165 Why Clinics Lose Great Candidates (Before They Even Start)

Welcome
If you’ve ever found yourself struggling to attract the right people, getting ghosted by candidates, or simply tired of recruitment draining your time and energy, this episode is for you. Today, I’m joined by Laura, a recruitment agent, to unpack what candidate experience really means, what’s changed in the hiring market, and why working with an agency might matter more than ever. 

Episode Summary
We chat about the challenges clinic owners face when hiring, why the old “post and hope” method no longer works, and the real cost of doing recruitment yourself. Laura shares her insider perspective on why building genuine relationships with candidates is key, how agencies have access to hidden talent, and why timely communication can make or break your next hire. 

Key Takeaways

• Recruitment is never a one-time task – it’s an ongoing process that needs your attention
• Agencies can access candidates who aren’t actively job-hunting but are open to the right opportunity
• Sifting through unqualified applications is a huge drain on time and resources
• The right agency will focus on long-term relationships, not just filling roles
• Delays in your recruitment process can cost you top candidates and revenue
• Candidate experience matters – from first contact to onboarding, clear and timely communication is essential
• Outsourcing recruitment isn’t just a cost – it’s an investment in your business’s future
• Start your hiring process early, and think ahead about your clinic’s needs

Resources & Links

• Connect with Laura and her team at https://www.recruittherapists.co.uk/

Episode Sponsor:

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Resources & Links

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Transcript

[00:00:00] If you are struggling to attract the right people, getting ghosted by candidates or just tired of recruitment, draining your time, then today's episode is for you. Today I'm joined by Laura, a recruitment agent to unpack. What candidate experience really means? What's changed in the hiring market and why working with an agency might matter more than ever. 

Speaker 4: Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast, the show for clinic owners who want real, honest advice and tried and tested ways of doing things. I'm Katie Bell, and this is the new era of bigger insights and bolder conversations to help you grow a clinic and a life you love. Let's dive in.

Speaker 5: Today's episode is sponsored by Jane, a clinic management software and EMR. The Jane team knows that when your workday is spent providing care to your patients or your [00:01:00] clients, it can feel like there aren't enough hours in the day for the rest of your admin tasks. This can mean scheduling appointments become.

Speaker 5: The hours tasks turning what should be restful evenings into extra long work days. That's why Jane has designed user-friendly online bookings. You can give your patients freedom to book their appointments at their own convenience. Patients can also manage their appointments, fill out intake forms, and enable SMS and email reminders.

Speaker 5: From their secure online portal, which saves you from having to do it manually to see how Jane can help you reclaim your evenings and weekends. Head to the link in the show notes to book a personalized demo. Or if you're ready to get started, you can use the code Thrive one mo at the time of sign up for a one month grace period.

Speaker 5: Apply to your new account.

Katie Bell: Hello, Laura. Welcome to the Treat Your Business podcast.

Laura: Hi, how are you doing?

Katie Bell: I'm great. How are you?

Laura: Good. Excited. Excited to be here. Katie 

Katie Bell: i'm excited to have you on because we had a lovely conversation at Therapy Expo. In fact, [00:02:00] we could have probably Chin Wagged over wine for the majority of the day.

Katie Bell: Yes, we'd actually got work to do, so we couldn't. 

Laura: We'll just book another time in a public house. That's what we'll do. 

Katie Bell: Absolutely. That sounds marvelous. Laura, for everybody listening, tell everybody where you're from, what you do, why they need to listen to this episode. 

Laura: Okay, so we are recruit therapists.

Laura: It is predominantly, it's myself that anybody we'd be speaking to, particularly on a new client side of things I'm the one that's gonna onboard new clients, and then there's myself and there's my right hand woman, Billy. And we are gonna be both between us, the people that would be sending across CV submissions, getting to know the client, getting to know the candidates.

Laura: But predominantly what we recruit for is any allied health professional particularly MSK sector. That is our sort of known area. Yeah, and our client base is made up of private clinics, some private hospitals, but again, our bread and butters are private clinics. Anything from small independent clinics up to multi sites.

Laura: And [00:03:00] we have now got permanent and locum desk as well. So if people need somebody from maternity cover, if it's gonna be a quick turnaround of, we need somebody for next week, for two weeks. Cover of illness. Illness, we can do it. It's not what we promise. So one thing about us is that we are very transparent.

Laura: If we don't think we can help you, then we are not gonna waste your time with things either. 

Katie Bell: Yeah. Amazing. And you seem to be in a sector that is like one of the biggest challenges right now for clinics in our industry is the hiring. It's the hiring. It's the finding people. And it's weird, Laura, because a part of me thinks.

Katie Bell: There's a lot of people leaving the NHS. There's a lot of people very unhappy in their roles there, so I think where are these people going? Because a lot of clinic saying, struggling to find people. My experience is there isn't, I think in some sectors there is a lack of people, but we are getting a lot of great people wanting to come and work [00:04:00] with us.

Laura: Yeah.

Katie Bell: But I think. Clinicians who are business owners but still class themselves as clinicians, have a way of hiring that is like a one time sticker job ad out and hope that you're gonna be flooded. Yeah. You these people. And the reality of it is the recruitment is like an ongoing thing. You're never done with recruitment, are you?

Katie Bell: And you are in this kind of now. I guess this place where I'm sure you are extremely busy trying to serve all these people that need, we need more people. We're all growing companies. We're all growing businesses. We need great people, but our hiring process is so dreadful. 

Katie Bell: Yeah. 

Katie Bell: That. And we also lack the time and the capacity to be able to really hire well.

Katie Bell: And that's where you come in. Is that what you are seeing in the industry as well, Laura? 

Laura: Yeah, absolutely. And I think you've hit on so many key problems Yeah. That a clinician or a clinic owner is facing right now that haven't got the time, haven't got the resources, there's advertising campaigns.

Laura: You need to be so on top of. [00:05:00] But actually, Katie, what I say very transparently to the clinics when the clinic owner, sorry, that I speak to on a intro call. What are you doing at the moment? Bob, the physio? How are you recruiting? Oh I pop an advert on Indeed. That's the trusting one, but the applications that are coming through just aren't what they used to be.

Laura: Now, I've been doing this in this sector for three and a half years that we started to recruit therapists. Before that, I think that was maybe a very different story because Yeah, but living proof of collisions that I'm speaking to you saying that used to work and it doesn't now. Yeah. And what we do very differently is this is our full-time job.

Laura: This is what we do day in, day out, all the nights through. We are networking. Okay. So we are building a database of people that I've been working with candidates since I started this agency. Still haven't placed them, but that's because I know what they're waiting for and I haven't found the right thing for them.

Laura: I'm not just gonna throw them at a job and go, what about this one? And hope that it connects because they've told me what they want and I'm waiting for that right client to come along where I go, [00:06:00] that's a match. So that's three years of me. whatsapping? People giving a court. How's Freddy your son?

Laura: How's your dog, Jim? It's that building of a relationship. Yeah. We have that. Clinicians absolutely do not have the time to have, it's good to have that LinkedIn presence. It's good to be active, but you can't just expect now to put an advert out and get the candidates that you want. You'll get inundated with candidates.

Laura: Yeah. They're not the ones you want. Trust me. They get hundreds of them daily. We all know the ones we are talking about where I'm like, you're not in this country or you've not got the UK experience. All of the clients I represent. Literally, I can think of all of them would say to me, UK experience is an essential, right?

Laura: I can offer sponsorship. That's another, red flag for them. So it's our job, mine and Billy's to go right. Who do we have, who have we already established those network with? 

Laura: Yeah. 

Laura: And who can we put forward that's the right match? It, it's vital that we are able to do that and have the time.

Laura: 'Cause that's our job. 

Katie Bell: And Laura, we had a [00:07:00] conversation pre-Christmas because we needed your help to place in our clinic and you said it and I was like, I didn't even know that this was a thing. You said, I have access to people that may have provided me with their CV or whatever their thing that, like their intent.

Katie Bell: I'm not that happy with the job that I'm in. I would be open to other options or opportunities, but they don't necessarily wanna be out there visibly applying for new roles. So you've got access to people that are like under the radar that would be like, oh, this is opportunity that has just come up.

Katie Bell: Would you like to look at it? That is great because, yeah. We don't have access to any of those people. 

Laura: No. And as an agency, we pay, small mortgage for that access. Yeah. But it's, once you've then connected, then again that rolls into, we are now networking with them.

Laura: They're, we are familiarizing that they know to come to us should they see something that we put out. But who in their right mind really says, [00:08:00] actually it's January. I've got January Blues. I don't want to go back to my current role anymore. I'm gonna pop that on LinkedIn that I'm open to opportunities because they're still being hired.

Laura: That doesn't go down well with bosses, and it's a life cycle thing. People do move on for different varying reasons. It doesn't always have to be for negative, but I know when I was, back in the day when I was job hunting, it said I didn't wanna be out there advertising that I'm looking. It makes you feel awkward and morally wrong and, put yourself in a sticky situation when you are actually working with the current employer.

Laura: So yes we absolutely do pay an arm and a leg to have that access to people that you guys wouldn't see. 

Katie Bell: Absolutely. And I think the other challenge that I know we, we've had, hence why them rang you, is. We put an ad on Indeed and various other places, and we get this barrage of of people who aren't even qualified in the thing that we're advertising, which is wild to me.

Katie Bell: Yeah. But you have to sift through them [00:09:00] and actually what then happens, Laura and I have a big clinic. I have infrastructure, I have a business manager, have client care team have lots of people that could do that stuff. 

Katie Bell: They're also really busy. So they go, oh, I don't really wanna I haven't got the bandwidth to put that job ad out yet because I'm just not ready for a hundred applications that I'm gonna have to work through.

Katie Bell: So then we are delaying our recruitment, which then impacts our revenue on our profit margins. And we're, we are in a position right now in the clinic. We are, we really need people like this. This was, we've had people accept roles and then, not take 'em 'cause they've relocated or the house hasn't completed.

Katie Bell: All these reasons that we are not in control of. 

Katie Bell: Yeah. 

Katie Bell: But with you guys, when you've got an agency assisting you and helping you with this sort of stuff, you are not the ones having to sift through all of those applications and those cvs. You take that away from us, don't you? So it ca it saves so much.

Laura: Yeah, 

Laura: absolutely. Yeah. My key thing a couple of key things when I started this, and the reason I [00:10:00] left an agency I was with before is because I was very much felt pressured to fill a role. Okay? Yeah. I'm a sales person. This is my business. That is obviously my job to do that. Yeah, but for me it's long-term growth of my company.

Laura: I want to make trusted placements, trusted relationships with candidates I work with and clients so that then they can go, my goodness, Laura's amazing. Use that team. Yeah, they're great. Or she couldn't fill that role actually, but I'll still come back to her 'cause she did a great job. We just didn't find the right one at the time.

Katie Bell: She didn't fill it. She didn't fill it with the wrong person. 

Laura: Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. And so that to me is worth so much more long term than me going, I've got a physio here, he's in your area and he wants a job and you want to hire, so let's somehow make up some cock and ball about how great they'd be.

Laura: That to me is, I don't rebrand all agencies with that, but that is your, that is the general consensus that people come when they're talking to agencies. We've got this, [00:11:00] should I say a state agent, car salesman attachment? Yeah. As a recruitment consultant. And I wanted to make something very different.

Laura: And today we've done well with that reputation. Yeah, absolutely. But, we are still fairly small with, we're a small team. There's four of us on board really, but two of us actively doing the recruitment role. 

Laura: Yeah. 

Laura: And I think it's really important to just. Have that knowledge that you are hiring someone to do all the stuff that you just don't have time for.

Laura: Yeah. And one of the, one of the key things, we were probably gonna come on this anyway, but the key things that people instantly go are, my God, recruitment consultants, they charge a what? And I can do it myself. Can you afford to give that time for what that takes? Can you afford to network with all these people in the hopes that one day they might want to job hop and come to you?

Katie Bell: And funnily enough, Laura, we to put some numbers on this to people who are listening, 'cause they always like to hear the the juicy details. I had a we call it the same page meeting every week with my business manager. And actually when we look at our [00:12:00] revenue and our projections for this quarter, we will be just short of 30,000.

Katie Bell: Of last quarter, and it is only down to capacity issues. We have not got the person in the seat. He's starting on the 23rd of February, which has been in pipeline for absolutely months, but we haven't had the person, so this is 'cause. We needed you sooner, and we should have done this. We should have not tried to fix this problem ourselves because we are then the barrier to the speed of hiring somebody.

Katie Bell: So actually, yes, there is a cost associated with working with a recruitment agency, quite rightly but that's the impact that it's having on my clinic. , If we'd outsource this sooner, this probably wouldn't have been. The, to, to the level that we are seeing within the clinic right now.

Katie Bell: And you are working on placing as a women's health physio, which is so hard. So they're like unicorn shit. You can't [00:13:00] find them anywhere

Laura: And got ones and so 

Laura: unicorns that 

Laura: we call them. Yeah, 

Katie Bell: exactly. Exactly. You've got to be so far ahead of your thinking in terms of recruitment of what your business needs in six months time.

Katie Bell: Yeah. And you need to start that process like now for six months time. Yeah. Because we're gonna come on to talk about a great experience for, what candidates wants to see and experience when they. Are being recruited and hired. Yeah. But hiring too quickly is just the worst thing you can do.

Katie Bell: Yeah. But equally, hiring too slowly in our position because we haven't outsourced soon enough, has had. 

Laura: And I think there's something to, just for me to throw in there. That's key. Some people have never used agency before. This is like un unknown territory, like what to expect, what's those fees look like?

Laura: And I have that conversation with each client that I have and talk them through the different, it depends if they're perm hires or associates or locum. So it's very reflective of who I'm speaking [00:14:00] to and what I can say. I can't just sit here and go, oh, it's X amount of money. That's, yeah, that's for a physio of three years versus somebody of 10 years.

Laura: It's really relative to who we are looking for. But a lot of people aren't aware that actually Katie, that. We are working for free, right? This is literally for free. We are doing our marketing costs for you, our adverts across the jobs, boards. Anyone that is doing those know those things cost money.

Laura: If you are just outsourcing that going, Laura, you do it. That's not costing you anything. Even if we don't hire for you, that's our problem. That's an, that's a recruitment company's dream world of just, I might just be throwing cash away. But what you are paying for is when you've decided you found the right person.

Laura: You are not paying for cvs being submitted to, you're not paying to interview them. It's literally a no win, no fee is how I think is the easiest way to put this. You're only paying for that person when you go, absolutely. That's who I want to hire, and that person wants to join. That's [00:15:00] when we say, okay, look this invoice is coming your way.

Laura: Now you prepped. You know how much money that's gonna be all in advance. It's not like we suddenly go, now you wanna hire, now I'm gonna tell you the price. 

Katie Bell: And you take them through so many processes, so many stages, so much better than we would do ourselves and in a much more timely way. I would say generally and I'm sure you'll say 9.99%, 99.9% of the time, it's the right hire.

Katie Bell: They stay with you. And therefore the cost is it isn't really a cost, it's an investment because it would've taken you probably forever and never to find that person in the first place. Yeah. And you are not paying unless that right person is in front of you and you are about to hire them. 

Laura: Yeah.

Laura: Absolutely. And I think you just hit the nail on their head there, Katie. Yeah. It's not a cost, it is an investment. 

Laura: Yeah, 

Laura: absolutely. And for what you can gain in the time that you are saving and what you can gain in the expenses that you would have to do independently. That, let's be honest, don't work.

Laura: We put jobs on jobs boards to have a presence nine [00:16:00] times outta 10. That's not where we make our hires from. Yeah, they're just having a presence, getting our name out there. So if it doesn't work for us, then that's our job putting a job out and hoping to get some decent applications.

Laura: It's few and far between that happens. Yeah. I think that's another way to look at it for sure. 

Katie Bell: So when you, I guess when you are looking for candidates that are about to come on board that the hiring is one part of it, then you've got the onboarding. You are really particular in them having a great experience.

Laura: But it's 

Laura: absolutely vital. So another thing that I think sets us apart is that we want to have a relationship with our clients. We want to get to know the culture, the DNR bang about those words. And I use vibe a lot. I actually hate that word, but I use it quite like the vibe of the company.

Laura: Yeah. That people we are gonna be sending them into. If I wanna work there, great. It's so much easier for me to speak to a candidate and say. This is an epic company. This is why X, Y, Z. It's not [00:17:00] just your bog standard. This is your salary, this is your X amount of pension sick days. It's so dull and boring and that's not Yeah.

Laura: Inspiring to go, oh my God, they're a great company. So it's really important, we have a really good understanding of the client and their culture. That we can then go sell that dream to the candidates that we speak to. It's also really important that we have as much of that information from the client themselves, not just from their website, but getting to know the personalities.

Laura: This is not a tick box exercise of we need five years of MSK, outside of NHS. We need them to have acupuncture. Yes, those things are important. Of course, they've got to be qualified to a degree, but if I'm coming to a client and I'm saying. This guy's only got two years, but my goodness, you wanna speak to this one?

Laura: Because he's literally running through the DNA of what your company is. Yeah. I'm gonna expect that client to trust me. And the ones that do are the ones that are, thank God, Laura, that you've done that. 'cause I would never have [00:18:00] considered. So you are missing. You are missing by just looking and see, you're missing so much because again, bill and I are doing that for you.

Laura: Yeah. So we are screening the candidate. We personally interview each of the ones that we speak to. We are sending across information. When we submit their cv, we are sending across why we like them, what's not so great. So we're instantly flagging up the here's bits that might turn you off, actually. There's no point getting to a certain point further down and then going, oh, FYI, they wanna move to Australia in a year.

Laura: Let's address it head on now. Yeah. Yeah. And future proof stability that they're gonna remain as far as we can hope. Yeah. So once we've done all of that with personality check communications, verbally, presence, how are they coming across? Then we're gonna say, you need to see this one.

Laura: And that again, that's all time that is taken away from. They've already been pre-screened. They've already had an interview. Yeah. Am I a clinician? Is Billy No we can't ask clinical questions, but no one in their right mind is gonna want to just go. Yeah. All right. I'll hire them. Just off the back of [00:19:00] what I've said.

Laura: Yeah. They're gonna wanna do all the clinical side themselves. Yeah that again, that then we can facilitate that. If you want us to be involved with organizing, if that's a team score, a face-to-face, they come in, do a practical skills test, all the things we do, all that legwork for you as well, 

Katie Bell: and. It just say, it just saves so much agro, so much time that you haven't got, which then results in that too fast to hire and mistakes being made.

Katie Bell: And then you've got a toxic person in your company that you're struggling to get rid of. And we've seen all of the changes to the hr employee regulations now that it's becoming. Important that we get the right fit, even harder, get rid of them. This is also an almost like a non-negotiable now, I think for many clinic owners.

Laura: Absolutely. 

Laura: Yeah. And as I say, the majority of what we do is people looking for perm long longevity. And I get that, nobody wants to go, or here's an invoice from Laura and I know they're gonna leave in a year. We are [00:20:00] looking longer term. We know what our clients are because I've really vetted in on, or honed in on what it is they want.

Laura: Yeah. And I know what I need to go and look for. I'm not about throwing shit at a wall and hoping for the best to make a fee and make a deal. That's just not what we're about. Yeah. And that's probably why, it's, we've been slow and steady approach rather than let's up an agency and let's make a buck or two.

Laura: It's again, that goes on long-term commitment from me and my team of. Keeping that client on board, keeping those candidates interested. And I think this comes full cycle, Katie, to what I think that you was asking me about before about candidate experience is just essential. So once we've done the screening things we are then submitting those details to our client.

Laura: Now we've got clients that are so on it and the difference between the success of placements. Or the success of the journey of even just interviewing you. They might decide it's not for them, but this, the journey is still happening. [00:21:00] And if a candidate isn't hearing from us, yeah. The only reason that's gonna be is because we can't get in contact with a client, for example.

Laura: Yeah. We need to have that ongoing communication. Bob, being client we've sent information. What are your thoughts on this, Bob? He needs to come back and say, no, for X, Y, Z reason, or, yes please, I'd like to move to interview stage. Now we've had clients where they've had a delay. I can't do it for another couple of weeks.

Laura: I'm thinking of this, I'll get back to you. Like it makes us look rubbish as an agency. Yeah. Because it's not just client. That's our client. Our candidate is technically our client as well. Yeah. Because we're presenting them, we're doing the best that we can. Yeah. So if I'm going back to then going, do you know what?

Laura: I can't get a hold of Bob Physio right now. He's not come back to me. That doesn't instill much confidence in the candidate either going actually I don't want to work for a company that's just. It's not taking this seriously. They're saying you've come to me, Laura, and said they want a physio.

Laura: And I've said, okay, I'm [00:22:00] interested. And now it's all gone off radar and what's it called? Ghosting. That's sometimes what we get. And I have to have serious conversations with clients to say, this communication isn't working. This is having a knock on effect on your application. Yeah. Yeah. And after some time we'll have nobody left to network with.

Laura: That's gonna be interesting. 'cause guess what? I'm not. I don't wanna represent a client that's, yeah. Pissing about, quite frankly. 

Katie Bell: And, and really when you've almost taken all the legwork off the clinic owner and all of the other things that normally we would have to be doing, our job is to communicate quickly and efficiently to you that is the one thing that we have to do in the hiring process, isn't it?

Katie Bell: Is respond to Laura's emails Yeah. And say, yeah, that was great. No, that doesn't. Let's take them to the next stage. And I think one of your maybe it was one of your top tips that we were discussing before we came on the podcast live was, don't leave too much length of time between all of your phases.

Katie Bell: And I think. [00:23:00] Interestingly, we had, I had a text message WhatsApp conversation with one of our Ascend members, which is our big clinic owners just last night. And they'd had two really great positive candidates that had applied for the role. And then between them applying and them being invited in for a day of shadowing that accepted, both of them had accepted another role.

Katie Bell: And and I said, and she said, you know what? I'm gutted. What should I do about it? I wonder, I don't know, but I wonder if those two phases, because of Christmas as well, I get it, will have been too long to make that happen. Yeah. They'll have cooled off. They'll have maybe had, because often they do have a few different jobs, don't they?

Katie Bell: People often have different things they might be looking at, and I said, pick up the phone to. Pick up phone and say, absolutely gutted to have missed out on, on this opportunity. Would love for some feedback, would love to understand why you've made the decision to go and work for whoever. It's because that's gonna guide you in terms of how you move forward.

Katie Bell: And I'm gonna guess, Laura, [00:24:00] that the biggest problem was there was too big a gap between. Being hot lead and then the next stage and it would You agree? That's something that 

Laura: completely agree and I think that's really good advice because actually that it might just be that phone call where they go, I'm really sorry for that delay and that person's gone.

Laura: Actually, you've warmed him up again now because I really like that you've personally approached me to say that I'm glad I've missed you. But that window of opportunity, honestly if the longer it goes on and I'm not talking like. An expectation to have sent a CV and hired by the next week.

Laura: It doesn't, in our sector, that's just not reality. People are working, they need to take time off for interviews, but the longer that gap is, you're losing them day by day, you're losing them and so are we then effectively, and so if there's if there's something that me and Billy can also do, it's whereby we direct and say, look.

Laura: This one is being interviewed, whether it's through our agency or they're doing it independently. We know that they're interviewing X, Y, Z date coming up. That's a big fat clue to say [00:25:00] We need to move fast on this. Yeah. Yeah. If they get offered and it's a great offer, actually, nine times outta 10, they're gonna go, yeah, there's only a few that go, I'm gonna hold off.

Laura: 'cause they don't wanna lose that offer by saying, I have got an interview coming in. I dunno when that's gonna be. It might be in three weeks. The company that's just offered that puts them off them. It's this rolling chain that people aren't thinking long term. Yeah. How is this affecting something? Yeah.

Laura: A knock on effect for everything. 

Katie Bell: And I, you're absolutely right. I'm just thinking about, if somebody was keeping me bubbling as the employer oh, here's the job offer. Love you, but you are not. 

Katie Bell: Yeah. 

Katie Bell: Coming back to me, I'd be thinking they're playing me off here with other, and maybe we are not the most I want somebody to come work for me and go.

Katie Bell: I want this job, like I'm in. 

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. And I do get that. What I would say on that side of things is sometimes I speak to clients and they'll say but they're interviewing somewhere else. I'm not a top priority and I'm like. People need to have [00:26:00] options still. Absolutely.

Laura: We're all humans. We all want to work out what one is best for us. Yeah. And just because a certain clinic isn't held as the high almighty one, this is the one I absolutely want. People have different personalities and they just want to know risk, reward, what each situation is. Yeah. Rather than just following my heart going, they're amazing.

Laura: Yeah. What's all the other factors that this person needs to think about? Yeah, absolutely. So again, that's us educating our clients that we speak to, to say, look you, you're being unreasonable. Or I see what you're saying, but look at it from this perspective. Yeah. That's all the conversations I have with my clients as well.

Laura: I like to be very like, I'm here to listen to you, but I'm also here to advise you from my professional perspective. 

Katie Bell: Yeah. From doing it for years. I'm really understanding how this works. What else would you say is really important when it comes to the candidate experience? Is it important obviously, that you have good, timely communication, but what about when they like actually.

Katie Bell: Start and their onboarding experience [00:27:00] do. 

Laura: Yeah. 

Laura: So again, some agencies have a, we filled the placement off your pop, never to be seen again. We are very much about checking in with the candidates that we've just placed. How's that going? There's a rebate period as well. Okay. And for true transparency, we want to be ensure that they are happy and safe. 'Cause there's anything coming up, if there's any flags to come up where they're suddenly not happy or something's happened. Yeah, we want to know about it. Let's nip it in the bud before anything. Let's, how can we fix it? Yeah. And that's my job to represent candidate if they've got a problem or client on that side and be that middle person to go.

Laura: Something's not quite working, something's off, something's been, whatever it is Yeah. Can help facilitate that. And nine times outta 10 it's resolved. It's very few and far between to be honest, that those things happen. Luckily because so much effort gets put in. Before making a placement Yeah. To eradicate any of those potential issues, but things obviously happen.

Laura: But in terms of a, another thing about candidate experience, yes, there's the onboarding thing [00:28:00] is checking in. Is everyone okay? They settled. But the onboarding experience in terms of the interview process as well, we run into some problems. On that. And a lot of the time, obviously we take the feedback from the client, they're not right.

Laura: They didn't do great on their clinical scenario. That's get that problem. A client doing a really formal interview process. Okay. I'm probably making a roll for my own back here. I'm not a big fan of that at all. Let's sit across the table at a desk and let's me fire you questions and you answer. Yeah. That's so old school move on. Times have changed. Yeah. That isn't inviting.

Laura: I don't wanna go and work there, so I certainly don't wanna encourage somebody else to go and work there. Enjoyable work environment team. Is anyone else there to meet and greet? Yep. Come and have lunch with us in the staff room if you have one. Let's go for a coffee after and see, how did you think that went?

Laura: Yeah be inviting clients think a lot of the time, this is more old school, should I say that [00:29:00] they're there to choose the candidate. Actually, the candidate's there to choose who they want to work with as well. Yeah. So it's this meet in the middle. Yeah. Yes, you're gonna be their boss, their employer, but you also need to be respectful and kind and welcoming.

Laura: So it works both ways, and I think that's something that gets missed sometimes. We've spoke to candidates that have come out and gone, oh, it was a bit not for me, because, okay why not? Because, yeah, again that's hard truth that I go back to a client and say, look. We've had this feedback.

Laura: Some people don't want to hear it, but I'm gonna give it to you anyway 

Katie Bell: Because you're just going to stay in the same situation without, 

Laura: and then I'll send another candidate through to, to experience the same thing again. Like why? Why are we doing that? I just won't. 

Katie Bell: There's so many, elements to hiring and onboarding and recruiting that we've just, we've touched upon Laura that I guess most clinic owners forget because we're so busy, we're so time poor, and we just think it's easy, as easy as stick an out on Indeed.

Katie Bell: And, we're great people and they're gonna [00:30:00] wanna come and work with us, and we do an outdated interview process and everything's just hunky dory. And actually that's never the case, is it? So I, I think for listeners listening into this. It's about really leaning into what your zone of genius is.

Katie Bell: And I always talk about, if you look at your day and you categorize every task that you do in your day into kind of four different categories, like your zone of genius is the stuff that you are absolutely hardwired hot, great at doing. That is not for most of us recruitment. That is your zone of genius, Laura.

Katie Bell: So we really need to delegate and outsource these key things in our business because otherwise we delay, we leave money on the table, we lose opportunities, and we don't grow at the pace that, that we wanna grow because we're not outsourcing soon enough. So how do they outsource, how do we get in con how do our listeners reach out to you, Laura and just have a conversation.

Laura: Yeah. 

Laura: And I think that's a key [00:31:00] thing that you've just hit on there. Yeah. Just a conversation. Yeah. Not a pushy sales person. If you wanna use me, great. If you don't, then that's fine. If you need some, just help and support with something I am. Again, make a problem my back. Just giving out like free.

Laura: Yeah. Let, I'm not gonna teach you how to be a recruiter obviously, 'cause that's my job. But I can give hints and tips and the hopes that you remember me and then you go in future. Actually Laura was really helpful. Yeah. She didn't need to do that. But that's how we've come to be what we are now. Yeah.

Laura: So people can contact me through our website which is recruit therapist.co uk. On there we'll have our contact numbers, our email addresses. But LinkedIn, WhatsApp, however people wanna contact me, there's absolutely a way to do okay, but just for that informal chat, this isn't me saying you need to use me as an agency.

Laura: I'll just talk you through our fees, how we work, if that's not already been clear and get to know what it is you are looking for as a client. What is it that you are looking for? Can I help with that? First of all, 

Katie Bell: yes, 

Katie Bell: costs [00:32:00] nothing and there is no risk there. That's the key, isn't it? Is this is all, this is a no win, no fee kind of arrangement.

Katie Bell: So think about the cost of not having this person in your business is far greater than the cost of outsourcing to you who can then place the right candidate in a much more efficient time scale. It's a no brainer in my eyes. 

Laura: Yeah. And I think just something you mentioned earlier, if we'd have known that it was gonna take this long and the gap you've left there for the hire, that starting in Feb was too big a gap.

Laura: Now in hindsight, 'cause you've missed x amount of revenue. If people just pick up the phone, send an email, get the ball rolling, because if you know you've got someone that's probably gonna leave in summer, now's the time, now's the time. Not in June. Okay. Absolute. It's not. It's just not. You've gotta think, 

Speaker 6: Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights, [00:33:00] older conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you love.

Laura: people mostly have three month working notice periods now.

Laura: Yep. So you've gotta find them, network them, find them interviews, hand you notice in, by summer, we're already. Fine. 

Katie Bell: Yeah, exactly. This is in the bridal industry, isn't it? When you go and like you say, oh, can I have a wedding dress next year? And they're like, no. Next year It's three years before you have your wedding.

Laura: Exactly. Exactly. That's a really good way of looking at it. Yeah. 

Katie Bell: Laura, thank you for giving up your very precious time. You are a [00:34:00] super busy ladies. I really appreciate you just giving some of your advice to our listeners about their recruitment challenges and struggles, and I really hope they do pick up the phone and just have a conversation with you.

Katie Bell: I'd love that and thanks so much for having me, Katie. You are welcome.

Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Treat Your Business podcast. Hit subscribe now and keep joining me for bigger insights, bolder conversations to help you build a clinic and a life you love.