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Evaluating Healthcare Staffing Software –First Things First

Guest blog post by Mike Wejrowski, VP of Agency Sales for API Healthcare, Inc.

Selecting the right software solution(s) for your healthcare staffing agency can be a daunting task. After all, this is not a decision that should be taken lightly. Your purchasing decision could ultimately determine the successful, or unsuccessful, outcome for your business. Your decision should be made with careful thought, evaluation and consideration.

Purchasing software is a process. Regardless of whether your agency is a startup or a successful enterprise agency, it is important to understand the daily tasks, activities and core business functions your organization will need to address with the new system. Prior to investigating a software solution, your evaluation team should itemize any business process issues that need to be addressed, the daily functions that need to be automated, the budget available for software, and the target implementation timeframe.

Fortunately, I have the pleasure of speaking with many agency owners and officers throughout the business day. Agencies of all sizes agree that the following business areas should be addressed when considering a new or updated solution for their healthcare staffing business:

• Recruiting and on-boarding of new healthcare professionals – Your agency should be constantly seeking new talent to join your agency team. This will involve capturing the healthcare professionals’ demographics, skills assessments, clinical competencies, and numerous employment documents. In today’s competitive environment, capturing these data points and securing an electronic signature will dramatically increase your recruiting percentages.
• Capture Availability – When will your healthcare professionals be available to work (which shifts, what hours, which days, for which hospitals, for which departments?)
• Placement Options – Which professionals are listed as DNR (do not return) or DNW (do not work). Do they prefer per diem or long term assignments? Are there compliance restrictions?
• Scheduling – Match the right healthcare professionals to the right job based on credentials and availability. Track call-offs, turned down shifts and manage confirmations.
• Compliance – Are your healthcare professionals compliant with state, agency, Joint Commission and client requirements? We live in a litigious society – having a compliance management strategy for your agency is an essential and crucial part of your business.
• Payroll & Invoicing – Your healthcare staffing software should provide your finance team with the ability to process accurate payroll & invoicing (hourly rates, weekend rates, holiday rates, OT, split shifts, lunch, etc.). You should have flexibility with invoice layouts and the ability to integrate with your back office solutions (QuickBooks, Peachtree, MAS 90, MAS 500, Great Plains, JD Edwards, etc.) or payroll processing services (ADP, Paychex, or local payroll services).
• Reporting – Your organization will need the ability to review results and respond accordingly. Understand the business metrics you will need to measure in your business, review results daily and weekly, and take action to ensure optimal performance. Do not settle for excuses when it comes to the accuracy of your data – “if it isn’t entered into the system, then it does not exist.” The reports within your system should be in real-time and will replace whiteboards, paper schedules and staffing specialist’s notes that are stored only in their head.

About the Author
Mike Wejrowski is VP of Agency Sales for API Healthcare, Inc. To learn how API Healthcare’s Staffing Agency Solutions can help your organization simplify recruiting, staffing and payroll processes, please contact us today at (262) 670-2828 or use our contact form.

 

 

Professional Services Hosts Webinar Series on Preparing for TJC Healthcare Staffing Services Certification

Learn about proper preparation for success in achieving the Joint Commission Healthcare Staffing Services Certification in this free, 4-part series – “Making Joint Commission Requirements Easy” launching Aug 23rd at 2 p.m. EST. Prophecy Professional Services’ Chief Clinical Officer Christine Carrington, RN, MS, will host the free 4-part webinar series discussing proper preparation for success in achieving the coveted JCHCSS Certification.

Achieving TJC certification distinguishes organizations among the elite in the country, as they must meet the highest standards in the industry. Since the Joint Commission standards support best practices that lead to the delivery of safe, quality patient care many hospitals now require Joint Commission certification to participate in the RFP process. In addition, hospital associations and some VMS & MSP organizations are requiring agencies to be certified to participate as a subcontractor.

Carrington, having over 30 years leadership experience in the healthcare industry has a 100% success rate with leading organizations to be TJCHCSS certified. Her success ranges from large, national staffing firms to start-up agencies alike.

The focus of each webinar in the series is as follows:

• Aug. 23rd @ 2pm EST: How Ready is Your Firm?
• Sept. 27th @ 2pm EST: Understanding the Leadership Standards
• Oct. 25th @ 2pm EST: Understanding the Human Resource Standards
• Nov. 15th @ 2pm EST: Understanding the Performance Measurement & Information Management Standards

Reserve your spot for each of the webinars in this series to position your organization for success the first time around with achieving the JCHCSS Certification - a key differentiating factor needed by healthcare staffing agencies in the current competitive market.

About PPS
Prophecy Professional Services - a division of Prophecy Healthcare - was founded in response to the healthcare staffing industry’s need for consultants experienced in Joint Commission’s Health Care Staffing Services Certification. PPS’ consulting services assist healthcare staffing firms prepare for Joint Commission certification and provide cost effective clinical operation and risk management services. PPS consultants are nationally experienced Nurse Executives with 25+ years of healthcare staffing experience and extensive experience and success with Joint Commission Health Care Staffing Services Certification.

Visit http://prophecyhealth.com/professional-services for additional information.

 

Top 5 Ways Staffing Agencies Can Help Prepare Employees for Placement Exams

For many staffing agencies, the final hurdle that stands between a new hire and their placement is testing. The need for assessing a caregiver’s ability to provide competent, safe, and effective patient care is not the topic of this article. So, let’s jump over that topic and get right to the 5 easy things you can mention to your caregivers to set them up for a positive competency testing experience.

1) Recommend Reviewing all Provided Materials

Typically there will be prep materials offered prior to starting a competency exam. For some caregivers, it may have been quite some time since their last standardized test. So, the #1 recommendation we have for preparing for a competency test it to study the prep materials provided.

Prophecy’s Clinical Assessments either come accompanied with a study guide (for all education modules) or a content outline (for specialty specific competency tests). The study guides contain all of the information needed to successfully pass the assessments. Content outlines, on the other hand, may contain important formulas, conversions, or abbreviation legends to assist the caregiver in completing the assessments, however they do not provide guidance on actual answers. Since the specialty specific competency tests are evaluating the caregiver’s ability to provide the job knowledge, skills, and abilities required on the first day of the job, no prompting should be needed.

2) Remind Them to Read all Instructions

Time and time again reading instructions would actually help us complete daily tasks more efficiently - assembling new furniture, driving on vacation, cooking a new recipe, etc.

Although the instructions do not give a pass for the assessment as a whole, they will set up the expectations for the caregiver prior to launching the assessment. The instructions should detail if the exam is timed, the format of the testing process, how many questions to expect, a pass/fail score, allowed re-entry attempts, etc. All of this information helps ease the caregiver’s nerves as it answers questions that might lead to extra anxiety adversely impacting their potential success.

3) Create a testing environment

Whenever possible, we suggest clients create a proctored testing environment to minimize distractions for the caregivers. However, we know that this is not feasible for every organization – especially if you are working with travel nurses. The ability to test anywhere with Internet access is a definite bonus in certain instances.

If your caregivers will be testing in the comfort of their own home, remind them that they should minimize distractions and set aside ample time to complete the assessments.

4) Clearly communicate testing standard

Each organization should have established guidelines for testing. Share these standards in
advance!

1. Are caregivers offered the option of retesting?
2. If so, how quickly will they be able to retest?
3. Should a caregiver fail the maximum number of times, how long should they wait to reapply with your organization?

Prophecy’s recommendation on retesting is 48 hours between testing attempts. This gives time for remediation on the information answered incorrectly the first time around. Plus, it allows time for the caregiver to get over the initial shock of failing an assessment – something we have all dreaded since the first grade!

5) Ask for comfort level

Take a moment and ask each caregiver for any outstanding questions they want to run by you before testing. They may be trivial, or they may be doosies! But, at least you will give them the opportunity to be honest and open about their comfort level prior to starting their assessments.

Testing providers may have additional resources you can make available to caregivers wanting extra support. Prophecy offers training videos on the caregiver login screen and makes a step-by-step instructions PDF available for all clients.

Bottom line - you are all on the same team! Although you want to steer clear of the liability exposure of unqualified applicants, in a perfect world you are hoping they all pass their assessments with flying colors. So, take a few extra minutes to mention these 5 tips and you may just see those passing rates on the rise!

About Prophecy Healthcare®
Originally founded in 2004 as NurseTesting.com, Prophecy Healthcare® got its start as the first online Pre-Employment Testing Company exclusive to the Healthcare Industry. Initially focusing solely on clinical assessments measuring clinical competencies, efforts to exceed industry expectations led to isolating critical competencies missed in traditional testing initiatives, such as stress tolerance, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. The Prophecy approach offers the ability to find candidates with the clinical hard skills, personality attributes, and desired soft skills to match each organization.
For more information about Prophecy, visit http://www.prophecyhealth.com or call 336.802.1070.

 

5 Tips for Using Customer Feedback to Change Company Behavior

Check out our guest blog post on Prophecy Healthcare's Blog - 5 Tips for Using Customer Feedback to Change Company Behavior.

Knowing when and how to properly gather customer feedback is imperative for any successful business. However, acting on this feedback and using it to influence your company internally is even more important. Properly implementing a closed loop feedback system can dramatically improve every aspect of your company from the products you sell, to how you sell them, to your entire company culture.

Prophecy is an online testing solution, compiling three assessment tools, delivering the most comprehensive employment predictor for the Healthcare Industry. Learn more about Prophecy Healthcare.

Job Hunting Tips of Nurses

Guest Blog Post by: Erica Moss - Community Manager for Nursing at Georgetown's Online Master's in Nursing.

Finding a job that’s just right for you can become an arduous task. Luckily, nursing is one of the most in-demand professions in the healthcare industry. Because of this, however, the need to stand out to potential employers is critical to success in searching for a nursing job. Follow these tips to help jump-start your job search and allow yourself to shine brighter than the competition.

Update Your Resume and Cover Letter

Your resume and/or cover letter are the fundamental documents used in marketing yourself to potential employers. Use these documents wisely by ensuring that your job goals are clearly defined and your qualifications highlighted. Understand that brevity is key in describing the items that make you an ideal candidate, so make sure that your descriptions are concise without detracting from the importance of your accomplishments. It’s also good to note that cover letters should be tailored to each employer, so take a few minutes to get to know who you’re applying to work for and personalize the language of your cover letter. This shows employers that you have a vested interest in working for them and aren’t going about your job search blindly.

Know What You Want

Your resume should be somewhat reflective of your short- and long-term career goals. To that end, you should frame your job objective to match what you see for your career in the long term. Work experience should be relevant to the position for which you are applying. Listing a job you had more than 10 years ago serves little purpose, unless that position included experience that speaks directly to what you would be doing as a nurse. Search for jobs that match your salary, responsibility and relocation expectations.

The Internet is a Tool, Use It

Aside from the typical channels most computer-savvy job-seekers use to obtain work, there is an abundance of career resource sites available specifically for nurses seeking employment. One in particular is Nursing Careers Resource Guide, a free comprehensive resource detailing certification requirements for various nursing positions for all 50 states.

If you’re applying for a position that requires knowledge and regular use of social media and other internet technologies, you might want to impress your prospective employer by demonstrating just how tech-savvy you are. To this end, there are online services, which can help. Hagan Blount, for example, is a graphic designer who can turn your resume into an infographic. This fun and engaging version of your resume will grab the eye of health care institutions that are looking for staff familiar with the Internet and able to use it in innovative ways.

Utilize Your Networking Capabilities

Once you’ve utilized the online resources available to nurses, it might be worth your time to consider tapping into social media networks for potential opportunities. These networks are robust with information and on-going conversations that are pertinent to the health care industry. Starting a blog and interacting in these conversations can help you stand out from the crowd. Creating connections with bloggers and Twitter users can put you in contact with industry leaders and professionals who may be willing to aid you in your job search if they see your passion and involvement.

Stay the Course

Typical job searches can take anywhere from six months to one year. If employers aren’t knocking down your door right away, don’t let this deter you. Be patient and don’t give up on your goals. Positive thinking contributes to success in all facets of life. In time, you will find the job that’s right for you.

About the Author: Erica Moss is the Community Manager for Nursing at Georgetown's Online Master's in Nursing.

Five Reasons Why Staffing Providers Should (And Do) Embrace Technology-Driven Vendor Management (Part 2 of 2)

Guest Blog by Jeff Niles - Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ShiftWise – A leading provider of hospital workforce management software and services in the healthcare staffing industry. This post orginally appeared on the ShiftWise blog ShiftWise Exchange.

This is part two of the “Top five reasons why staffing agencies should (and do) embrace technology-driven Vendor Management.” You can read part 1 here.

 

3. You will get paid quicker and your payroll costs will go down.

On average, it takes more than 60 days from the time a shift is worked until the check from a hospital clears the bank when using a paper-based billing process. Yet many vendors pay weekly and often daily. This delay in payment costs staffing agencies hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in “factoring” or other borrowing costs in order to make payroll. In addition, there are operating costs that go into generating and processing paper invoices such as data entry, postage, ink, envelopes, and time on the phone disputing charges.

With a VMS, all a vendor has to do is approve an online statement once per week and wait for payment which typically occurs within 30 days. It’s no surprise then that one company owner said to me “If I could get all of my clients to use ShiftWise for the payment process, I would save enough in other costs to hire several more people and further expand our business.”

4. You will be able to get more staff working at accounts quicker than ever before.

In a manual process, the vendor sends staff profile information via email or fax which is typically a huge .pdf containing pages and pages of documents and information. This results in time consuming and frustrating paperwork and background checks making staffing managers less willing to “try a new person.”

With a VMS system like ShiftWise, the agency loads staff profiles and supporting documents ahead of time. When sent to a hospital, the information is front and center for easy review and approval. And since the system will track expirations and send out warning notifications, the hospital no longer has to maintain multiple spreadsheets. Hospitals love this.

By relieving the burden from the hospital, a staffing provider makes it easy to introduce new staff and is more likely to get business from a hospital that has less work to do by choosing your staff.

One staffing provider summarized it like this:

“It’s a lot of work to create that profile but once we get it in, we can send it to all of the other hospitals that use ShiftWise. We have gotten many new staff into hospitals where they used to tell us that they never accept new people.”

5. You will be forced to be good at providing real value to your customers.

I have met many staffing suppliers around the country and while there are cosmetic differences, all staffing providers essentially do the same thing.

• They recruit staff.
• They hire staff.
• They put staff to work with their clients.

Yet staffing providers spend lots of time and money trying to communicate how they are “different” from all of the other vendors out there. From a marketing perspective, it makes sense to draw out the differences between you and your competition. However, buyers mostly could care less about most of the “differentiators” that make your company the best of the best.

The truth is that health systems are like any other consumer who is warily spending precious dollars on much needed services. They want value for their business. When I talk to hospitals about what makes a good vendor, it almost always comes back to three traits:

1. Speed
2. Compliance
3. Professionalism

When I talk to hospitals speaking about preferred vendors, I hear things like:

• “They have the right people when we need them.”
• “They don’t waste my time.”
• “They always have all of their profiles completed.”
• “They understand our policies and follow them.”

So in a marketplace where you provide a service that is essentially the same as the next guy, the way to grow your business is to get really good at providing real value to the client.

A VMS forces you to do that. Here’s an example how:

I have heard ShiftWise called many things over the years but my favorite came from the CEO of a small staffing provider who said:

“ShiftWise is the great equalizer.  I can compete with the big boys by beating them to the punch which isn’t typically possible in most accounts.”

A few years ago, her company got a contract with a large ShiftWise account and set a goal within their organization to be the first vendor to present a candidate through the VMS for every order that came down the pipe. This was no easy task and naturally there were times when they had nobody. But over time they grew from a minor player in this account to the #1 vendor in a period of 12 months. By working smart, not just hard, they figured out that response time is valued by this customer and they were the best vendor at providing it.

A byproduct of a VMS is that it often takes out the favoritism and other noise that is part and parcel to the staffing process and reduces everything down to productivity. In order to get ahead in an account using a VMS you are forced to produce results and provide true value to the customer. This is not only good for you; it’s good for the industry and encourages customers to seek your services.

Now go hug your computer.

About Jeff Niles

Jeff is the current Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ShiftWise and is based in Chicago, IL. He joined ShiftWise in 2006 as a Regional Sales Director bringing over a decade of experience in health care recruitment and workforce management. An early promoter of technology driven contingent workforce management, Jeff has developed and delivered several high impact and innovative healthcare staffing solutions to forward thinking healthcare organizations nationwide. Jeff holds a BA from Miami University and earned an MA from the University of Cincinnati. He is also an active member of ASHHRA, SHRM, CHEF and CAHR.

Multimedia and the 21st Century Resume

Guest Blog Post by: Kyle Lagunas - HR Analyst at Software Advice.

Qualified candidates are regularly overlooked, and for the simplest of reasons: they didn't plug the right combo of buzzwords into their resumes. Candidates are taking things into their own hands. In an attempt to circumvent the keyword-laden resume game, job seekers are adopting a more creative approach to captivating recruiters. Rather than dropping the resume altogether, the trend seems to be more focused on breaking away from over-automation and a return to the heart of what makes a good hire.

While there are certain guidelines that you should always follow when submitting a resume regardless of mode of delivery, there are a couple of multimedia elements a candidate can tap into to get that extra mmph into his resume:

1. Adding a Face and Voice with Video. By replacing a cover letter with a quick video pitch, job seekers can showcase skills and abilities lost in translation in a traditional resume. As Bruce Hurwitz of Hurwitz Strategic Staffing says, “Video can increase my confidence in a candidate's ability to successfully interview--Is she professional? Is she articulate?--or eliminate a candidate from consideration.” Of course, time is money, and candidates need to give recruiters a reason to keep watching. My advice: personality is great, but don’t get too cute. Balance is key.

2. Bringing Flat Resumes to Life with Infographics. Breaking out of the traditional resume template isn’t easy without a degree in design. But presenting a recruiter with a more visually stimulating overview of experience and qualifications can go a long way in setting a candidate apart. Thankfully, it doesn’t take an Adobe Illustrator savant to turn a boring old resume into an interesting infographic. Not only are these easy to create, but they’re easy to share across multiple channels.

Read the full post here: http://blog.softwareadvice.com/articles/hr/multimedia-and-the-21st-century-resume-1020812/

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice, a resource for selecting a talent management or an applicant tracking system. Kyle reports on trends and best practices in HR and recruiting software—offering fresh insights into the ho-hum of people processes. For further reading, you can find this article in full on his HR blog.

Five Reasons Why Staffing Providers Should (And Do) Embrace Technology-Driven Vendor Management (Part 1 of 2)

Guest Blog by Jeff Niles - Vice President of Sales and Marketing at ShiftWise – A leading provider of hospital workforce management software and services in the healthcare staffing industry. This post orginally appeared on the ShiftWise blog ShiftWise Exchange.

For the better part of the past decade, I have been in and around technology-driven vendor management in health care. In that time, I have experienced or witnessed every possible human emotion that is associated with VMS programs both good and bad.

As a young staffing Account Executive, I vividly remember the fear and panic I felt when I first heard that one of my bigger clients was going to a VMS.  Certain that this nameless, faceless software application was going to “ruin my relationship” with the client, I prepared a self-serving list of reasons why this was a bad idea for the client.  Despite my greatest efforts and deepest convictions that I knew best for the client, in the end, there was nothing I could do. I was doomed.

Or so I thought. My client’s change actually improved our relationship and helped us grow revenue in that account.  In retrospect, my reaction was based on fear, lack of information, and a sense that change is always bad.

Over time, my epiphany has been shared by a growing number of staffing providers. I see more and more firms making statements like, “We like it when we hear that a client is moving to ShiftWise” and “We wish that all of our clients used a system like ShiftWise.”

But still, skeptics remain. So what is it that makes one staffing provider benefit from VMS technology and another miss an opportunity? In the spirit of sharing and collaboration, I have condensed the attitudes of the embracers I spoke with to help you decide.

The Top 5 Reasons why staffing providers should embrace technology driven Vendor Management.

Warning! Embracing VMS technology for your staffing office may result in an overwhelming urge to hug your computer.

1. It will improve your relationships with your clients.

Impossible, right?  How can having to use my computer to tell my client that Suzy Q can work this afternoon improve my relationship?  Where’s the personal connection and the reassurance that I’m there for them?

Ok, it’s time for a couple doses of reality.

1. Rarely do VMS programs (ShiftWise certainly doesn’t) have a policy where you may NEVER SPEAK TO THE CLIENT.
2. Nobody wants to talk to the same person five times per day to answer questions like “Do you need anyone for tonight?”

Staffing providers that embrace VMS understand that a relationship isn’t built out of a series of short conversations about mundane staffing related nuances. Rather, relationships are built by:

• Delivering high quality candidates precisely when they are needed.
• Doing the extra work to complete online profiles with supporting documents so that managers can more easily qualify candidates.

The president of a provider of Locum Tenens I spoke with said it best:

“We want our clients to see our candidates matching to an order and say, ‘This vendor is reliable and never wastes my time, I’m choosing their staff first.’  If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.”

2. You will fill more positions than ever before in the same account.

There’s a little secret that staffing office folks have kept from staffing providers since the very first agency nurse filled the very first open shift. It goes something like this:

If I convince every vendor I work with that they are my favorite, and that I call them first whenever I have any needs, I will get more staff from all of my vendors when I’m in a pinch.

I can’t tell you how many times I have met with staffing agencies who insist that they are without a doubt the “first call,” #1 vendor at a hospital, all while I’m staring at a client-produced spreadsheet that shows this vendor hovering somewhere around 7th. Convinced that they fill all the shifts already they focus efforts elsewhere and miss growth opportunities.

A VMS allows you to see all of the orders that are open, pending, filled and cancelled across the entire organization regardless of whether you are able to actually reach someone on the phone. In addition, a VMS allows you to staff more people within the same account with the same or fewer resources.

This quote from a Branch Manager of a Per Diem staffing provider summarized it for me:

“I used to have two coordinators staffing the same hospital.One was responsible for gathering availability from staff and the other was to hunt for needs at the account.  Now I have one person on that account and we have three times as many hours there as we did prior to VMS.”

 

About Jeff Niles

Jeff is the current Vice President of Sales and Marketing for ShiftWise and is based in Chicago, IL. He joined ShiftWise in 2006 as a Regional Sales Director bringing over a decade of experience in health care recruitment and workforce management. An early promoter of technology driven contingent workforce management, Jeff has developed and delivered several high impact and innovative healthcare staffing solutions to forward thinking healthcare organizations nationwide. Jeff holds a BA from Miami University and earned an MA from the University of Cincinnati. He is also an active member of ASHHRA, SHRM, CHEF and CAHR.

What good is a Travel Nurse Loyalty Program if you don’t know how it works?

Guest Blog by Patrick Fuerstenau – Brand Craftsman at Medical Solutions, a leading Healthcare Staffing company that provides quality Nurses and Allied Health Professionals to meet the staffing needs of hospitals and other healthcare facilities nationwide.

It seems that nowadays, every single retailer or service provider has some sort of loyalty program that rewards its customers as a way of saying thank you and Travel Nurse companies are no exception. In fact in 2010, more than 2.1 billion loyalty memberships existed in the U.S., according to Colloquy’s 2011 “Forecast of U.S. Consumer Loyalty Program Points Value.” The report revealed that the average U.S. household signs up for 18.4 such programs.

At first, signing up for these various programs seems like a great deal but later down the road, most don’t know how they work or what these loyalty programs are actually offering. In many cases, Travel Nurse loyalty programs are the same way. Each agency has their own version of such programs, some that are fairly simple and easy to follow, while others have many stipulations in place that make it nearly impossible to actually redeem any sort of bonus.

The paradox, says Mark Johnson, president and CEO of loyalty marketing think tank Loyalty 360, is that consumers are more engaged with and more 
demanding of brands than ever. “Loyalty is no longer about points for a purchase,” he explains. “Consumers are looking for ways to engage with brands who listen to them. Loyalty is about timeliness and relevancy. You have to understand each individual and how often they want to be engaged. Your offer must be unique and tailored to each person and delivered through the channel they want it delivered through.”

As a Travel Nurse, it is highly important to find that one agency that fits to your ideals and values, while offering you the best in customer service… However, if you’re just in it for the money, you may not have a chance to experience what it’s like to be a valued “customer.” In it’s most basic form, a loyalty program is designed to thank Travel Nurses for their devotion to the agency, and if you’ve found one that lives up to your expectations and offers a loyalty program, well that’s just icing on the cake!

Before signing any contracts with an agency, it’s very important to inquire about the various benefits offered, from paid time off to Completion and Loyalty bonuses. Read the fine print associated with the bonus programs, make sure that the goals set out are attainable and that your hours or points don’t expire within a certain amount of time. Many programs make it difficult for the traveler to redeem such bonuses let alone keep track of. Below we’ve listed a number of Loyalty Programs being offered to the Travel Nurse community. If you know of any others, please add them to our comment section.

Travel Nurse Across America – Complete 1300 hours of work (approximately 3 assignments) with Travel Nurse across America and enjoy your choice of cash bonuses, paid vacation, housing perks, or other rewards.

CoreMedica Group - CoreMedical Group rewards their travel nurse, travel allied health, and permanent placement staff by offering them the ability to qualify for the company’s all-inclusive, annual trip to the Caribbean.

Fastaff – The 3 level bonus program will apply to all assignments beginning or ending between 7/31/11 and 1/15/12. Bonuses will only be paid upon COMPLETION of an assignment.

Advantage RN – Advantage RN offers its travel nurses Loyalty Bonuses of $250 — $500 on every 13-week extension you accept with us. (Please note: nurses have the choice to continue their FREE single insurance OR receive a Loyalty Bonus with each extension.)

HGI Healthcare – We’re also with you every step of the way with rewards and other perks that demonstrate our commitment to RNs by rewarding you for your dedication to your patients, and your loyalty to us.

Onward Healthcare – Onward Healthcare offers one of the most comprehensive travel nursing bonus plans in the industry, including up to $5,000 completion bonuses for select travel assignments. These bonuses are paid upon the completion of your assignment and are detailed in your travel contract. We also offer renewal bonuses on select assignments of thirteen weeks or longer.

Aureus – Other bonuses, including sign-on and completion bonuses, vary from travel assignment to assignment but are often available.

Procel Nurses – All Travelers earn a Loyalty Bonus throughout the year. The bonus is earned upon each 1000 hours worked in one year. Your recruiter will tell you all about it.

Medical Solutions is also launching a new Loyalty Program for travel nurses at the start of 2012. It’s one of the easiest explained traveling nurse loyalty programs in the industry. Simply work 600 hours and they’ll pay you $600. Work another 600 hours and earn another $600… All throughout the new year.

Guest Blog by Patrick Fuerstenau – Brand Craftsman at Medical Solutions, a leading Healthcare Staffing company that provides quality Nurses and Allied Health Professionals to meet the staffing needs of hospitals and other healthcare facilities nationwide.

Tips for Gathering Customer Feedback for Your Staffing Company

Blog post by Staffing Robot Founder, Jason Lander. This post originally appeared on Ruby Receptionist's blog - The Watercooler.

How many times a week do you get this email? “Will you please take a few minutes to fill out our survey?” My personal email inbox currently holds requests for survey feedback from more than 10 companies. Apple’s in there, a hotel, two retailers, a car company, etc.

The key to success for any business is to keep your customers happy. Yet, measuring customer happiness can be a challenge. For over a decade I’ve worked with various methods for measuring customer happiness including surveys, public support forums, phone calls, the Net Promoter Score, etc. Over time, I watched my customer engagement rates decrease dramatically and the feedback become less and less relevant.

They main issue I’ve discovered is that customer satisfaction surveys rarely provide you the data you need to improve your business. Surveys are time consuming to administer and time consuming for customers to complete. Furthermore, the data gathered isn’t actionable because it’s often aggregated and the responses come in too far after the touch point with the customer.

So what’s a company to do? Our suggestion? Ask the right question at the right time. Here are some tips for effectively gathering customer feedback.

The first tip – ask one question and one question only. It’s always tempting to ask more, but why ask more when one will do? Ask one question with a simple answer choice and allow your customers to leave additional details if they want.

Tip number two – ask specific questions about a person or a product, not a general “how do you like our company?” General questions are too vague and are better suited for things like the Facebook ‘Like’ button. Asking specific questions about how one of your employees did resolving an issue or how your new product performed, provide you with much better feedback.

My third tip – ask the question at the right time. There are several touch points you have with your customers that offer excellent opportunities to ask for feedback. For example:

After a product demo or training. It’s always good to get feedback after a demo or training to make sure your audience understood the information presented.

After initial set up. Once a new customer is up and running with your product or service, it’s an excellent time to ask for feedback. Talking to a new customer here can help overcome any initial frustration that might naturally exist when getting started with something new.

After the first 30 days. After your customers have been using your product or service for 30 days they should be in full swing. This is a great time to get initial impressions. If there are any issues, you’ll be able to address them quickly without the risk of losing a new customer.

After any phone call. Any time you speak with a customer on the phone, especially if they’re asking a question or reporting an issue, it’s always a good idea to send them a follow up email. In this email, give them assurance you’ve understood them be summarizing your discussion and take this opportunity to ask for feedback.

After cancellation. Losing customers is not something anyone wants to talk about. But let’s be honest – it happens. When it does, don’t run from it. Instead, take it as another opportunity to improve by asking for some final feedback. Who knows, you might just win them back!

My final tip – provide your customers with a way to provide you real time feedback at their convenience.If you’re just asking customers for feedback when it’s convenient for you you’re missing a lot of opportunities. Be sure the mechanism you’re providing delivers customer feedback to you in real time and that you follow up in a timely manner. This helps your customers know you take their issues seriously.

Asking the right question at the right time gains you invaluable insight into your customer happiness. You’ll learn things about your customers, products and services that have a major impact on your business as a whole. So start asking your customers for more feedback, at the right times and start improving your customer happiness.

Guest blogger Jason Lander is the Founder and CEO of Hively. Hively lets your customers give you real-time feedback with 1 click, at their convenience. Ruby_® will soon be incorporating Hively’s interface into our Problem Solver & Happiness Makers’ email signatures to get real-time feedback on how we’re doing. We asked Jason for his advice on what other small businesses can do to get stellar feedback.