Allied health jobs mimic overall recruitment trends
Given that the NHS is Britain’s biggest employer (and given it is not the only provider of healthcare, although certainly the biggest by far), it is not surprising that the recruitment of appropriate staff is an enormous task. The mere law of averages dictates that personnel will want to move between posts and, very often, different parts of the country, making recruiting for allied health jobs an ongoing nightmare for personnel departments in both the NHS and other organisations. Fortunately for both the poor people in personnel and the time-poor job-seeker, it is now far simpler to find anything from jobs in occupational therapy to jobs in radiography, due to two major advances of recent years.
The first of these is, of course, the internet, a tool perfectly designed for the unwillingly-uprooted spouse searching for jobs in occupational therapy in a new part of the country or the ambitious career-climber, willing to spend hours trawling for interesting jobs in radiography. It’s a far cry from the bad old days when subscribing to the local paper in a far-flung area or repeated telephone calls with several potential new employers was vital if one was to keep afoot of new openings. These days, searches can be precisely tailored and narrowed down to avoid trawling through lists of other allied health jobs in the hunt for the one which will fit a candidate’s qualifications, experience and aspirations.
The other development, which has been repeated across countless other fields of public service personnel, is the growth of specialist recruitment agencies who are usually able to match candidates to openings with more speed and less effort and cost than traditional personnel departments would be able to through traditional advertising. In fact, the growth of these companies, such as About Health Professionals, an off-shoot of the well-regarded Sanctuary Personnel, is inextricably linked with the new ways in which we look for work. Their web-site offers features most of us now take for granted when job-hunting: precise search functions with several different search parameters, e-mail alerts for suitable posts and the option to upload a CV for potential employers to peruse.
This also works well, of course, for the departments offering allied health jobs who are far more likely to find a suitable candidate if their jobs in radiography are being read by candidates across the country, their search for dieticians is nation-wide with no further effort or expense than if it wasn’t and their jobs in occupational therapy are visible to those who maybe work for a neighbouring PCT but who are keen to move on to the next step in their careers. Given these massive advantages to both job-hunter and employer, It’s hard to remember how anyone managed before!
Please visit http://www.abouthealthprofessionals.co.uk/ for further information.