Welcome to number 1 of a series of posts on the broad topic of recruitment, hiring and getting hold of the right people.  This series went in the weekly email way back in 2018 and now it’s here on the website for everyone.

Working as a manager and leader of a team means keeping track of your vacancies, making sure you have all the people you need and hiring new people in time so your team and the work you do does not suffer. Timely recruitment makes a huge difference in clinical teams and keeping on top of it all can be a frustrating and challenging part of your role. 

When stepping into a manager role of a large team that had a lot of recruitment in different stages I created a very visual spreadsheet that my recruitment consultant and I would send back and forth with updates so I could get a handle of where I was at. This was a step up from my early attempts as a charge nurse when working out dates of maternity leave start and finish times along with counting and re-counting the actual number of staff I had and matching it with my budget was often scribbled on pieces of paper all over the place. 

Having a single point of truth, that is workable for you, easy to access by you and those you have to report to and that helps you proactively plan when to recruit is a basic requirement so keep this aspect of your role in control. 

With that in hand, you can then spend your time and energy understanding what is driving your turnover, exploring why people might be leaving and creating the team and the environment that people want to work for you.  

I sought out some wise human resource advice on this topic for you...(I have an honorary friend of HR badge)

• The employment environment you create drives turnover

• If you create a great place to work, the rest will take care of itself

• You create your reputation and your brand that makes people want to apply and then stay with you. 

It can be easy to blame external forces when people leave, or why you can't get the 'right' person applying for your team. What takes courage and commitment is to look to yourself as the leader of that team and ask what environment am I creating here and what can I do to make it a great place to work?

This article 'Why people really quit their jobs' from HBR explores some of the concepts behind staff moving on. The article opens with the phrase “people don't quit a job, they quit a boss'“. It explores factors that you have control over to make your place of work somewhere people are proud to work, where they can feel supported and able to develop themselves and use their strengths. 

In healthcare, you can often think that many aspects of your work setting are out of your control. Knowing and working with your team is something that is in your control. 
 

"People leave jobs, and it’s up to managers to design jobs that are too good to leave. Great bosses set up shields — they protect their employees from toxicity. They also open doors to meaningful tasks and learning opportunities — they enable their people to be energised by their projects, to perform at their best, and to move forward professionally without taking steps backward at home. When you have a manager who cares about your happiness and your success, your career and your life, you end up with a better job, and it’s hard to imagine working anywhere else."

Of course, there is always more than one way to look at things…..our job as leaders is to develop our people to be the best they can be. This will mean they move on, possibly up, to their next challenge, role or change that is right for them. Seeing staff members fly and go onward is an amazing part of being a leader. 

If you move into a team as the new leader, you could be taking them in a different direction, setting expectations that might be new to them. Building those relationships and creating that environment will help them and you create the best plan for everyone. In Jim Collins's book Good to Great, the principle of First Who…Then What, touches on how to work with staff who don't look like they want to be on the bus. The one-line message I got from this section was to make sure they are in the right seat before you get them off the bus. If that is all a bit cryptic take a look here. 

As with most things it is about balance. You need your team to be developing and growing and that may mean staff will leave. You don't want people running out the door because of the environment you create as a leader. 

Building a team or struggling to get people on board? Book a chat and let’s talk some more.