By: Shari Dalton
If you’ve never been frustrated as a travel nurse recruiter or client manager, you you are probably just starting your career. This job can take its toll on the best of us. Especially in the age of VMS’s-it can make our jobs ten times more frustrating. Any time there are multiple cooks in the kitchen things take more time and there are great margins for error.
One thing that I have learned in the several years I worked as a recruiter is that you have to work hard for the results that you are looking for. Again, in our industry, we work with people, not products. You have to be able to leverage the relationships you have with people including your travelers, hospital or VMS contacts, and most importantly, your co-workers.
I once heard a client manager say, “oh, so and so is so good at this job. I just want to be as good as he is.” I chuckled to myself. I asked why they thought he was “so good at this job” and the response was simply, “well he’s done it longer and has good relationships with his clients.” This is very true, but the real reason that he is “so good” at this job is because he’s learned to leverage the relationships he has with his clients. He has taken the time to find out the hospitals that are interviewing and the clients who are quickest with feedback.
When recruiters come to him with travelers who are available, he’s always ready and willing to submit them to their first choice. But he goes a step further and recommends clients where interviews are guaranteed and he’s armed with information to sell those locations to his recruiters. Does it mean more work, sure, but if he can arm his recruiters with everything they need to sell his jobs, that is half the battle. And since he knows that recruiters and their travelers are motivated by quick interviews and travel friendly locations, he seeks those out.
I’ll give you an example of leveraging relationships from my own experience as a recruiter. I used to love working with a particular client manager. Most didn’t and would get frustrated by the thought of having to work with him. To them, he seemed “lazy” because he preferred email as his mode of communication. I considered myself a bit of a wordsmith so I didn’t mind. In fact, I took the liberties of often drafting his emails to his hospitals so all he had to do was remove my contact info and hit send. Worked like a charm, every time! And before I knew it, half my desk was at his hospitals.
I knew what I needed to do and I leveraged our relationship and what I knew about how he preferred to do business. Was it more work for me, sure. Did I mind, most certainly not! Especially when my interviews and offers were rolling in.
The point is, take the time to find out where you can put in a little extra effort that will make the greatest impact on your desk. It typically just starts with asking “what can I do to help you with your job?” How can you help others help you? To blame is lazy. You need to take action to achieve the results you want.
For more tips, feel free to reach out!!
