Jobcentre plus taking care of Nursing home recruitment

Finding experienced personnel at short notice was Jobcentre Plusí priority when a new nursing home for the elderly opened in Scotland.

The 70-room home in Clydebank is owned by Southern Cross Healthcare, a UK provider of long-term care facilities and immediately needed 70 experienced new staff. The company operates over 150 homes in this country and employs more than 12,000 people.

After hearing about Southern Crossí plans from contacts at Scotlandís main economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, Jobcentre Plus field account manager Mairi Turner spoke to Anne McCluskey, the nursing home manager, to discuss a recruitment package that would meet the companyís needs.

We needed help finding the right amount of suitably qualified employees as quickly as possible, said Anne McCluskey. It soon became clear that Jobcentre Plusí regional expertise would prove crucial.

Mairi Turner explained: The Iocal business partnerships that exist in and around Clydebank made it easy for me to learn about the home before picking up the phone to Anne. I explained to her how Jobcentre Plus could reduce the time spent finding the right employees by sifting application forms on Southern Crossí behalf and identifying suitably qualified candidates from our database. Anne liked our approach and we quickly started work.

One significant challenge facing Mairi and her Jobcentre Plus colleagues was the range of people required by Southern Cross. The list included a deputy manager, several specialist care professionals, cooks, maintenance personnel and a laundry assistant.

Jobcentre Plus found some people who could start work immediately which helped us enormously, said Anne McCluskey. For the other posts they screened responses generated by a local newspaper advertisement and made subsequent arrangements for all interviews. Essentially, Jobcentre Plus managed the entire recruitment process on our behalf.

Anne is also looking to the future as her plans extend beyond Clydebank: Itís been a pleasure working with Mairi and her team, she said. Iím very keen to see other Southern Cross homes in Scotland follow our lead in turning to Jobcentre Plus when it comes to recruiting key personnel, she said.