Ever wondered what issues human resources specialists in the healthcare industry must deal with? Where do clinics and practices headhunt for their future employees? Is it hard to find and recruit them? In Czechia, it is indeed very complicated, since the local healthcare industry lacks workforce in every possible specialization. ResTrial, a Central European healthcare services group, employs over 150 people, many of them part-time. How does the company manage to recruit and keep that many doctors despite the workforce shortage? Sloneek is the answer.
The ResTrial group consists of five field-specialized subsidiaries. The company has three clinics across the Czech Republic, with 150 employees, including doctors (both pre- and post-licensure), nurses, other healthcare personnel, pharmacists, and support staff. The company’s organization structure is quite complex. Being a private-sector healthcare provider, the company does not aim to cover all possible fields and specializations, but rather aspires to become number one in just a few of them. The employees are comfortable advocating for themselves, knowing that they’re hard to replace.
This is why the group’s HR manager decided to deploy Sloneek: an all-in-one HR system. “Each of our clinics has different opening hours. Our doctors request flexible working hours, most of them juggling work with their personal lives. Keeping up with their needs is no easy task. Sloneek helps us manage. With its simple and user-friendly interface, we can see all employees in one database, despite them being employed by different subsidiaries. We use Sloneek to plan their work schedules and days off. We regularly check with them via the system. Each person has an extensive employee profile, providing information such as lists of borrowed equipment or completed training sessions. The system also displays an organizational chart of each working team.”
“We designed Sloneek with HR managers in mind, so they can easily follow and report on each employee’s journey, time sheets, performance, skills, professional development, etc. A dedicated mobile app makes it even easier,” explains Milan Rataj, the company’s CEO.
The more administrative the tasks, the less attractive the job.
The Czech healthcare services market is coping with severe workforce shortages. According to data collected by the Czech Medical Chamber, it lacks around two to three thousand healthcare professionals, from nurses, pediatricians, and dentists to doctors with niche specializations. Now, imagine your job is to recruit a healthcare professional to your clinic. “When I get a pitch from a generally-focused recruitment company or a headhunter, telling me that they have found the right people for us, I just smile. Of course, anything can happen, but if you are looking for a highly specialized doctor, remember two things: first, you need to know the medical community well. Second, you need to start job negotiations early enough, even a year before onboarding. This is why we hire so many doctors before their medical licensing examination: we invest in their professional development to earn their involvement and loyalty. By offering flexible working hours and part-time jobs, we try to meet working parents’ expectations,” explains Eva Poláková.
Once you invest so much time and effort into finding and onboarding a new employee, you’ll do anything to keep them on board as long as you can. A great salary and flexible schedule are not enough, though. “At private clinics, these are the basics, not benefits. You need to bring much more to the table. Our doctors don’t have to work on weekends. No mandatory night shifts. We offer teambuilding sessions to support employee engagement and a friendly atmosphere at work. We invest in CPD of our employees, offering them free training. Some of them are offered company cars for their private use. Senior employees get special benefits based on longevity in their employment.”
Eva Poláková started working for the company a year ago, when Sloneek had already been implemented. Her focus areas are employee care, her company’s internal communication, and professional onboarding. The system has been designed with users in mind, enabling HR specialists find their desired information quickly and effortlessly. Neither the employer nor the employee wants to waste valuable time on paperwork. Doctors dedicate as much as 50% of their working hours to administrative tasks. HR specialists, on the other hand, need to focus on other crucial responsibilities, such as effective recruitment or onboarding, instead of on time-consuming paperwork.
Sloneek will fit your organizational structure like a glove, no matter how complex it is.
When it comes to HR software, a tight system–organization fit is the key. “Speaking from my professional experience in the medical field, human resource processes are often completely outdated. For instance, some clinics have never introduced time sheets: the doctors report their hours on the phone instead. Sloneek helps us eliminate such issues,” explains Eva Poláková. She only needs to check her colleagues’ time sheets and schedules a few times a year.
What’s next? ResTrial is looking forward to a system upgrade that will help it integrate with external softwares such as a mandatory OSH training system, their internal regulation database, accounting software, etc.
At Sloneek, we want our app to be a universal tool for every HR specialist. This is why we regularly consult with our customers to meet their various needs. Thanks to dedicated AI modules, the app will be soon able to connect with the company’s software environment.
