I am currently a "recruiter" with Maxim Healthcare Services, at least that's what they title the position and sell you on in the interview. Less than 10% of your job is actual recruiting, the other 90% plus percent is spent doing a multitude of tasks that were not mentioned to you in the interview. This is one of the main problems with the position. You end up doing so many different things at the same time, that it is impossible to complete one task in an efficient, accurate, and timely manner. They call you a recruiter, but what you are really doing is account management (even though that is technically your boss' title. As a "recruiter" I deal with recruitment, customer service, sales calls, referral agency meetings/calls, payroll (weekly), financial reports, interviewing process, scheduling (arguably the worst part of the job. I'll get to why that is in a moment), and my favorite (sarcasm), the on-call phone.
Again, with all these tasks, it is insanely difficult to get into a groove and knock out your work, because something always comes up, namely scheduling issues. While your RNs and LPNs are usually pretty consistent, you have to deal with a whole new beast called CNAs
....Now if you don't know what a CNA is, they are superbly unskilled workers whom completed a 2 month course to obtain their "license". Basically, they are baby sitters whom have to do some really dirty work and get paid all of about 8 bucks an hour. Being this is the case, they are HIGHLY unreliable and will up and leave without even a phone call for a job offering $8.25 an hour. If you have 20 CNAs, you will be lucky to have 5 that you truly can count on. The rest are here, there, and everywhere, and do not communicate with you at all until they want something, making your job hell. Expect to receive a call from your CNAs regulary about 10 minutes before their shift is to start with them informing you that they are having "car troubles". And guess where the fault lies when that happens? You guessed it, the recruiter. Then you get to deal with a very angry family member of the patient asking where the aide is and why you let it happen and didn't have a back up waiting at their door that instant.
Scheduling is by far the most stressful part of the job because this type of thing happens all the time. But don't worry, after business hours close, you get to go to the gym and burn off that stress right? Wrong. It is also the job of the recruiter to carry the on-call phone which is supposed to be for emergencies only, but is mostly utilized by your staff of nurses and CNAs to call with some random question or to call of for a shift that you have to fill right away and communicate with the family on the change. No worries, you will go home and get a good night's sleep ready to start a new day tomorrow right? Wrong. I have received calls at EVERY. SINGLE. HOUR. of the night. This along with scheduling is the worst part of your job; There is NO work-life balance. They preach that in the interview, but it is a blatant and utter deception. You NEVER get to leave your work behind as a recruiter. I have received multiple calls at 4 am from nurses calling out for a shift that was to start in an hour or two....You can just get back to sleep right? Nope. You have to stay up and make every available attempt to get the shift filled, then go in to work on time the next day and start over.
Again, the opportunity for advancement is there if you can handle the job of the "recruiter" for a couple of years. The recruiter position is where they promote from for the job of "Account Manager" which is basically the head of the office on the financial side. The problem with this is, the training for this transition is terrible. I recently got a new account manager whom was completely blind-sided by this transition. I actually end up doing a lot of his work while he sits in on conference calls......Thus further stretching the already busy position.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this atmosphere is not strictly burdened to Maxim, but to all home healthcare agencies...It's just the nature of the business.
