Recruitment Fairs success

Posted by Devon Partnership Trust in #ProudofDPT, News on 18th October, 2017

Fantastic teams of staff have been working hard over the last few weeks attending various recruitment fairs and events.

Susan Smith, John Lilley, Mandy Haddock, Tammy Jones, Andrew Feakes, Martin Ayres, Ben Broad, Michelle Thomas, Georgina Jones and Georgie Horner travelled to the Nursing Times Careers Live fair in Birmingham on Thursday October 12th and spoke to more than 100 nurses, who were keen to find out more about us. The event at the Birmingham Conference Centre was a huge success. We were Keynote Speakers on the day and the team on stage did a great job of promoting the Trust and talking about our values to all those who attended. The theme of the conference was “Being Well at Work” and as founders of Mindful Employer we were in a great position to speak.

The team were rushed off their feet interviewing candidates and offering them positions on the day. They made 25 conditional job offers to a mix of students and qualified nurses on the day. At one stage the announcement over the loud speakers was “We have 6 candidates being interviewed for jobs right now - and they’re all for Devon Partnership Trust!"

Susan Smith, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, said: "The best part of interview process for me, was when me and Mandy interviewed a mature lady, we asked her how she manages her own stress levels, she said she likes gospel singing and music. She then asked would we like her to sing for us. We of course said yes and she sang Amazing Grace. It was just a lovely moment."

In addition to this, a team led by Sue Speak, including Lewis Powell, Mandy Haddock, Sarah Leach, Emma Gillard and Ben Broad recruited 10 final year students from the Plymouth University Careers and Preceptorship Fayre on Thursday September 21st who have now had offer letters for preceptorships from HR Connect. We are following this up with a Christmas lunch with Plymouth University students in December.

A visit to the national RMN conference on Monday October 9th led by Sarah Burford with Julie Wilson and Katrine Sanjose resulted in placements for 15 year 2 students from across the UK and a job offer for another preceptor to join us next year.

Georgie Horner, Laura Fuller and Bed Broad also attended a Work Experience and Careers event at Torbay Horizon Centre. Georgie said: "It was hugely successful and we had over 322 students that attended from 23 separate Education providers.

Sarah Johnson, Workforce Business Partner, is co-ordinating the fairs and has more plans to link directly with UWE, and to attend recruitment fairs at Southampton and Bristol. She said: "I've been blown away by the huge amount of interest and willingness amongst our directorates to get out there and talk to recruits. Our staff are evidencing clearly that they are skilled, caring and compassionate clinicians who love being in Devon and working for DPT – they are clearly attracting staff through their own personal commitment and enthusiasm. We are very lucky to have people like this working for us.