Work-life balance and flexible work options are high on the list of priorities for job seekers.

For many healthcare professionals, flexibility at work is of more value than a higher remuneration package.

Work life balance means more to most health professionals than salary.

But why do many practices struggle to incorporate flexible work into their existing culture?

There are many ways to incorporate it into your business and you may only need to introduce one option to significantly improve work-life balance options for your staff.

What is flexible work?

When considering what flexible work might look like for your practice, it is important to consider the size of your business and the expectations of your customers.

A mistake many businesses make is implementing a flexible work policy that does not add value to existing staff or negatively impacts customers.

Find out what flexible work options your staff actually want.

Before creating your policy, chat to your staff.

Just give it a go!

Once you have some ideas, give it a go. You don’t need to try everything at once. Nor do you need to commit entirely to your new options, you can simply run it as a trial to begin with.

Assess the impact on staff and customers. Encourage discussion about the benefits and challenges and work to overcome these challenges together until you find the best solution.

A happy medical workforce means better health for us all.

It is important to continue to collaborate with your team to ensure that the options you have available continue to add genuine work life balance to your colleagues.

Ultimately a strong flexible work offering that provides genuine work life balance for your staff needs to become part of your recruitment and retention strategy – because a happy medical workforce means better health for us all.

The recruitment of staff is often done in haste, in response to an unexpected resignation.

Every employer is competing for talent and the way you differentiate yourself during the recruitment process can significantly impact your recruitment outcomes now and in the future.

1. Get team buy-in

Get your team involved in recruiting a new team member

Before you start recruiting, check in with key team members. This is a great opportunity to ensure that key colleagues are supportive of the new recruit and to refine the process before you start. Give your team the chance to:

2. Put your best foot forward

The recruitment process is the first insight future employees will have into your organisation. Applicants are making assumptions as soon as they apply to your advertisement. You will be judged on:

Show applicants just what a great company you are to work for

Even unsuccessful applicants are an excellent opportunity to show how well you treat people. These applicants can become a great referral source, and might be the perfect applicant down the track.

3. Signed. Sealed. Silent.

A common mistake many employers make is not keeping in regular contact with new recruits in the lead up to their start date.

The time between offering a new employee a role and their actual start date is the most critical in the recruitment process.

Great employees will rarely be let go without a fight. If you have found a ‘gem’, expect a counter offer from their existing employer.

The period before they commence work is a great opportunity to start building rapport.

4. Reinforce their choice

Make your new recruit feel at home

The first week is a great chance to show your new employee they made
the right choice.

Many new recruits leave a position they love within the first year because their family have been unable to settle into their new location.

Every element of the recruitment process is a chance to build rapport, reinforce your team culture and values, and maximise the likelihood that this new recruit will go the distance.

There is a big difference between simply ‘getting a job’ and securing your dream role.

Don’t just get a job, secure your dream role.

1. Keep your CV simple

Ensure your most relevant experience and qualifications are at the beginning. Don’t overload your CV with too much detail, employers simply don’t have the time to read it. Keep it short, specific and relevant to the role you are applying for. Use bullet points to highlight your most relevant experience so it’s easy to refer to.

Check your supervisors are happy to be a referee and are accessible.

2. Be job ready

If you were offered your dream role today, would you be able to accept it? Too often we see people miss out on great opportunities because they’ve forgotten to keep a few things updated.

3. Know what you want

If you don’t know what you want, it’s very hard to find your dream role.

Before you start the job hunt, identify where you want to work and the type of work that interests you the most.

Your needs will change over time. You might prefer the flexibility and higher pay rates of an agency nurse role now; but in time the security of a permanent or longer-term contract role might be more appealing.

There is nothing more stressful than a position you can’t seem to fill. Sometimes making a few changes can dramatically increase the pool of applicants.

1. It’s the wrong package

Sometimes you need to get creative with the overall package

One of the most common reasons vacancies remain is because the package doesn’t match the job.

Many health professionals are looking for work life balance, which may include: flexible work arrangements; part time work; the ability to purchase extra annual leave or take unpaid leave; and compensation for overtime.

If you can’t offer that flexibility, there are lots of other ways to make the package more attractive:

Work life balance is important for most medical professionals

2. Selection criteria is too limiting

In some markets, the ideal candidate just simply isn’t available. But this doesn’t mean that the perfect applicant isn’t out there, they just might not be what you were originally looking for. While criteria are important, sometimes being too specific can limit your applicant pool and you may be scaring off great candidates.

3. Recruitment process is too slow

Great candidates are snapped up quickly and they often have multiple opportunities to consider. If your recruitment process is time consuming and sluggish, you will lose applicants.

If a vacant position is starting to negatively impact you, your team or your community, it might be time to consider where you can make a few changes. Otherwise you might find you are spending more time dusting the empty chairs around you, than watching your team grow.