If you have never sought staff for your pharmacy or medical facility in December, you may be surprised to see a premium charged on hiring candidates at the end of this year. There are several key reasons for this.
How it Usually Works
As a healthcare/pharmacy staffing company, we have a standard process through which we staff your pharmacy/healthcare facility. It’s our mission to staff your medical clinic, pharmacy, hospital, or other facility with the most qualified candidates. If our existing pool of pharmacy/healthcare personnel doesn’t fit your needs entirely, then we need to look beyond that pool of candidates and identify someone who could complete all of the tasks associated with the job you are seeking to fill. We agree upon a rate that you will pay us for that staff member, and that rate doesn’t typically vary from month to month.
Changes During the Holiday Season
However, December is one period of the year where our rates do increase. Why?
- Firstly, there are many more Client of ours who approach us to staff their workplaces in December. Pharmacy and medical clinic owners allow their staff to take time off to be with their families for Christmas, Hanukkah, and many other holidays. Naturally, our Clients want to reward their employees for their hard work by giving them time to be with their families and friends.
- At the same time, there are less people willing to work on those holidays, whether they are statutory holidays or they are days of personal and cultural significance. For example, Hanukkah is not a statutory holiday in Canada. However, some candidates may take time off to observe the whole festival of Hanukkah from Sunday December 22nd until Monday December 30th this year, which would reduce the number of willing candidates. On December 25th and 26th, both statutory holidays, it is especially difficult to find candidates to work a relief shift. On non-statutory holidays, it will be somewhat easier to find candidates willing to work.
- Candidates know that there isn’t as much competition as usual if they choose to work a locum shift on a holiday. Therefore, they usually charge more for their services. We consider this extra cost when we negotiate the final rate with our Clients.
The premiums charged on top rates could be anywhere from 12 dollars to 40 dollars, depending on how long you delay in asking us to find you staff.
This is Standard
If you were to approach any other recruiting agency to staff for locum pharmacy/healthcare roles during the holidays, you would experience a similar increase in price. Our increase in price is not an arbitrary decision, it is a response to the premiums charged by candidates and the difficulty of finding personnel willing to work on statutory holidays. So, don’t expect to find better prices anywhere else. In fact, if you consider that RPI Consulting Group Inc. is specialized in placing healthcare personnel, you will get much better service and a prompter response to your request for locum/relief staff. We don’t have other sectors of employment that would spread our efforts thin!
Time is Running Out
Above all, we want to emphasize that the time to book pharmacy and medical personnel for locum shifts over the holidays is rapidly disappearing. By the end of this week, premiums will start to be applied to locum candidate rates. These base rates will increase, too. The sooner you contact us, the more likely you will be able to staff your healthcare facility/pharmacy at a better rate.
