Staffing Robot - Web design and marketing services for companies in the staffing industry

Staffing Robot Healthcare Staffing Website Design Services Re-design!

We've been kind of quiet over the last couple weeks but we haven't gone anywhere. In fact, quite the opposite. Recently we brought on several new clients that all have great projects. We'll show you the work we've done for them once we're finished.

We also decided to redesign our website and change up some of our service offerings. We simplified our site and made things easier to find. We also think it's a much better way to showcase our software products for healthcare staffing agencies and our sample work portfolio. Check it out: Staffing Robot Healthcare Staffing Website Design.

In addition, over the last couple of months we've had a lot of staffing companies and healthcare organizations inquire about our prices and the specifics of the services we offer. So, in an effort to make things even more straight forward we've listed all of our pricing and services directly on our site!

Other companies try to complicate or hide their pricing. However, we want to be different and make things simple by putting all of this right on our site for you to see. Now you can easily find the specifics of each service we offer and choose the ones that best fit within your budget.

Staffing Robot New Service Offerings:

Website Design for Healthcare Staffing Companies. We now offer 3 design packages to chose from. You can select from our 'Starter' 'Moving Up' or 'The Show' packages.

The Starter and Moving Up packages allow you to chose from template based themes that all come with a Content Management System for easily updating your site. The Show package provides you with a custom website design and advanced interactive options that will help you grow your business and recruit new healthcare professionals. These new services help you chose a package that best fits within your budget.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Your Healthcare Staffing Company. Staffing Robot now offers 3 Search Engine Optimization packages that will help you meet your goals within your specific budget. Our Recruiting SEO package is focused on helping your improve your recruiting strategy for healthcare professionals. The Client SEO package is focused on ensuring new clients find you when they need your services. Finally, our Total SEO package is a complete SEO package for your entire website that focuses on both recruting and obtaining new clients.

Healthcare Staffing Social Media Marketing. Whether you're just starting out with social media or ready to launch a successful campaign, we now have 3 packages designed to help your healthcare staffing agency with social media marketing. The Starter package gets you set up on the social media platforms of your choice. The Social Media Management package gets you going with advanced ROI and brand management tracking. The Social Media Campaign package delivers a complete Social Media Marketing campaign to you that will positively impact your social media recruiting and client acquisition strategies.

Branding and Logo Design. Staffing Robot will help you create and promote a winning brand. Our branding packages give you everything from basic logo design with our Starter package, to delivering business card and letterhead layouts with our Premium package, all the way a complete brand identity for your staffing company with our Deluxe branding package.

Staffing Robot Software Product Offerings:

Email Marketing Software for Healthcare Staffing Companies. We launched ePromoter a few months ago and have been really please with the adoption so far. Several staffing agencies have told us they really love the application and the ability it gives them to create and track the success of their email marketing campaigns. Sign up today and start sending e-newsletters to your healthcare professionals and clients.

Hively. We'll reveal more about this product soon! In the meantime, look out for invitations to be a beta tester!

As always, Staffing Robot can also help you with custom software and mobile web development. If you need a company to help bring your new idea to life or to ensure your website provides the same experience to your customers on mobile platforms like iPads and smart phones - we can help.

So take a look at our new site and let us know what you think. If you have any questions or would like a free estimate on your web project let us know and we'll get started right away!

Nursing Shortage Info Graphic

Another great info graphic.

Recently I posted on the info graphic on salary data related to Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA's). In that post I stated that I've seen very few info graphics detailing data related to healthcare staffing. Glad to see that I was wrong on this, as I think info graphics are an excellent way to quickly and easily communicate helpful information.

Even though the economy has seemingly slowed the nursing shortage, most data suggests it hasn't fully gone away and in fact will only get worse over the next several years. This nursing shortage info graphic from Veterinary Technician is very interesting.

Via: VeterinaryTechnician.com

Wrap Up From The Healthcare Staffing Summit 2010

We spent this week at the Healthcare Staffing Summit in Chicago. I've gone to this conference for the last 8 years and I have to say I felt this year was one of the best conferences ever. Even though the industry data presented wasn't anything to celebrate, it did appear there was some light at the end of the tunnel.

Aside from the data it was a great networking opportunity and the venue at the Palmer House Hilton was amazing. We met lots of great people doing some very interesting things and attended many sessions that provided invaluable information. Also, as a company, Staffing Robot, was honored to speak on a panel about social media marketing that was well attended and full of great participation from the audience.

Here is a summary of some of the highlights from my notes throughout the week.

Barry Asin's Keynote: Succeeding in A Time of Change

As usual, Barry Asin kicked off the summit providing lots of great information about the industry. Of all the data presented, perhaps the most shocking was that in 2010, spend on healthcare staffing has been cut to $7.9B. For comparision, in 2006 it was at $10.1B.

• Unemployment continues to be a huge negative factor for the overall economy. As of August, unemployment still remains high at 9.64%.
• Hospitals have continued to decrease their spending on contract labor as this unemployment number has increased.
• Even though the data is negative for contract labor, full employment remained a relative bright spot in the overall economy. Much of this employment growth occurred in ambulatory settings.
• Many hospitals have or are in the process of implementing internal resource pools but need assistance in consulting, recruiting and the staffing managment. Agencies should see opportunity in helping hospitals manage internal resource pools. 
• VMS/MSP adoption continues to accelerate. The Staffing Industry Analysts suggest that hospitals have adopted VMS at a rate of over 70% and MSP of over 50%. Personally, I question these numbers. Although there has been widespread acceptance, this number seems very high to me. Regardless, the lesson here though is that buyers prefer to consolidate their suppliers.
• 2010 spend on healthcare staffing cut to $7.9B. In 2006 it was $10.1B.
• Private healthcare staffing company revue is improving. However, becaue of previous losses, they are still in the negative.
• Major industry events this year:
  • L.A. Times article criticizes temp nurses ‐ Dec. 2009
  • Symbio VMS sold in bankruptcy court ‐ Feb 2010
  • Healthcare Reform Passes –March 2010
  • MSN files ch. 11 and acquired by creditors – July 2010
  • AMN announces acquisition of Medfinders – July 2010
  • MedAssets acquires Broadlane – Sept 2010
• The overall forecast for 2010 for spending on healthcare staffing shows a slight improvement of 1% and a 10% improvement for locums tenens.
• Data suggests that the nursing shortage won't return in full swing until 2018.
• Older nurses make great candidates to recruit. Many of these nurses are looking for supportive and flexible work arrangements and practices (e.g. modified workloads, flexible scheduling options, reduction in hours of work, etc.).
• Hospitals expect four key things from contingent workers: Quality, Efficiency, Cost (not just rates, but true costs of the overall program) Risk (How much do I really have? Should we
  mitigate or eradicate? What’s best for the business?)
• Of all the temp industries, healthcare uses the fewest amount of contingent labor and has the worst perception of contingent labor.
• The rank of the largest healthcare staffing firms by revenue has changed. Most notably, Cross Country was pushed down to the 3rd spot by CHG Healthcare:
• The impact of healthcare reform on the staffing industry is still largely unknown. Some of the reforms (such as additional coverage) will have a positive impact, while others (employer mandates) will be mostly negative.
• The overall healthcare staffing industry forecast for next year does show some slight imrovement

Social Media: No Longer a Hobby

We spoke on a panel about Social Media Marketing for Healthcare Staffing Agencies. Because of the other topics at the same time, I was expecting a small turnout. However, we actually had a packed room with people standing around in the back. The audience was very much interested and engaged in the topic, which made for a great discussion.

 

 

 

 

I intend to blog more about this session in a separate post but here are some of the highlights and questions from the discussion:

• Definition of Social Media: Social media is defined by the act of sharing content in
  and between social networks regardless of the content type.
• Who owns Social Media: Marketing? President/Owner? Recruiters? Sales?
• Value (why participate) in Social Media: It’s cool and fun - I don’t, I leave it for the young people - It is a time sink, so I don’t - I love it, it is how I keep up with everything.
• What’s relevant and what’s not: Blogs, Micro-blogging (Twitter), Video sharing, Social CRM (Jigsaw, InsideView), Facebook vs. LinkedIn – Facebook and LinkedIn.
• How do you create good content and how do you keep people engaged?
• How can I ensure my staff are using social media properly?
• When engaging in social media, what should I be measuring and tracking and what tools can I use to do this?
• How can staffing agencies 'control' their brand and employee/customer particiaption in social media?
• What are the legal considerations of social media?

Brace Yourself. VMS Is Here to Stay, So What Do We Do About It?

VMS is always a contentious topic and this years discussion was no exception. Many people expressed many concerns they have about Vendor Management Services (VMS), mostly around the Managed Services Provider (MSP) model.

I did think it was great that the panel was mostly talking about VMS and defined VMS strictly as being the technology delivery model, not to be confused with the MSP model. Yes! Also, Dana Shaw is my favorite panel moderator, as she is always very energetic and entertaining.

Although the panel provided some interesting information I did think it was somewhat odd that they only had 1 (non SIA) participant and this person was not from a healthcare VMS background. Surely having someone from Medefis, Prolucent or ShiftWise would have added significant value and perspective to the topic. Unfortunately, much of what the panel participant had to say was not relevant to healthcare staffing.

Here are some of the other highlights from my notes:

• VMS panel claim: "VMS has faster adoption if it is accompanied with a service program." This simply isn't true. Pure play VMS tech companies have had a much higher acceptance/adoption than those accompanied by a service. Barry Asin's keynote data even suggested that hospitals have adopted VMS at a rate of over 70% and MSP of over 50%.
• One of the things the panel did do was attempt to dispell a huge VMS myth: VMS companies keep vendors from talking to their clients. The reality is that the client sets these rules. The VMS is just the tech.
• The biggest issue healthcare staffing companies still face with VMS tech companies is that disparate systems keep the complications of working with VMS high. There is no systems standardization.  The hosptials and staffing agencies are all using different systems and then 5 - 10 different VMS systems are sitting in the middle.
• VMS panel claim: "No buyer really wants vendor neutrality. Vendor neutrality is dead." Again, I couldn't disagree with this more. When vendor neutral, VMS tech first appeared in the industry it was all the rage for 3 - 4 years. Since then, the managed services model has made a big come back. However, suggesting that there is no longer a demand for vendor neutrality is not accurate.
• VMS panel claim: Avg fee for VMS is 1/2% - 10 years ago it was 5-7%. Again, this data is inaccurate. I know that every MSP charges 3 - 5% and all of the big VMS tech players charge 2 - 4%. So, I'm not sure how they are getting to this number.

In short, it was a great conference. If you've never attended I highly encourage you to do so. It's the best signle event for getting industry data, networking, checking out your competition and learning more about new things in the industry.

See you next year!

 

The Healthcare Staffing Summit 2010 is Next Week!

Next week is the 2010 Healthcare Staffing Summit. It is THE event to attend if you're in the healthcare staffing industry. If you've never attended, you're missing out and should consider attending this year or in the future. This is the only conference specific to healthcare staffing where you can:

• network with colleagues
• check in with your competitors
• learn about new technologies and services for your healthcare staffing business
• get incredibly valuable data on what's been happening in the healthcare staffing industry
• find out predictions on where the industry is going

This year's location:

Healthcare Staffing Summit

September 20-22, 2010, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago IL

In speaking with representatives from the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA), this years attendance is higher than last years and they expect a really good conference. If you don't know about the conference, here is a summary of the event taken from the SIA site:

The annual Healthcare Staffing Summit brings CEOs, owners, and senior level executives together to focus on topics of both strategic and tactical interest to the full range of healthcare staffing segments -- travel nursing, per diem nursing, locum tenens, and allied medical. It is typically comprised of over 55% CEOs/owners and 90% VPs and above. Attendees listen to and interact with healthcare staffing industry leaders and analysts, gather best practices and proprietary information, and enjoy extensive peer networking.

I am honored to have been asked to be on a panel discussion this year representing Staffing Robot and discussing Social Media Marketing for healthcare staffing agencies. The session is titled "Social Media: No Longer A Hobby" and will take place on Tuesday, September 21st from 1:15 - 2:15 PM (CST). Hinda Chalew, Sr. Vice President of Marketing and Interactive Services for the Staffing Industry Analysts will be moderating the panel. The panel will also include Marc Bowles, Chief Marketing Officer from The Delta Companies and Jim Lanzalotto from Scanlon.Lewis. It's sure to be an interesting discussion so please stop by if you're at the conference.

Here is a link(.PDF) to the program for healthcare staffing the conference.

Hope to see you there!

 

Thoughts on the AMN Acquisition of Medfinders

In a move resulting in further consolidation of the healthcare staffing industry, American Mobile Nursing (AMN) announced last week their acquisition of one of their competitors Medfinders.

The deal between AMN and Medfinders is valued at approximately $220 million (including approximately $132M of refinanced debt for Medfinders). AMN granted 6.3 million shares of common stock and 5.7 million shares of preferred stock to Medfinders who's shareholders will will now effectively own approximately 26% of AMN.

Medfinders is the 7th largest healthcare staffing agency in the nation and has done a great job securing large MSP accounts across the country. This acquisition is another in a long line of acquisitions that AMN has made over the last few years.

From my perspective, this was a great move for AMN. Medfinders has a great reputation and is a solid provider of Per Diem and Travel Nursing and Allied staff, as well as Locums Tenens. Acquiring MedFinders will further enhance AMN's brand and expand their offerings in Locums, Allied and Nursing. Further, I believe this is the first time that AMN will now be able to provide Per Diem staff under their brand.

AMN will also gain a significant book of VMS/MSP business through this acquisition. Perhaps the best benefit to AMN is that they will now be better positioned to deliver more comprehensive MSP offerings by delivering both Long Term Contract and Per Diem nursing staff to their hospital clients. It will certainly make them more of a threat to their competition in the MSP/VMS space.

It will be interesting to watch the results in the market from this acquisition.

Help Us Fight Parkinson's Disease and Support a Friend

We have a dear friend, Lore Anderson, that was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease earlier this year. We are going to help her beat it by raising money for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Brian Grant Foundation.

There is an event in Portland, OR, Shake it Till We Make It! that is being hosted by former Portland Trailblazer, Brian Grant who also has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. His celebrity guests include Michael J Fox, Mohammed Ali, Pat Riley and many others.

Our goal is to raise at least $5,000 for this great cause benefiting Parkinson’s research. We also want to surprise Lore with a seat at the event. Even if we only raise $1,000 we can make this happen for her.

We are looking for contributions large and small. Every $5, $10, $25, $50, or $100 helps the cause and will be greatly appreciated by all those affected by this disease. If you or your company donates $1,000, you may attend the event live with Lore.

Shake it Till We Make It! is Sunday, August 1st at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon!

Donations can be made here on Chip In with a credit card or via PayPal and all the transactions are secure. Or simply click on the widget below!

Thanks for your support!

Healthcare Staffing Agency Website Design and Web Marketing Services

Eight years ago I had an idea and saw an opportunity. That idea was ShiftWise and over the last eight years the opportunity was realized. Today, ShiftWise is the largest provider of Vendor Management Services in the healthcare staffing industry, servicing over 1,200 hospital clients and 1,100 staffing agencies all across the nation. 

I'm incredibly proud of what ShiftWise has become and look forward to watching it grow even more successful over the next several years. However, I will be watching the success from a distance, as I have decided it's time to move on to a new venture.

Today I wanted to officially announce the launch of a new company appropriately called - Staffing Robot! The company currently has 5 employees and is being founded by me and my business partner, Ross Barbieri, who also helped me start ShiftWise.

Staffing Robot is a healthcare staffing web services company that provides the following services to hospitals and staffing agencies all across the nation:

• Website design
• Web software application development
  
• Mobile web platform development
  
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
  
• Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing management
• Social Media Marketing (SMM) campaign strategies
  
• Brand creation, rebranding and brand management
  
• Email marketing campaign management
• Traditional print marketing services
  

The Staffing Robot blog will become an extension of our new company's services and the blog posts will continue to provide you with relevant information from the healthcare staffing industry.

It's been great working with so many of you over the last several years and I look forward to working with some of you in this new capacity. If your hospital or staffing agency is looking to rebrand, create a new website, build a web application or improve your web marketing through SEO or social media campaigns - Staffing Robot is open for business.

Check out some samples of our work at Staffing Robot or contact us to get a free quote for your web project. As always, you can follow Staffing Robot on Twitter or call us directly at 971-533-8839.

Healthcare Staffing Agencies Help Both Hospitals and Nurses During Strike

Discussing the politics between unions, hospitals and striking nurses is always a touchy subject. Lately, however, this subject continues to come up as nurse unions threaten strikes all around the country.

In June, the largest nursing strike in the nation was planned with over 12,000 Minnesota nurses striking and thousands more nurses from the University of California hospital system, prepared to walk out.

Strikes are never optimal situations for any of the parties involved. Nurses participating in the strikes stated that nurse-to-patient ratios and large hospital profits with no employee pay increases were core to the issue. The unions went as far as to state that the nursing strike was predicated on "unfair labor practices." Such a label means nurses can collect unemployment compensation for their time away from work and the hospitals cannot permanently replace them.

The hospitals feel such a stance from the unions is too strong and detrimental to their ability to deliver quality patient care. Many nurses actually worry about the patient care issue as well. For most, it is the primary reason why they don't strike more often. A major difference between nurses going on strike and workers in other industries is that the lives and care of patients is involved. Even a temporary lapse of care can put lives in danger. When nurses are ready to strike because of an imbalance in staff-to-patient ratios, justifying a walkout that exacerbates this situation is difficult.

Therefore, being prepared for a strike is the best situation for both hospitals and their healthcare staff. The best way for hospitals to be prepared for a strike is to have strong contracts with reputable staffing agencies that can have staff ready to go in a strike situation. Having such contracts can ensure the best bill rates for strike situations and more importantly, that your facility will have trained, oriented staff ready to go.

Establishing such relationships doesn't just benefit the hospitals by helping them keep their doors open, it also provides nurses and the public with the comfort they need in knowing that patients are still being taken care of. For example, A Superior Court Judge in California was successful at preventing the recent nursing strike by issuing a restraining order just prior to the strike. The grounds of the order suggested that the strike would cause a danger to the public. However, if hospitals are prepared at all times with trained agency staff there is no reason a lapse in care should occur. 

It's true that employing temporary staff in a strike situation is more costly in terms of pay rates and orientation costs. Further, many staffing agencies charge higher rates for the last minute, critical needs. However, the more prepared a hospital is for such a situation, the more affordable temporary staff become and the better trained they are to start providing good patient care on day one.

A suggestion for hospitals would be to have some sort of 'Strike Insurance' agreement with one or more of your staffing agencies. This 'insurance' would perhaps be something you pay for monthly, quarterly or annually and would allow you to identify key temporary staff that you have screened and oriented to your facility. It would also help you negotiate better rates so that paying for such a service would go towards the bill rates during a strike, keeping the rates reasonable and your budget more manageable.

I'm not sure if there are any staffing agencies out there that offer such a service but I think it's one worth considering. There is a great opportunity for all sides to make a bad situation more manageable. Healthcare staffing agencies can help both hospitals and nurses during a strike if more creative solutions are sought. I'd love to hear from any hospitals or staffing agencies that have been part of a strike situation to learn what their process and overall outcome was.

The Healthcare Staffing Report - Headline News (6.14.10 - 6.18.10)

This weeks headline news stories from The Healthcare Staffing Report.

This week's big Breaking News Story was about Medical Staffing Network declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I have posted stories previously on this blog as Medical Staffing Network has been navigating previously these waters. The news broke on The Healthcare Staffing Report on Tuesday.

Here is a list of this weeks top Headline News:

Monday: Nurses Strike Highlights Hospitals' Big Profits, Poor Outlook 

Tuesday: Hospital Employee Morale Low 

Wednesday: Are There too Many Nurses?

Thursday: Preventing Nurse Burnout

Friday: Nurse Managed Health Clinics Get Boost in Federal Funding

This Weeks Top 5 most popular categories (based on number of articles read):

1. Hospitals and Health Systems
2. Healthcare Professionals
3. Top Industry News
4. Staffing Agencies
5. Social Media

Please follow The Healthcare Staffing Report on Twitter.

The Healthcare Staffing Report - Headline News (5.24.10 - 5.28.10)

This weeks headline news stories from The Healthcare Staffing Report.

Here is a list of this weeks top Headline News:

Monday:  Study Suggests EHRs Costly, Lower Quality Care

Tuesday:  Web App Cuts Waiting Room Times

Wednesday: The Future of Healthcare: Nurse-Run Clinics

Thursday: Patient Volumes Decline for Hospitals

Friday: The Fastest Growing Medical Specialty - 'Hospitalists'

This Weeks Top 5 most popular categories (based on number of articles read):

1. Staffing Agencies
2. Top Industry News
3. Healthcare Professionals
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Hospitals & Health Systems

Please follow The Healthcare Staffing Report on Twitter.