It Takes Heart
It Takes Heart is an unmissable podcast where healthcare workers share their honest and unique experiences from Australia’s frontline.
Discover real-life stories of passion and purpose, insight and inspiration from people on the inside and tales that are equal parts heart-warming, heart-wrenching and hilarious. It Takes Heart is co-hosted by cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment CEO Samantha Miklos and Head of Talent and Employer Branding Kate Coomber.
It Takes Heart
Happier Healthcare Recruitment with cmr CEO Sam Miklos
Balancing your professional and personal life is no small feat – especially when your business partner is your spouse.
Sam and Norbert Miklos started cmr with $100,000 and a hard deadline of one year to prove their concept.
In this premiere episode of It Takes Heart, Sam recounts the couple’s tenacious journey from modest start-up to thriving recruitment powerhouse with more than 500 employees.
She recounts her unorthodox path from luxury retail and occupational therapy to recruitment and how Norbert juggled a career in IT with their fledgling business.
Sam also shares the lessons she’s learnt over 12 years as CEO, including her strategies for navigating uncertainty, why she embraces negative feedback and how to foster a culture of openness and learning.
The episode also reveals how Sam and Norbert balance home and work, from defining their roles to enforcing a one-day-a-week ban on ‘work talk’.
This episode of It Takes Heart is hosted by Kate Coomber, cmr’s Head of Talent and Employer Branding and the first employee hired by Sam in 2012.
We Care; Music by Waveney Yasso
More about Sam’s Charity of Choice:
Rural Doctors Foundation established by country doctors, addresses the unique healthcare challenges faced by rural and remote communities in Australia. By supporting local health services and collaborating with residents, they strive to ensure everyone has access to quality healthcare, regardless of their location. Find out more at https://ruraldoctorsfoundation.org.au/
Get to know cmr better!
Follow @ittakesheartpodcast on Instagram, @cmr | Cornerstone Medical Recruitment on Linked In, @cornerstonemedrec on TikTok and @CornerstoneMedicalRecruitment on Facebook.
We share stories that honour the people, the language and the ancient colour of this land.
Sam Miklos:Welcome to it Takes Heart, the podcast. I'm your host, Sam Miklos, CEO of Cornerstone Medical Recruitment, and this is my co-host, Kate Coomba, Head of Talent and Employer Branding at Cornerstone.
Kate Coomber:Tune in as we bring you stories of incredible healthcare professionals who are making a massive difference in the communities they serve. From Geraldton in Western Australia to Crocodile Island in the Northern Territory, to the beaches of Port Lincoln in South Australia, travel these landscapes to explore the humanity that lies at the intersection of empathy and healthcare. Today I'm excited to sit down with Cornerstone Medical Recruitment's ultimate leader, samantha Miklos, as we launch our very first podcast. It Takes Heart. My name is Kate Coomber and Sam, you and I've worked together for the past 12 years and I was the very first person through the CMR doors Thank you for taking a chance and I started our nursing division. Now, as the head of talent and employer branding, I get to co-host some of these inspiring healthcare professionals that we will feature on the podcast, but I have to say I feel so lucky to sit and share this story, to really kick things off with you.
Kate Coomber:Now. Bear with me while I take you through a bit of background about this incredible woman. Sam has had a huge career, which spanned from luxury retail management whilst at uni, then on to working as an occupational therapist both in Australia and in the UK, which then led her to join a healthcare recruitment agency in London. This journey went on for about five years between London and Australia before she decided to launch Cornerstone Medical Recruitment, or CMR as we know it today. Now let's just talk a little bit about these incredible achievements during that time. Since starting Cornerstone Medical Recruitment in 2012, the growth has been staggering.
Kate Coomber:the company has now more than 500 employees australia-wide, and we've now had to upgrade and move office space probably five or more times I think, yeah, um, cmr has won awards such as best place to work by the australian financial review, best workplace culture and even being rated as the highest medical recruitment agency by medical professionals on Google. And no wonder you were also voted Mumpreneur of the Year at a very sparkly event in 2023.
Sam Miklos:In my crown, absolutely.
Kate Coomber:Now with all of that. What I love most about Sam is that you lift others up and you are so very resilient. You see an opportunity in every crisis, but you also know how to have a lot of fun along the way. Not a single day goes by that we don't have a right giggle at work, whilst having such huge impact out on the healthcare community. How lucky are we that that is what we do. But CMR isn't just about Sam. We're led by husband and wife duo. Sam and Norbert are the hardest working, authentic and caring people that you could hope to meet, let alone work for. They have three young children, all under eight, and they complement each other's skill set. Norbert is our COO. He really drives the operational side of the business, while Sam is constantly looking for ways to better engage our connected community, both internally as well as our dedicated healthcare workers who are spread across Australia. Are you ready?
Sam Miklos:Yeah, let's do it.
Kate Coomber:I'm a little ready, I'm nervous but super excited to be doing this with you. Thank you. So, let's go, let's do it Now. You, norbert, and the kids have just had a really big, fantastic and very rare holiday abroad, which you probably haven't had that much time away.
Speaker 3:No, never.
Kate Coomber:Ever and I think, really down to your dedication and commitment to the Cornerstone community. So we've got now more than 500 people working at Cornerstone in the office remote communities. Yet you're both completely down to earth, approachable, and you're very, very connected to your people. Why is that so important to you?
Sam Miklos:I think that you know for certainly for me, but for both of us, it's the people that we get all of our inspiration from. You know, the ideas, the team and then the healthcare community like that's what brings the vision to life. So it's so important that we're so connected to them. That's what drives us, that's what just keeps us going, so like I just wouldn't have it any other way.
Kate Coomber:How do you keep that connection when so many people now like we? Used to be a few of us in an office and you could literally shout from one side to the other um, how do you, how do you keep that connection now that we're more than 500 people?
Sam Miklos:it's definitely harder, like if you think about it, in the early days, you know you could make decisions over lunch. You know we were literally there. We had no um, we had. We had our office, was our lunchroom, we were all together, um, we were connected so much, whereas now that we're bigger it's definitely something that I think in the last year we've found harder.
Sam Miklos:But I think do you know what it's like in your relationship? You know, as you stay with someone longer, like you have to book in the date night. So I think for now, we've had to think in the last year about like scheduling in dedicated time to make sure that we are connecting. And you know where that might be smaller groups, it might some individual staff. We've got time now dedicated to connecting with the healthcare community as well, but that's the stuff that gives us the energy. So we find when we're not doing that, particularly for me, I start to feel a bit depleted and I'm like I need to connect with them, I need to hear the stories, I need to hear Get the stuff in the calendar.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, what's next? What's the stuff we're not doing. What's the stuff that you need to make this easier and more enjoyable.
Kate Coomber:And, I guess, take us back to before Cornerstone Medical Recruitment. How did you make decisions in life? What were you going to do? What did you dream about?
Sam Miklos:Oh my God, I didn't know what I was going to do. I reckon I disappointed every teacher. I was really good at school and then I left and I didn't know what to do. But I, looking back, I genuinely think that every single thing I have done has led me to this moment. You know, even being a manager at Q. You know learning leadership, sales skills. You know working to budgets, running teams, customer service, like. There were so many wonderful skills there that you know with me today I can still draw on those times. I think healthcare I really enjoyed OT as a degree. I enjoyed working there. I just other degrees on the radar.
Kate Coomber:I did, I started business.
Sam Miklos:I started business. I know I did not do nursing, um, I started business. I started arts, I did a bit of sociology, I was going to do psychology like I was a jack of everything. I had a hex debt that like took years to wipe out. But I finished OT and when I got to the UK and I had this opportunity to recruit OTs, it just felt like everything had come together. So from then on, like there's never been anything other than recruitment.
Kate Coomber:So I think people may not know that about you that you actually recruited within healthcare agencies for five years before launching Cornerstone, and lots of leadership experience in those organisations and you'd launched a brand that was a UK-based brand in Australia first. I guess what inspired you to do your own thing and start Cornerstone Medical Recruitment?
Sam Miklos:I think it was really just an opportunity at the time. You know, norbert and I were in Sydney, our family was in Queensland and you know in those days I sound super old, right, but I'm, but I'm still Benjamin.
Sam Miklos:I'm still, I'm still reverse aging um, but in at that time there wasn't an opportunity to have multiple offices and and I just wasn't interested to fly in and out of Sydney. So it kind of was at a crossroads, or it's welcome if I'm, I've, if I've been running this, this space, you know like, if I'm, if I'm going to do it, I need to do it now. If I'm going to step into my own and and have a crack. If I don't do it now, I'll lose my nerve.
Kate Coomber:So yeah, we started and how did you start?
Sam Miklos:dumped off a cliff. Oh my gosh. We had a hundred thousand dollars and we gave ourselves a year and we said if at the end of that year we can't fund the business, if we can't be out of the house and in a space, then it just can't keep going. So Norbert was an IT contractor at the time. He continued working and would work by day and then by night. He would do all the things that I needed invoicing systems, all the stuff. But we had nothing and you would remember when you started, like we didn't even have windows.
Speaker 3:We couldn't afford a coffee machine.
Sam Miklos:We couldn't even take lunch at the same time, in case the phone rang, you know so. But all of that stuff, I think in many ways then we had less but that entrepreneurial spirit. I feel like we were so much, there was so much to go at, so it was an exciting time and I know that.
Kate Coomber:If we walk through the office now, I know that if, um, we walk through the office now, I know that, like you're literally dying inside if you hear the phone ringing, you're literally I can see you itching just to go.
Kate Coomber:And pick it up, yeah, to help those customers. I guess I'm sure that there's been doubt over the years and working with you so closely, you look so cool, calm and collected all of the time and there have been some huge crisis that we've navigated, um, but I'm sure internally you have doubt. Talk to us about that when. When does that come up and how do you cope with it?
Sam Miklos:I mean like don't tell anyone. But deep down I'm a hot mess, right like people don't know this about you, they don't realize that but we all joke today that this is really weird.
Kate Coomber:But you are not a super, um extroverted confident person in situations like this, but you do come across and carry yourself in that way. You make it I do.
Sam Miklos:There's loads of doubt, like I think um, I've never been a ceo of an organization this big right, you know every every year that we grow, that's a new year for me.
Sam Miklos:I've not done this before, I've not walked this path. So I think the doubt creeps in all the time. I think as well, like I just feel so responsible, like I've got to get it right. There's, you know, like you said, there's all of these healthcare workers out across the country like we can't mess it up for them, and it's the same for our internal team, like we've got to. We've got to create really great experiences. So I think, when the doubt creeps in you know I've got people that I'll soundboard ideas and sometimes I just go stuff it I'm just going to jump off and have a crack and let's just see what happens.
Sam Miklos:And if it doesn't work out, I think it's it's knowing that that's right. We, you know nothing's going to be that bad that we can't undo it or we can't reverse it. Let's just have a go and lean in, like we did in the early days. But absolutely I feel like as we get bigger, we navigate so many more. It's not like there's stuff. There's always stuff that we've just never come across, that we just have to have a go, and I think in more recent years we've probably surrounded ourselves more in the leadership team with people who've walked the path that we're about to walk, and I think that that's really comforting, knowing now that Norbert and I aren't necessarily carrying the whole burden at times, you know we've got other people who are experts, you know, I think that it creates that culture of have a go.
Sam Miklos:Yeah.
Kate Coomber:And everyone is very welcome to put their hand up, have a suggestion, have an idea. It's super innovative and I know that feedback is really important to you at every stage of every process, even today. You've been asking for feedback today, um, regularly, um, which makes people uncomfortable at times, and I think that it's a really um. Everyone stretches at cornerstone for the better of the customer. How do you take on feedback and, particularly when there's negative feedback, how do you navigate that and what do you do with it?
Sam Miklos:I think, though, feedback's where all the answers are right, you know.
Sam Miklos:I think there's so much to be learned from that moment. Even an exit interview, you know, even any exit interview, there is always that one thing that that you could learn, that could just make it better. And I think you know if you have a cranky candidate or a cranky employee or something doesn't go right, that's an opportunity in that moment and I think that the you know as quickly as you can fix those moments. I think then that encourages people to step up and share more feedback and look for ways to improve opportunities. So I think if you can show that you welcome it but then you act on it, I think it's really powerful. So, you know, I think when there's been challenging times, I feel like that feedback or the team's input, they've had the answers, you know they're the ones on the ground doing it and I really recognise that, that I'm not recruiting every day or I'm not in the people team anymore.
Kate Coomber:So I don't have all the answers and I think it's asking for feedback from the team internally, but then you also seek it out from our healthcare professionals. You are so passionate about making sure that we can redefine their packages, their benefits, to make sure that we're listening to what they need, because we aren't working out in the communities we aren't in the remote areas living their life.
Kate Coomber:So it's really important and I think that as a business, we try and encourage our team to think that way and I think that it definitely comes from you forging forward always. You make these decisions every day to make sure that the business is moving in the right direction. The team will often giggle and I know it gets tossed around of working with you. It's a bit like a colour run. I don't know if that's a compliment, look it is. I feel it. It is a color run, but it's a really exciting one. I think it gets people surround surrounding you that want to move quickly and forward. But I know that you've got a really thorough decision making process. As much as people might think you, you just jump. Talk to us about that. What is your decision-making process?
Sam Miklos:I think that, um, a lot of it comes from my gut, if I'm honest, like, I think, starting, starting the business and you know, in those early days, having every single role and covering every single area, I think you know you do get a really good sense of what, what is, what is needing to happen, what, what's right, what's wrong. So I think, for me, though, it's always driven by like, is this outcome or is this decision that we're making, is it going to create a great experience for the team and for the customers? And if it's not, then we just haven't yet got there. So and I think you know I soundboard those decisions too you know there are sometimes when I really want something questioned and I know the people to go to that are going to, like, push back and really make it uncomfortable. And then sometimes, when I know it's the right thing, yeah, you why why?
Sam Miklos:why? Why, you know, sometimes when, I don't want that.
Sam Miklos:I know not to go to you and I find the other people where I'm like you know what, I know that, I know what I need to do. I probably just need someone to go. Do you know what? Go on, have a go, um. But I think too, for me, I don't like to labor or like if. If it feels like that's the decision needs to be made, let's just make it and move forward. I think sometimes it's about just making progress and and taking some steps and seeing finding your way, you know.
Kate Coomber:I think that when you create that culture of improvement and a safe space for people to to have a go, then people are on that journey with you. People are happy to jump in quickly and let's try. So talking about Norbert, you know he had a career before Cornerstone Medical. He wasn't in recruitment. When did he move into the business full time?
Sam Miklos:So it was 2014. We had just won the Telstra Award and, you know, for the two years prior to that, he would, you know, work 40 hours a week and then he'd be up at us at lunchtimes, before work, after work, all weekend. I think you know we got him to put in a brand new CRM a database. Like we worked him pretty. When you think back, it was pretty brutal right, he used to come up every day twice a day.
Sam Miklos:Oh my God, we wonder why it took so many years to get pregnant. But thinking about it, then it got to the point where he was like I can't do both, like I've got to pick one or the other, and really like his skills are so complimentary to mine. None of the stuff he does I have any interest, or I'm just not good at those things. So it was a no brainer. But it was hard. I mean I know he'd come from IT, all blokes looking at computers to an office full of women. I think there was maybe one guy at the time. No one found his jokes funny. He found it quite overwhelming at times.
Sam Miklos:And he really A bit loud yeah, and he was like there's a lot of chatter and I know he struggled in the beginning to find like what was his value add to the business. But I think now I genuinely think he adds probably more value than me. You know I can go away and systems break and I don't have any. I don't even have the passwords for half of them. You know they don't give me those things anymore, but, um, he's got the codes and he's way more useful.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, I think that shows just how much you both are in the business. You know he's so hands-on. Um, and also credit to Norbert of really backing your dream ultimately and believing in your passion that you can really deliver out to the healthcare outcomes.
Sam Miklos:And tough too, if you think about going from IT to recruitment.
Kate Coomber:I mean that in itself, that's two very different industries. Yeah, very. What rules do you have in play to work with?
Sam Miklos:your husband Well not those rules.
Kate Coomber:You know it's so hard to work. Not everyone can do that. How do you do?
Sam Miklos:it. I think we just know to stay in our own lane. It took a long time, like, I think, in the beginning, and probably even for a couple of years, we were all just swimming in the same pool and we really needed to, like, strip that back and actually get in our own lane. You know what was in his bucket, what was in my bucket? It got to a point where it was becoming cumbersome and I think we were holding up the business. So, you know, a couple of years back we really said that's your thing and that's my thing and you make those decisions and I'm going to back you and this is my patch and I'll back you and we can ask for opinions and sometimes I'll do something and you might not think that was the right thing, but we're just going to press on with that and that's definitely worked since then. But, yeah, definitely it's consuming, like where we talk about work on the way home where we're always talking about it and I don't stop talking.
Sam Miklos:So he'll even be ready to go to bed and he's like pulling over the covers and I'm like did you see? That email. I just need you to just press yes on that before you go to sleep so or you'll message me and say can you put this? On. You just do this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kate Coomber:The work-life balance doesn't exist well it does, though, but you also, um, you do still commit to this family life as well, like you're so invested in the business and the people, but you've got three small children, at this stage all under eight. Yeah, but you're the netball coach, you're the class very you know I mean quite frankly, what do you know about nipple? But not how do you fit that stuff in?
Sam Miklos:I think, um, you, you know, having your own business there's a lot of benefits, there's a lot of challenges too. You know, when our third, our third bubby, came along, you know, he was born and three months later it was a pandemic and I was pulled out of maternity leave to work with Norbert through this time and steer the company through that moment. So there's definitely times where you know it's tough, but then I think we've also carved out that family time. You know, we've made sure that we're home a day a week. One of us is home a day a week with the kids. Um, you know, we make sure that we can prioritize to go to all those events for them. And, um, yeah, coach the netball team and even if you know we still haven't got a single goal in, we're still there and I think for our eight-year-old just having a go mom's there mom's having a crack.
Sam Miklos:She could do a cartwheel. I can teach them a cartwheel, um. But I think then too, for us you know we're having a wednesday night. We, we don't talk work wednesday night. It's like that's it's just our night to to just like connect and chat. And on tuesday night we do pt. You know we do that together in the garage with the kids.
Sam Miklos:It's a family event we're no fitter than we were two years ago. She's making a whole bunch of money off us just chatting, but it's fun. So we, we make sure I mean, you know, norbert loves his motorsport, I love myising we just make sure that those things are carved in just to take the edge off, because yeah, it's very consuming when it's your own business.
Kate Coomber:And, I guess, a very fast-growing business. So we've gone from 2012,. Us, yeah, us, no windows, no windows Grew to maybe 10 people quickly and stood around that area for a bit, and then to maybe 30 people and now more than 500 people are employed by Cornerstone across the country. Talk us through that incredible growth and what are the phases or what are the growing pains that you've experienced along the way.
Sam Miklos:Loads of growing pains.
Sam Miklos:You know, in the beginning, beginning, we were only placing healthcare staff into permanent roles or longer-term contracts, so they weren't our employees.
Sam Miklos:That was a lot easier, um, in so many ways, and it wasn't. Um there's 2016, I think that we we kicked off, um, you know, with temporary workers and it took us a good couple of years to really get that working, um, but I think that also didn't help that we had three babies in that time and I think, as a business you know, between 2016 and 2020, for me it felt like we were still growing and we were going in the right direction, but it just felt like it was sluggish because we were on these constant maternity leaves, which were amazing, but I still was like, oh, there's so much potential, there's so much that we could do, and the, which were amazing. But I still was like, oh, there's so much potential, there's so much that we could do and the business at those times was still at a size where it did it just all relied on on Norbert and I um you were the only operational people in the business.
Kate Coomber:Yeah, it was literally people placing healthcare professionals and we were just the managers, yeah, and Norbert running the show.
Sam Miklos:Um, that was tough and I think then, um you know, coming out of COVID, we we definitely had that great growth, like we seized that moment and, um, you know, we really lent into what was happening and talk to us about that because I think through COVID um, I spoke to so many agencies at the time who were downsizing their teams.
Kate Coomber:The market just dropped out. Even health care agencies had to reduce. A lot of medical agencies reduce this team. Was that a real moment in time? Yeah, that weighed heavily on you.
Sam Miklos:I think once we got over the initial shock of those, those first few weeks setting up the laptops, yeah, and everyone remotely um it, and then we'd started.
Sam Miklos:We started hearing those stories of our competitors letting people go and reducing their working days, it just it didn't make sense to to us, like we, just we were like, if we, we are in a pandemic and if we as a healthcare recruitment agency can't make something of this, then we don't deserve to be here, like it. Just, I felt like our communities needed us more than ever. So what were we doing? So it was, um, it did take a bit of reshuffling, but to me I would, you know, I thought there were so many great people and, yes, their particular desk might have, you know, suffered a little bit because there wasn't as much recruitment going on. But I just kept thinking we've nurtured these people, we've had them for all these years. Why would we cut them and reduce them? There's got to be something else that we can do with them. So that's when new paths, you know, new teams emerged, or projects got done or there was just other stuff to do.
Kate Coomber:And you remember the healthcare workers at the time as well. Because we placed so many temps we couldn't.
Speaker 3:I guess the majority of the business was flying someone from Queensland to Western Australia, western Australia to Tasmania, and people were getting stopped in the air.
Kate Coomber:And I know that you felt that weight of responsibility, not just for the people in our office, but whilst they are working temporary contracts, that's their income.
Speaker 3:That's their sole income to contract.
Kate Coomber:We had to keep them in work. So what did you do to?
Sam Miklos:make sure that could happen. I think it was about, um, how did we just make it easier to get, get these candidates to work? You know, if we, if we couldn't move them across borders, then we had to move them within those states. We had to look for for different jobs. We had to find different clients that we never worked with. We just, we just had to Like it was, you know, all systems go looking for every opportunity that we could, and it was no, we couldn't complain about the conditions. It was like we're in this storm right now. We're just going to ride it out. We've got to find the best way through. And, you know, we brought on, you know, teams to support placements. We brought on people to make those placements easier. It placements, we bought on people to make those placements easier. Um, it was just finding those moments. Just, yeah, if we didn't have roles in the area that that candidate wanted to go, we needed to find them.
Kate Coomber:We need to pick up the phone I think everything you'd led to that point to create that environment of have a go yes, was great at that time because there would be clients calling we need a covid testing center set up tomorrow.
Speaker 3:We're like great, how do we find them? Let's find them. Where are they?
Sam Miklos:they're gonna be somewhere like a whole bunch of these candidates like let's find them what else?
Kate Coomber:what? What else has been a real turning point, or growing?
Sam Miklos:I think the last year has definitely been a challenge. You know like we've gone from that 70 to 100 people in the brisbane head office and we have outgrown everything like we outgrew our systems. Our payroll system was not serving us anymore, um, our crm wasn't helping anymore, um, it felt like every time we wrote a policy or a procedure we outgrew it so that's been hard and that's been hard on our candidate community as well, like, if you think about payroll.
Sam Miklos:I know when we talked about changing that payroll system, norbert and I were very naive. We thought that would be like a switch on three.
Sam Miklos:You know maybe maybe three, maybe four weeks, and it'll be just like happy days 12 months later, like we're still refining that and and there was moments there where it was not a great experience for our candidates like it, and that was probably one of those doubt moments where it was like, oh, like what have we done? We've chosen this system. There's all these great moments, but we're not getting there yet. But we can see that now and I think those systems though, now they are starting to really lay the foundations for the next 10 years, you know, the years ahead. What are we going to need to support the community as they grow?
Kate Coomber:And I think getting that consistent feedback from the customer that you personally get, so that you can keep improving it and get on the journey with them, as tough as it is, is great. So I think another thing that we've outgrown is our office. Yeah, so we I it is is great. So I think another thing that we've outgrown is our office. Yeah, so we. I think pretty much like this week uh, start to move, push the wall, push the walls down and double the footprint. Yep, why are you doing that?
Kate Coomber:in a time, when remote working is topical, um, people are downsizing their offices because nobody goes in full time. Why? Why are we about to double our footprint? Are you asking me this for the first time? Why are we doing this? I'm asking for a friend. Why would you?
Sam Miklos:do this to us, Because you're there to recruit more people right we are, tell an employer brand thing Get out there yeah.
Kate Coomber:Doing it.
Sam Miklos:Why are we doing it? I absolutely believe that there is a place for flexibility and work from home, but I really believe in the power of connection. Like the, I think that we can get so many great outcomes from the team coming together and collaborating and connecting and and just hearing each other on the phone and hearing someone have a really tough conversation or something happens, and then someone else can jump in and help them. I just think there is so much to be gained from that. And what we're actually seeing is and this might just be our business, but, um, you know, recruitment it's typically pretty extroverted people right, and I think that the culture has always been something that's kept people in the business. They love coming to work, they love working with their friends.
Kate Coomber:A lot of expats who have made wonderful friends they've australia and and they don't have their community.
Sam Miklos:So work was their community and we saw that in covid. At the beginning we were all loving being at home, but a couple of weeks in, I remember getting on a zoom and everyone just looked really dire um, and they felt that they were just missing that connection and being together. So as we've come back into the office, you can see that vibe, you can see that buzz and you know, I think we've just got to create a space where people can continue to come back to that. This morning I was in a feedback session with some of the team and they were all talking about it would be so much more useful. If you know, this group was sat in that meeting and that group was there and they were all connecting, which to me just reinforced that need for people to be coming together and connecting. And I think second to that is there's just so much more work to do we don't fit where we are.
Sam Miklos:There is so many more jobs that we have to fill. There is so many more communities that have never heard of us there is a whole bunch of healthcare workers who don't know who Cornerstone is.
Kate Coomber:New specialties, that's that we're not even doing yet.
Sam Miklos:So yeah, I just love the space, so I was like let's just push that wall through and stay there, rather than try to move all our stuff.
Kate Coomber:It's super exciting for the team to be a part of something that's really. There's a real sense at Cornerstone that it's moving forward and that we're all a part of something bigger. I guess what leads you now to do a podcast.
Sam Miklos:This is crazy that we're yeah right I know who are we.
Kate Coomber:I can't believe that you that you agreed to do this a week ago. Um, thanks for having me do a good job, we won't be back.
Sam Miklos:Um, I think that, like we've talked about this for ages but we just, I just never knew what. What was the, what was the point, what did I want from this? And I think you know there's been so many people say to us you know, god, there's so many great stories that come out of your business. There's some really emotional, heartwarming stories. There are some absolutely hilarious stories. There are some that will never make it to the podcast. You know you're like my gosh that could never get out.
Sam Miklos:But I just felt like we had this platform and, at the end of the day, there is a massive talent shortage. There is so many communities that need healthcare workers and I thought if we could bring those stories to light, then we might, you know, encourage a nurse to go and work in a remote community that they would never have expected. Or a doctor might say you know what? I'm going to take my annual leave and I'm going to head off to the territory and spend the next four weeks up there. But even you know, I think about our UK candidates that come out and they're always freaked out about the spiders and the kangaroos on the streets and all those things you know for them, just to hear about.
Sam Miklos:what's locum life like out in Australia? What's?
Kate Coomber:the work. What do you pack, like really basic?
Speaker 3:things. Yeah, what can you take?
Sam Miklos:on those flights. There's just so many great stories that we can share and I just hope by sharing them it might encourage more people to follow those jobs and think about locuming around the country and just making a difference.
Kate Coomber:And I think when some people come out of university, it seems like obvious choices are only available.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and coming from healthcare, you would know that what was an opportunity for you.
Kate Coomber:It's like work for the hospital, yeah, um, and that sort of it, and that's wonderful, but there's a lot of opportunity where people can really involve themselves in the communities, um, which I think is really exciting that we get to share those stories and connect people that way. So I guess what's next for cornerstone?
Sam Miklos:just more of the same right there's. There's just too much to do. Um, I think we've got a really phenomenal group of people. I think we've got a phenomenal platform. I I think there's there's more beyond recruitment. You know, I really want us, as a business, to make sure that our placements have more purpose. I want us to look at, you know, making more of an impact in the healthcare space. What does that look like? I don't know yet, but I feel like from these conversations and, you know, the communities, the ideas are coming. It's just I think that, as a brand, we can just make more impact.
Kate Coomber:And it comes down to that, creating a great experience.
Sam Miklos:Yeah, how do we keep creating?
Kate Coomber:How do we do that? More broadly? So, and now, with every episode, cornerstone Medical Recruitment have decided to donate $500 to a charity of choice chosen by the guest, and your choice today is the Rural Doctors Foundation. And this charity exists to give those rural, remote regions better access to healthcare, from delivering emergency services or buying vital equipment. Why is it important to you to do that with every guest?
Sam Miklos:I just felt that if we were going to do this podcast, it just needed to be something bigger. That came from it. You know, and if you think about if every guest comes on, there's going to be so many amazing healthcare charities or you know organisations that we would never even heard of, and particularly in those remote locations. I just thought, if it gives an opportunity to shine some awareness, to shine a light on those organisations, you know that makes a difference. And for us, you know we've got our um affiliation at the moment with the children's hospital foundation. I think it's really important that each placement has a purpose, but I think it's really important that every guest that comes on this podcast also feels that they're giving up their time.
Sam Miklos:You know to come in and you know and share their story, but I also want them to feel like that that time has been really impactful um and really useful to them.
Sam Miklos:So yeah, it's really important, really important, and over all of the 12 years we've always supported a variety of healthcare foundations, charities. We've even done things like donate dishwashers to nursing quarters or cribs to different facilities for midwives. There's been all of those things. So I'm really keen to see all of the different ways that we can impact and I think if we've got you know, healthcare workers from across the country, we can actually have a really wide reaching impact. So I'm excited to see what that looks like. That's wonderful well.
Kate Coomber:Thank you so much and thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to sit down and talk to you like this. It's been really, really great. I know that I know and love you and work with you so closely and it's so nice that other people can share the insights that you bring to this business each and every day and to the people and really creating that connected community. Thank you.
Sam Miklos:Thank you for joining us for this episode of it Takes Heart. We hope you have been inspired by these incredible stories. It can never be underestimated the impact that these health professionals make. If you know someone who really needs to hear this episode, we thank you for sharing it with them now. Rating and reviewing this podcast makes a massive difference and it helps us to build the podcast to cover more stories, but it also helps to expose these wonderful stories to an even broader audience. Thank you so much for taking that little moment to click the follow or subscribe button. That ensures that you are never lost trying to find the next episode. We look forward to bringing you another impact landing episode of it takes heart.
Speaker 3:We can, for the light we see. We can Feel her energy, we can feel her energy. We can call our community we can, we can, we can, we can, we can, we can. We can Listen to his story, we can listen to history. We can travel in through country, we can, through our stories, we can. The people, the language, the color are ancient, discover, inspire, supporting all nations. Thank you,
