Celebrate the Season with Our Nurse Christmas Raffle!

Tis the season of giving, and we want to show our appreciation to the incredible nurses who make a difference every day. If you’re a dedicated nurse looking for a new opportunity, this Christmas could bring an extra special gift your way!

Win a €100 One4All Gift Card!

Submit your CV before the 16th of December 2023, and you could be in with a chance to win a €100 One4All gift card – just in time for the festive season! Your entry is simple: be a nurse with an active NMBI pin, and attend your interview with our client.

The Lucky Draw:

All eligible nurses will automatically be entered into the draw, and on the 18th of December, we’ll announce the lucky winner! Imagine the joy of unwrapping a €100 gift card, ready to be spent on whatever brings you joy this Christmas.

 Terms and Conditions:

Before submitting your CV and entering this exciting raffle, please read and understand the following terms and conditions:

Submit your CV to any of our nursing jobs, or you can send us your CV directly to cvs@3qrecruitment.ie

  • Eligibility: To participate, you must be a registered nurse with an active NMBI pin.
  • Submission Deadline: Submit your CV by the 16th of December 2023 to be considered for the raffle.
  • Interview Attendance: To qualify for the draw, attend your scheduled interview with our client.
  • Draw Date: The winner will be randomly selected, and the announcement will be made on the 18th of December 2023.
  • Prize: The prize is a €100 One4All gift card.
  • Contacting the Winner: The winner will be contacted via the contact information provided in their CV. If unreachable, another winner will be selected.
  • Public Announcement: By participating, you agree to the public announcement of your name as the winner on our website and social media channels.
  • Non-transferable: The prize is non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash or any other alternatives.
  • Decision Final: All decisions related to the raffle are final.

Best of luck to all the hardworking nurses who enter – your dedication deserves to be rewarded!

🌟 Celebrate the season with us and make this Christmas extra special. Good luck! 🌟

Are you working with a recruitment agency or considering it as an option as part of your next career move? To get the best possible service, it is important to create a great rapport with recruitment staff. They have specialist knowledge in this area and offer great support on each interaction.

Recruitment agency staff can really assist you to get off to a strong start on your next job and advance your career as a contractor. There are a couple of ways that can boost your relationship with staff members which will speed up and benefit the process. 

Tips to Benefit Relationships with Agency Recruiters

  • Develop a positive relationship

Be honest; let them know your needs on hours and location, if you’re flexible and provide any other important details on your ideal job. It’s ok to decline suggestions and offers. Maintain regular contact with them and advice any updates. This will provide agency recruiters with a better understanding of your needs, and they will be able to find you a suitable role, as they will have all the information to hand. As the relationship develops, the recruiters can provide additional feedback to potential employers on your application, based on their records.

  • Know the job market and your expectations

The supply-and-demand for jobs in the market can change. Recruitment agencies possess vast knowledge of the labour market. If you are looking for a new job, thinking of starting work as a contractor or looking to change your role within the sector, it will be useful to know any changes to jobs in your sector – the effect on rates of pay or changes on training requirements. Recruiters are up to date on this information and will be able to suggest recommendations to advance future applications and may be able to negotiate your salary

  • Find a recruitment agency you are happy to work with

While there are many recruitment agencies, it is important that you feel confident when working with your chosen recruiter. Part of their role is to support you in finding a new job, up-skilling or updating your resume. Agency recruiters are available to fully support your career path – when your contract will be renewed, to answer questions on a new organisation or to chat with if you are experiencing a difficult environment in your current job, resourced by them.  

The role of your recruitment agency is to secure you with employment in a short timeframe, build your skills and improve the experience on your resume. This can save you a lot of time and money. Frequent check-ins with your recruiter will really help you on the road to your next assignment. They will update their system as new information is shared and will be in a better position to support you all the way – preparing your for a new job, securing a job and supporting you while you are working in your new role. 

Call us today, on 01 8783335 or email sales@3qrecruitment.ie – to chat with a member of our friendly team, to explore your options and receive valuable advice.

Have you considered registering with a nursing employment agency? There are a range of options for nurse’s jobs in Ireland – part-time or full-time. Signing up with a nursing agency offers many benefits to help you with your career decision. They provide opportunities to acquire roles in organisations in Ireland including private nursing homes.

Our nursing recruitment agency works closely with many healthcare providers and regularly put forward a list of suitable nursing candidates for roles within the organisation. These are generally permanent positions.

12 Benefits of Joining a Nursing Agency in Ireland

  1. Flexibility of work shifts including a choice of hours of work
  2. One-to-one consultation with friendly staff who offer support and advice throughout the process
  3. Opportunity to increase earnings, or reduce hours – when needed, and work weekends or night shifts to avail of higher rate pay
  4. Reduces stress in your search for a job
  5. Open to retired nurses as an option to source additional income
  6. If weekend time is precious with family, requesting weekdays only is an option
  7. Opportunity to avail of openings in diverse healthcare settings, and grow your skills and experience
  8. Nursing agencies pay a higher hourly rate of pay and payment is prompt
  9. Nurses with permanent positions can register with a nursing agency to avail of extra hours to boost income
  10. Option to choose place of work, or another position if the position does not work out
  11. Opportunity to explore up-skilling needs
  12. Opportunity to expand existing network circles

“Let us never consider ourselves finished, nurses. We must be learning all of our lives” – Florence Nightingale. Nursing recruitment agencies are a great option to secure regular work that offers flexibility, offers higher pay and opportunity to explore up-skilling needs, and improves work-life balance. Thinking about signing up with a Nursing Agency? Call us today, on 01 8783335 or email recruiter@3qrecruitment.ie – to chat with a member of our friendly team, to explore your options and receive valuable advice.

How to maximise your hiring process –

It’s a candidate’s market, there are an abundance of jobs open at present and not enough candidates to fill them. While we may not be able to chance the amounts of applications that come in for an open role, what we can do is maximise our hiring process.

Here are some simple steps companies can take to help with the hiring process –

·        Job specification – Ensure that the Job Title, Location, Salary and Hours are clearly displayed on your job advert. Include the duties/ responsibilities that the role involves so candidates will know what is expected of them. Make sure to add in the benefits of working with your company, these can include – pension, health insurance, employee rewards, flexible working or remote working.

·        Advertise on as many platforms as you can – There are many different platforms where a company can advertise their jobs such as Irishjobs, Indeed, Glassdoors. Make sure to utilise all platforms available to you. Advertise your vacancy through your company account on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. There are also many groups which you can join and post on like LinkedIn groups or Facebook groups. Candidates actively monitor these groups for jobs which may be of interest to them.

·        Application process – Make it as easy as possible for a candidate to apply for your job, simply by having an “apply now” button on the advert or an email contact to send their CV directly. Companies can often look for candidates to fill in a long application document, send their CV, cover letter, and have additional questions on top of these. Some companies even ask for a video application. Candidates get frustrated with all these steps so make sure your application process isn’t too tedious which may put candidates off applying.

·        Phone screen before interview – Candidates can look great on paper, but often times it takes chatting with a prospective employee to know if they are going to be a good match for the role or not. Phone screenings are a great way to find out more about a candidate and what they are looking for before arranging an interview.

·        Be response & have a hiring plan – One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not contacting hot candidates as soon as they apply. Some companies wait a month if not more to contact candidates. I personally had one client contact me after 3 months to arrange an interview with a candidate, the candidate by then, had been working in a new role a number of weeks and was no longer interested. Have a clear, concise recruitment plan is place. Carry out weekly interviews, have a start date in mind for the successful candidate & training plan.  

·        Interview process – An interview is a good way for a candidate to get an insight of what it will be like to work with your company. Give candidates detailed information about the role, your company, the culture, the benefits. Make sure to give a good impression and make the candidate feel comfortable. Use the interview to ask the candidate important questions that are relevant to the role. Also ask candidates if they have any questions at the end of the interview.

·        Interview Outcome – It is important to not keep a candidate waiting after they have had their interview. If you are carrying out other interviews keep the candidate in the loop, even by dropping them a simple email stating that you are interviewing other candidates but will be in touch with them in X number of days regarding outcome. If you know a candidate was not successful right after interview, inform them straight away, don’t leave them waiting for bad news. Give them feedback and insights on what to improve for future interviews.

·        Obtain references – When you are ready to offer a successful candidate the job, it is important to obtain manager/ supervisor references form recent employers before you extent offer.

·        Offer & onboarding – Once you have suitable references extend official offer. Make sure to send the candidate the offer letter, contract, and also onboarding & training documentation.

·        Ask for a Review – It is a great idea to ask applicants for feedback from applicants on how they found the application & interview process. Candidates can leave ratings on your company page on Indeed or Glassdoors. Prospective candidates can then view these reviews and will know that the application & interview process is a pleasant experience.

If you in the Healthcare or Hospitality industry and looking for assistance with your open roles, then give me a call or drop me an email and I would be happy to help.

Charissa Mulholland

Three Q Perms & Temps

01 878 3335

recruiter@3qrecruitment.ie

Hiring the right employee & benefits of using a recruitment agency:

Hiring the right employee for your company can be a challenging and lengthy process. With so many sectors struggling with staff shortages and hiring, recruitment agencies are here to help. More and more companies are partnering with recruitment agencies to source talent.

But what exactly are the benefits of working with a niche recruitment agency?

Save time – The recruitment process from start to finish is a lengthy process. You must advertise your vacancy, go through CV’s, create a short-list, contact candidates & organise interviews then comes job offer, referencing & acquiring needed documentation. A recruitment agency will do all this for you, saving you valuable time.

Accesses to more candidates – Often recruiters will have a database of candidates they can reach out to regarding your open role. They also seek out passive candidates as well as active ones, through head-hunting.

Higher quality candidates – Recruitment agencies will screen suitable applicants prior to sending CV’s, ensuring that candidates presented are a good match and have relevant skills & experience required for the role.

Specialist knowledge – Recruitment agencies will often be specialised in a certain sector. Three Q Perms & Temps specialises specifically in Nursing and healthcare recruitment and so have ain depth understanding about the market.

Company & Brand advocacy – Candidates want to know the benefits of working with an employer. Recruiters will make sure to promote the benefits and career development potential to candidates. Three Q will promote your company on our various advertising platforms & social media.

If you want to find out more about working with Three Q Perms & Temps and how we recruit for in-demand professionals in the healthcare sector, through innovative search, selection & recruitment processes and find the best candidates for your company then call me on 01 878 3335.

Charissa Mulholland

Nursing & Healthcare recruitment professional

Three Q Perms & Temps

Staff Party: Planning a Christmas Party?

Christmas is a time for celebrating with colleagues and can be a perfect opportunity to organise a Christmas staff party. However, many organisations have eliminated the traditional style staff party, which may have included all expenses paid meal and drinks, and opted for a more tailored approach to celebrating their team and the year of business that has been.  

Realising that the Christmas party can be a great way to connect with co-workers in a non-related work setting is important to boost morale throughout the year. The event can be an opportunity to positively influence the working environment and strengthen bonds between all departments. The party itself does not have to be exorbitantly expense. What is important is that colleagues celebrate together in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. This can create an opportunity to become innovative in creating a celebratory social activity to appreciate the year that was.

There are many options to create a low-cost Christmas staff party, including:

  • –  Host a Kris Kingle party after lunch or at the end of the working day, where each employee draws a name out of a hat. Each selected name is then not shared with their colleagues until they gift the present at the event. This reduces costs for each worker and creates a sense of excitement. The amount to be spent on each present can be pre-set at a nominal cost, collectively.
  • –  Host a lucky-dip present event at the party. This involves each employee purchasing a gift and putting it into a hamper. Then each staff member selects their present from the lucky dip basket. Where there is an uneven balance of gender, people can buy a generic present such as a restaurant gift voucher or chocolate and wine hamper.
  • –  Extend the lunch time with a meal at a local restaurant, where the organisation can secure a reduced rate for a large party gathering.
  • –  Organise an in-house lunch or evening meal at the company, provided by local caterers. The food can include a buffet that will suit all preferences. This can be combined with awarding an ‘Employee of the Year’ award to the lucky recipient.
  • –  Set-up an annual Christmas Fund, where each employee contributes a small amount weekly. This can offset the expense at an already expensive time of the year, particularly for employees that have family with young children. The funds can contribute to the expense of an overnight break, which can incorporate an evening meal and activities.

Organisations can implement activities into the Christmas party to strengthen the relationships between all employees and management, through team-building events. These can include:

(1) 1.  Outdoor activities: Bowling, paint-balling, spa dates, etc.

(2) 2.  In-house activities: Charades, twister, card games, karaoke, etc.

Once the ideas have been established, putting a vote system in place, via email or a notice board, to choose the activity can empower employees in the decision making process. This may be important in getting all employees on-board to participate in the event.

Although there may be varied costs for management to organise a staff party, the result can be a happier work-place. This strategy can reinforce the work-bond for the year ahead. A happier work environment can result in increased productivity, less absenteeism and improved collaboration between all personnel.

Employee Retention Starts Before You Hire

Introduction

With Ireland approaching nearing full employment, finding talent has become increasing difficult. This is something I’ve seen across sectors, including the one I work in. Constant staff turn-over is expensive and can effect service delivery. In sectors such as health-care, insufficient staffing can have potentially dangerous consequences for both the service deliverer and the service user. This bring to the fore the importance of Employee Retention. Here are 3 ways in which you can encourage employee retention at the Interview and On boarding stage.

Advertising your Job:

Most job ads tend to be targeted towards people who are actively searching for jobs however, with the current shortage of talent, engaging passive job candidates has become a necessity. They may not use job boards because they aren’t searching for jobs so diversify where you advertise. Use social media or professional networking sites to publicise your vacancy. Our Digital Marketing Executive, Aaron Nolan suggests tailoring your ads to a passive audience. Set yourself apart from other employers by telling potential job-seekers what makes working for you different.

Retention at Interview:

Review your candidate experience. Look at things like how long it takes for a candidate to know whether they are shortlisted for an interview or how long it takes for candidates to know the outcome of the interview. Once you’ve been though your current process, think about what you’d do differently if you were to treat a potential employee as a customer. During the interview, include questions that focus on the candidate’s work motivation.  Here are examples of questions you could use:

How does your current work contribute towards your future goals? What could your current company change to keep you from moving out?

This will help you ascertain whether the candidate’s wants, needs and goals are likely to be met in your organisation in the immediate or long-term.

Engagement during the ‘Silent Period’:

I recently read an article about The Silent Period. These are times of low communication and can happen either between the interview and final decision-making process or between the acceptance of the job-offer and start date. The HR Bartender suggests including hiring managers in the on boarding process. This could include something as simple as sending the candidate a quick note updating them about what’s happening in the hiring process or a quick phone call to keep them in the loop. Opening a dialogue between the candidate and hiring manager will allow for the manager to build a relationship with the candidate before the employee starts work. Another recommendation is providing information that the candidate will find useful in their first few days at work. For example, HR Coordinator James O ’Flanagan sends out a ‘Meet the Team’ document along with other on boarding documents so candidates know who they’ll be working with.

Finally, integrate what you’ve learnt about the candidate with other HR processes such as Career Planning, Comps and Benefits, etc. Understanding that candidates are individuals with different wants, needs and aspirations and communicating how your organisation’s culture, processes and benefits align with what they’re looking for, is key.

Advantages of Hiring Through a Niche Recruitment Agency

Most firms see recruitment agencies to be an extra pair of eyes in the market place. These eyes are focused on attracting skilled candidates. As a recruitment consultant, ultimately your value proposition is the candidates you can find and present to your client. 

But there is a lot more value in utilising a recruitment agency as a part of your recruitment strategy. Here are 5 advantages companies benefit from when they work with a specialist recruitment agency: 

Knowledge of the market

The recruiters and their team will be well informed about the market in that sector. They know where to find talent and how to network with them. Recruitment consultants in a sector are also knowledgeable of salaries, career development and hiring issues in an industry. Considering the competitiveness between companies, it is hard to compete to attract the best talent. Niche recruitment agencies are specialised at attracting the best talent in the jobs market in an industry.

Extended reach

There exists two types of candidates: the passive and the selective candidate. The passive sometimes don’t respond to job advertisements. They don’t see themselves as a jobseeker and are too busy to really search for a new job. Recruiters spend time building relationships with skilled personnel in the sector. Over time the recruiter becomes well networked in the industry. Passive candidates are reachable through recruiters in a niche recruitment agency. Even if they aren’t currently seeking for a job, there’s a strong chance that some recruiter will know who they are and how to reach them.

Recruitment Agencies Give You Candidates, Not Applicants 

It is exhausting finding good candidate because most applications usually do not become a viable candidates. The recruitment agency will save the client time by managing applications and only presenting the best candidates. 

Help with Employer Brand

“Self praise is no recommendation.” Marketing your employer brand is difficult but agencies can promote the benefits & career development potential in your company to candidates. 

Filling a Vacancy Quickly

One of the main reasons that companies hire agencies is to fill a vacancy in a short time frame. Recruitment agencies have experience and effective strategies to find qualified professionals quickly. Recruitment companies have a full team dedicated to attracting talent, screening applicants and processing candidates through the interview process and ultimately to hiring with the client. 

However, companies will have their own reasons for using recruitment agencies. For many it’s the temporary staffing service. For some it may be a short-term need and for others they may offer a major route to market to access the strong talent that they would otherwise miss out on. 

We look at a few different ways employers can attract the best talent to their company in this Blog series. To read our other blogs on this topic click here: How Companies Should Recruit Talent on Social Media

Why using your employees to find great candidates is something you should be doing – Employee Referrals

ocial Media has grown massively over the last number of years and is now one of the most effective ways to advertise open roles, especially when it’s an urgent role. Candidates would much rather spend time applying for a job ad that they have seen on Social Media rather than scrolling through endless pages of job ads. Obviously LinkedIn is the most obvious platform for advertising open positions but the likes of Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram are ever growing. In this blog we will discuss the main points in how to make sure that your job ad gets found on Social Media.

Networking

Networking is key for success when advertising on social media; it is all good posting the job on the platforms but the work should not stop there. Sending an email to your colleagues asking them to share/like a job ad that you have just posted can be extremely beneficial, they may have someone in their network that you don’t who is looking for exactly what you’re advertising or they may even know somebody who they can recommend. Networking on LinkedIn is the obvious choice and it is great for this, but you can get value from all of the social media platforms. Think about which social media your target audience is likely to be using.

Hashtags

Hashtags are one of the main ways to get your job out there and seen. People tend to search for hashtags while searching for their dream jobs, hashtags like #JobFairy, #JobVacancy or #Recruiting can be some of the main ones you will see in job ads but it’s also important to hashtag the location and also the position within the actual posting for people in that area to see the advertisement.

Make the Ad Attractive

Always make your job advertisement as attractive as possible. We all know that we are more inclined to click on a post if it has a funny meme or a picture people can relate to attached to the post. This can be a time consuming thing but its been proven that social media posts will perform better if they attract an audience by using the likes of pictures, videos and memes.

Job Description is KEY

Anyone can post a job ad in the old fashioned layout with nothing but the basic requirements and duties. Make your job description attractive. Obviously you should always cover the basics such as your requirements, salary and location but make sure you include a brief background on the company and what the benefits of a candidate choosing your company will be whether that be staff events or career progression it could be the deciding factor for someone clicking that apply button. You should include details in your job description in your social media post. These details could be the reason your audience clicks on the link to see your job ad.

Using social media for hiring purposes is something you should do and something you should do right. Some of the main ways you can utilise your professional social media profiles for recruitment purposes involve networking correctly, writing a good job description and reference it in your social media caption, make the ad attractive for readers and increase visibility with appropriate hashtags!

To read more on our tips for employers, we have a recent article on the top hiring mistakes and how to avoid them.

For more tips on best practices for recruitment on social media: see this article on social media recruitment strategies.

As a Recruiter I know the importance of the Right Hire to my clients and when thinking of that I wanted to present some of the key issues facing anyone looking to hire new talent into their team or company. Finding the right person to join your team can be one of the most crucial tasks in leading an organisation and possibly one of the most difficult. This is why knowing the top hiring mistakes is important to any company and even more importantly knowing how to avoid them.

Describing your “ideal” candidate:

We are all guilty of adding a list of attributes to a job description in order to find the “ideal” candidate who just simply doesn’t exist which means it can be nearly impossible to find and attract a person who has all those skills. When recruiting, your goal should be to define what the job really is and the experience it requires in order for the candidate to succeed and use this as a scale on determining what candidates are a good fit for the role rather than searching endlessly for perfection.

Overlooking Internal Candidates:

Overlooking internal candidates is often a case with many employers while struggling to find the right candidate for a role with their company. Employers will spend many hours trailing through applications and trying to source the perfect candidates via the many platforms available and sometimes forget to look inside the front door rather than beyond it. Have you got someone who is already in your company who is looking to expand their career and is more than capable of taking on a new challenge? It’s a common mistake made by employers to overlook current employees because they may be in a different department and forget it’s easier to train someone who already has extensive knowledge about the company and is interested in progressing their career.

Maximise your interview:

Employers can be quick to judge a candidate for not preparing for an interview but what if it’s the other way around? Without a clear and concise plan for the interview questions will be predictable which will lead to vague and underwhelming answers. Interviews should always include multiple team members because sometimes extra eyes and ears may pick up subtleties that one person alone,who is focusing on the technicality of the interview may miss out on.

Experience over ability:

Often employers will choose to interview someone who has more experience rather than go with that “I got a really good feeling about that person” and believing that the more experience a candidate has the safer the hire, is often wrong. Just because someone has done something for years doesn’t mean that person may have more ability than someone with less experience. Remember, everyone has to start somewhere.

Not completing reference checks:

Failure to complete a reference check for your candidate can be a game changer a month into the job. Everyone has been at the stage where getting the role filled is urgent and overlooking the most crucial part of the application process, reference checking, can be put to the side because you would rather get the candidate started rather than wait for a previous employer to return your call but in reality it’s much better to wait for that call back than having to start the process from the beginning a couple of months later.

Remember when recruiting it’s important to take the time to find the right candidate for your company and sometimes, rushing into a hire just to fill the urgent role may become problematic down the line. The mistakes listed above with hiring can be costly. Here at Three Q we have a rigorous process to ensure the best candidates are offered to interview by clients which mitigates these problems from occurring. Three Q recruiters go on regular site visits to see our clients to find out exactly what our clients’ needs are. We are experienced in screening candidates and we always do reference checks. If you would like to work with Three Q as a recruitment partner, you can learn more about our service here or call us at 01 878 3335

For more reading on hiring mistakes to avoid here’s a great article from Forbes: Hiring Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs