When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, like hospitals across the country, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Trust (NNUH) suddenly found itself under significant pressure to recruit more staff.
Recruitment Websites
Social Media Recruitment Advertising
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Having worked with NNUH since 2018, the Just R team understood the Trust’s unique challenges in attracting staff (such as its rural location), coupled with the difficulty of recruiting in the middle of a global pandemic.
We quickly launched an urgent recruitment campaign.
Our campaign focused on attracting registered nurses working elsewhere in the local community along with student nurses, both for long-term roles and short-term support, the latter targeting retired professionals to support the NNUH team when they needed it most.
The Results
Our urgent recruitment campaign was undoubtedly helped by our existing relationship with the Trust, and the strong partnership we had built.
In just 2 years, Just R has had a significant impact on NNUH’s recruitment – between April 2018 and March 2019, recruitment increased by 55%; an additional 106 Band 5 nurses.
Between March 2019 and April 2020, that figure increased by an additional 20%.
When the coronavirus crisis struck, our digital recruitment model allowed NNUH to recruit quickly from its existing pipeline, ensuring that the Trust had the people in place to meet additional need. The process was swift and smooth, with an average time from application to ward of just 15 days.
As well as drawing on NNUH’s existing pipeline, our team also created and delivered a striking, persuasive digital recruitment campaign – Norfolk needs you.
With eye-catching visuals and persuasive videos from staff, including Professor Nancy Fontaine, Chief Nurse at NNUH, our expert team created and delivered a targeted digital recruitment campaign via Facebook.
The campaign targeted qualified nurses, doctors, AHPs, paramedics and pharmacists, as well as retired professionals who we appealed to for short-term support to tackle the pandemic.
Using the tags #Norfolkneedsyou and #TeamNNUHneeds you, we increased the “shareability” of the campaign and garnered support for a recruitment drive that had never been more important.
The campaign ran for two months, throughout March and April, with impressive results.
At the height of the pandemic, our urgent recruitment campaign delivered 213 enquiries of interest, including 58 nurses, 68 Health Care Assistants, 11 Student Nurses, 11 Overseas Nurses plus 2 Nursing Associates.
Along with providing NNUH with the staff it needed during the crisis, it came at a fraction of the cost of using a ‘traditional’ recruitment agency or temporary staff.
It was a hugely successful campaign that supported NNUH during an extremely challenging period.
