or particular facility requests. People don’t always take the time to take a check and put it on themselves or own up to their mistakes. But that’s where you should get to when you do this for a long time. You have to decide that it’s your reputation. So if it’s your mistake, it’s your mistake. And you own it.
I always see you going above and beyond for the people you work with, even with little things like providing them with encouragement and support when it’s needed or letting them know you’re in their corner. Why is that important to you?
Because people need to know you have their back. In this industry, your nurses need to know, and your fellow recruiters need to know that you’re there for them. You could be having the worst day ever, but if you pick somebody else up, it could mean the world to them. So even when it’s hard for you, you still need to go the extra mile. The Golden Rule. Take care of others as you’d want them to take care of you.
I think if you give back, it’s kind of like the “pay it forward” thing. That’s what life is about. You do something and then hopefully it comes full circle at some point.
I think in a way it does come full circle for you because I also see those nice gestures come to you from your travelers. So, what does it mean to you when a traveler, in turn, lets you know you’re appreciated? Or shares how you’ve helped them professionally?
It means that I’ve fulfilled what my job is all about. To me, recruiting is helping somebody find the master plan. What is the end game for them? Do they want to go full-time there? Have they found that best place that they can never be without?
And it’s also about helping the facility. You never know whose aunt, uncle or grandma is at that facility, and you’re taking care of them. So that’s the end goal.
What would you like to say to all the nurses who travel with you now and in the past five years?
That I appreciate all their work and how they’ve represented Cariant. And that they’ve done a great job to make it show that we are a strong, competitive staffing agency.