Tag Archives: staffing

How to Achieve that Work-Life Balance

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These days, a work-life balance can be pretty much impossible. It’s especially hard when you’re not really “logged off” and calls, texts, and emails come straight to your cell phone well after 5 PM. We know that people are exhausted when they come home from work and we know people need to take care of themselves. There are other factors that come in to play when talking about a work-life balance, such as, having to entertain your kids, relaxing, or socializing with your friends. These things help us obtain a healthy lifestyle. So how do you accomplish a healthy work-life balance?

  1. Exercise

There’s a lot of things we make time for, including eating, sleeping, and scrolling aimlessly through social media. But, shouldn’t we also make time for exercising or meditating? Working out for at least 30 minutes a day has some major health benefits that will impact you at work. Working out boosts your energy and it also makes it easier for you to fall asleep at night. It reduces stress and is healthy for your heart, brain, and your overall happiness. Most offices have gyms onsite or offer a discount for gyms that are close by; make sure you’re taking advantage of this.

  1. Unimportant people and activities

We all know that it’s easy to get sucked into surfing your social media pages or watching funny videos on your phone, but you should be using this time for other important things. Make a list. Write down important people you should be connecting with or important things you should be doing every day. These things can range depending on the type of person you are, but writing a list ensures you get this stuff done every day. Whether it’s calling your mother, cleaning your surroundings, prepping lunch boxes for the next day, or even a little time for yourself to read a book, you need to put aside what is wasting your time and what is necessary for you to do.

  1. Turn it off

When you are done for the day, turn off your work notifications. You don’t want to get sucked into replying when this time is supposed to be yours. In fact, put your phone and computer fully away so you have time for your family, friends, a book, or even that Netflix series you want to catch up on.

  1. One word: No.

Are you the type of person who, when asked a favor, says “yes”? Well, we’re here to tell you it’s alright to say no. Taking time for yourself over others isn’t selfish because if you don’t do it for yourself, who’s going to?

  1. Prioritize and structure at work

It’s important to make sure all your urgent tasks are getting done first. Determine what work is most important and then structure your day around them. Tell yourself you’ll do activity 1, 2, and 3 and then reward yourself with a walk around the building for 10 minutes. Breaks are important too! Take more personal moments for yourself to daydream or compliment the weather.

  1. Company holidays

When work holidays are coming around, use this time to recharge yourself. Relax. We often end up “spring cleaning” or hitting our to-do lists but you also need some down time. You want to be in the right mindset before you go back to work. Take a day trip to the beach or the city to take your mind off work and give yourself some personal time to reflect on your life.

Let us help you find the perfect job. We have positions with hundreds of companies across the nation. Visit our website to see our current openings, or join our Talent Network to stay connected with future opportunities that match your interests.

Economic News Release: Employment Situation Summary

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October 2018

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate of 3.7% remained unchanged in the month of October. Hurricane Michael had made “no discernible effect on the national employment and unemployment estimates.” The unemployment rates showed little or no change for the major work groups: adult men (3.5%), adult women (3.4%), teenagers (11.9%), Whites (3.3%), Blacks (6.2%), Asians (3.2%), and Hispanics (4.4%).  However, job gains did occur in manufacturing, construction, transportation, warehousing, and health care.

The average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 5 cents to $27.50 for the month of October and it rose by 83 cents for the past year. In October, the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls went up by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours.

There were 36,000 added Health Care jobs including 13,000 in hospitals and 8,000 in nursing and residential care facilities. In ambulatory health care services went up by 14,000. The employment grew by 323,000 over the past twelve months.

Over the past three months, job gains have averaged 218,000.

Sarah Krufka

HSS Social Media Specialist

Why a Clean Social Media is Key for Job Searchers

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Social media has become so popular that almost everyone has it. It lets you connect with old friends, share the latest online trends, and keep up with the news. So, when you are job searching, you may want to consider cleaning up your social media. Some people don’t realize this but, having inappropriate things on your pages can determine whether or not you get the job you’re applying for. Just skimming through your social media can even dictate getting an interview!

Why is it so important? Your profiles show who you really are as a person – your likes, dislikes, hobbies, what type of people you hang out with, and the list goes on and on. It reveals your social life and whether your personality would be a good fit for the company. Your social media profiles are movies everyone can go see. Whether they’re rated-G or rated-R, is up to you but, they’re not private journals. So, it’s always smart to display yourself elegantly on them.

Now, what kind of “inappropriate postings” are we talking about? Here are a couple examples:

Those Darn College Kids and their Photos:

We all have those hilarious photos from college parties that we like to go back and reminisce on, but college is over and done with. It’s probably for the best to delete them and keep them stored elsewhere.

Know When to Keep Your Opinions to Yourself:

We constantly see celebrities badmouthing other celebrities on twitter but let’s not follow their lead. When you’re expressing your opinion over social media, do so at your own risk. Don’t badmouth or swear at anyone or anything, especially if it’s a company you use to work for or and old coworker.

Here are some other things you can do to your profile in case a hiring manager checks out your social media:

Privacy Settings:

It’s always good to set your profiles to private. This will guarantee that anyone you don’t know can have access. Your pages hold some seriously private stuff that you might not want to be displayed all over the internet, like where you live, your phone number, and your email address. Also, all your photos are in chronological order, so your first picture that an employer might see when scrolling through your Facebook, could be a Halloween photo that your friend tagged you in. Ask yourself if you really want them to see that.

“Friends”:

Back in the day, it was “cool” to have tons of friends on your social media pages. You probably don’t talk to about half of them anymore. It’s time to go through your friends and delete the ones you don’t want to be associated with. Hiring managers spend some of their time going through people friends list on their social media pages trying to determine what type of person you are by the friends you hang out with. Will Smith even stated “You are who you associate with. Look around at your five closest friends and that’s who you are. If you don’t want to be that person, you know what you gotta do.”

Keep it Clean:

Once you’ve cleaned up your profiles, make sure it stays that way. Don’t ruin all the hard work you’ve put in to make it nice and clean! One easy tip to ask yourself before you are going to post something: Would your grandmother approve of your post?

Here at HealthCare Support, we care about the success of your job hunt. For more tips, follow us on social media and subscribe to our blogs.

Sarah Krufka

 HSS Social Media Specialist

Millennials are Transforming the System

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Take a look around your office. How many people are millennials? How many are living up to the millennial stereotype that people go on and on about?

In just a few years, the majority of the workforce will be millennials. Some say millennials are going to doom us all. Some say they’re going to kill the economy. The common stereotypes include being stubborn, spoiled brats that don’t work hard, are lazy, and are obsessed with their smart phones. However, I’ll tell you why they’re going to revitalize the workplace.

Slowly but surely, millennials are already making an impact by changing everyday work life. Generally, it’s hard to have a work-life balance, especially in the healthcare industry. A lot of healthcare professional work jobs that require them to work long hours, but this is changing thanks to millennials. One of the most important thing to millennials, is a work-life balance. William Hartenbach, M.D., executive vice president of anesthesia services for physician staffing firm EmCare, let his employees have more PTO and vacation time because “it’s increasingly important to make sure that you don’t get burned out. It’s a long career and it’s fairly intense and the stakes are high.”

Managers are also allowing employees to have more flexible schedules and are able to create their own hours. Not everyone is working the same 8-5 time. Also, thanks to technology and the way millennials understand it, some companies give the option to work from home. Having flexible hours and working from home means you have time to be with your kids when they get back from school and for some even allows them time to make breakfast with them before heading off to work.  In 1975, the average time mothers and fathers spent with their kids were 9.7 hours a week. In 2018, that time has doubled to 20.7 hours. Could this be because parents get to create their own schedules? Absolutely. And spending more time with your kids creates less emotional and mental problems when they get older. (Thank you, millennials.)

Millennials like to build relationships. They’re friendly people, need emotional attachment, and want to personally connect with everyone around them, including their bosses and managers. They’re more open to their personal lives and connect with people better this way. This allows for a more comfortable atmosphere and it causes work to be bearable for everyone involved. Happy employees equal a happy company.

Given a choice between working by yourself and working in a team, millennials choose working with a team 90% of the time. Teamwork makes the dream work. They also like to receive feedback and constructive criticism, that way they know what they’re doing wrong and what to do to make things better. Millennials received participation trophies and “A for Effort” so they are used to receiving something for the duties they fulfill. (Also, counterpoint, they are blamed for receiving participation trophies, but they are not the ones responsible for giving them out in the first place, now are they?) Along with constructive criticism, they like to be mentored, given advice to, and they genuinely want to know how to succeed. Millennials make determined and energetic employees, so they can outshine others. The more determined your employees are to exceed, the more successful your company.

In healthcare, treatment plans change so much because technology and research are evolving each day. Cures are created, robots are managing surgery, and patient histories are maintained through smartphone apps. Millennials are the generation that grew up on technology. It’s their baby. Where technology is a millennial generation strength, other generations consider it their weakness. Thanks to millennials the transition to this technological world has been quite simple.

Some hiring managers may get put off at the thought of hiring a millenial because of common conceptions of them being high maintenance and picky.  However these millenials will be what takes your business to the next level. Learning what it is important too them is the first step in a successful partnership. Painting a clear picture of the position and expectations along with flexible hours, relationships, teamwork and technology are what matter most.

Whether you’re a manager with limited time (patience) and need help finding the right millenial or a millenial on the job hunt, you can count on HealthCare Support to be upfront and address any concerns head on.

Technology is Taking Over

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It’s 2019. We all saw it coming: Technology is taking over. Everywhere we look people have their noses buried in their smart phones, tablets, and computers. It’s crazy to think how far we’ve come, and all the things people had to do without technology. Remember when you had to mail a letter if you wanted to reach someone? Or how about going to the library if you didn’t know something? Technology has made some major differences to improve the world, but there’s a lot of controversy whether technology actually made the world a better place. Do the pros outweigh the cons? Should the cons not be overlooked? Tell us what you think:

Pros

  • Internet and Accuracy

    Don’t know the answer to a question? You are now a few clicks away from knowing the answer through Google. Need to add things up and document numbers? You’ve got everything you need on your computer with Excel and the Calculator app. The internet and programs, like Microsoft Office, are there to fix your human errors.

  • Time Saver

    Having a computer allows you to do many things at once. You can schedule appointments, email people, and perform other tedious tasks in minutes. If you share projects with your coworkers, all files can be saved in one place for people to access. Therefore, making everything you do more efficient and productive.

  • Green Planet

    Tree huggers unite! Technology allows us to be paperless. We don’t have to use a single sheet of paper while we’re writing novels, figuring out mathematical equations, or spelling things. Saving paper saves trees and saving trees saves the planet.

  • Communication

    Using direct messaging apps such as Skype, Slack, GroupMe, and IM, you can ask quick questions or message someone without writing an email or leaving your desk. For more polished business to business communications, just compose an email. You never have to pick up the phone again!

  • Working from Home

    Your employees don’t need to be in the office to work anymore. Save overhead and allow your employees to work remotely using their own laptops and WiFi.

Cons

  • Slackers

    Americans waste almost two hours a day on things other than their responsibilities. What are they doing? They’re checking their social media or texting their friends. Technology can be a big distraction in the workplace causing some employees to be less productive.

  • Communication (again?)

    Yes, communication in the office is compromised because instead of talking in person, we talk over text and emails. Many things can be lost in translation.

  • Money, Money, Money

    Technology is expensive! If your smartphone breaks, it could be up to $300 to get it fixed. Need to restore your laptop’s hard drive? Computers are even more expensive to repair.

  • Automatic

    Everything works by itself now and this makes people lazy at work. Some basic skills go to waste, such as tracking inventory. Automated messages get frustrating when you’re trying to call an operator for customer service but get stuck with a robotic voice that can never understand you.

In a world where technology is everywhere you turn, we understand the importance of one on one conversations with our candidates. At HealthCare Support, our candidates have essential conversations with their recruiter throughout the hiring process.

Interested? Apply Here!

HealthCare Support Attends CAHP in the Golden State

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California Association of Health Plans Annual Conference

October 22-24, 2018

We are excited about our upcoming conference for the California Association of Health Plans (CAHP) in San Diego, California at the Manchester Grand Hyatt. With the attempted changes to the Affordable Care Act in D.C, stakeholders in California are partnering to improve our healthcare system. There has been some debate over whether California should regulate healthcare prices, expand coverage to the remaining uninsured, create a public option, or start using a single payer healthcare system.

While this is happening, CAHP and its affiliates are working to better the existing healthcare system and improve the way consumers work with health plans. The debate to California’s health plans include expanding coverage, providing increased subsidies for those who buy their own insurance, and persuading lawmakers to think about a state level individual mandate.

HealthCare Support’s Business Development Manager, Jay Bridge, will be in attendance and joining over 1,000 health care professionals. At the conference, Jay will be learning how our health plan partners are handling the changes being made to the health care system in California. Fulfilling new staffing needs and expectations will be instrumental to the success of the implementation of new health plan regulations.