Have you ever thought about the benefits of Agency Work?
Traditionally, people viewed agency work as being for people who are relatively young and have low levels of training while overlooking the benefits of agency work. They looked on agency work as a negative due to the lack of job security and perceived low income.
A common argument to the traditional viewpoint was “What good is no gap in your CV, or different acquired skills and exposure, if it can’t pay the rent?”
In the years since the global economic crisis, standard jobs were destroyed while part-time employment continued to increase (OECD, 2015).
The reality is, a weekly increase in income for many people during the economic crisis was a result of the benefits of agency work.
In fact, over the last decade, agency work is becoming ‘the new normal’, not out of necessity or a last resort – they’re typically exciting opportunities that will become more and more common; with more people realising the benefits of agency work.
Statistics highlight that in 2016 just over 7% of workers were in some form of temporary or agency employment, the majority having been working part-time. This is 5,000 more part-time temporary employees than there was in 2008 in Ireland.
Source: Irish Congress of Trade Unions (2017)
In recent years, a more modern view on temporary employment is that it provides increased flexibility for all demographics, with wages generally reflective of the value of their skills to an organisation.
Agency workers can quickly go from one environment to another with transferrable skills and increased experience; especially in healthcare.
If you are struggling to find a permanent role, or don’t want to be tied to a specific role for a long period of time; we have put together the top benefits of agency work.
Benefits of Agency Work:
Flexibility
- If you are working around a significant other who does shift work, or you want to spend more time with the family, then agency work is for you.
- Agency work provides you with control over your availability which enables you to work around any other commitments you may have such as family, education or perhaps even other employment.
- Agency work gives you the option to work as many hours as you like or even as little as you like. You provide us with your availability and your flexibility and we work around that to fill our client shift requirements. Our clients generally offer various working patterns from ad-hoc to whole time equivalent hours.
Opportunities
Agency work provides an excellent opportunity for you to gain a substantial amount of new contacts and networks in the sector, through working in a variety of healthcare settings simultaneously.
- It is looked upon as getting ‘your foot in the door’: It helps you make more connections and build relationships with professionals.
- It also allows you to gain more experience and learn to adapt to different environments. This is particularly good for newly qualified healthcare professionals; or those who may have been working in the same area of healthcare throughout their career.
- It also allows you to build on your skillset and makes you more employable to future organisations.
- Offers you a favorable working environment, allowing you to choose the correct career path for you in the future.
With the unemployment rate at an all-time low now, temping work always looks very well on your CV too which may offer you the upper hand in job applications down the line.
Ongoing Training
As a member of agency staff, we keep on top of all your mandatory certs. We remind you when they are due to expire and ensure you sit them in advance to keep you continuously fully compliant.
The Servisource Training Department run mandatory healthcare training courses monthly across four locations in Ireland.
Note: For the small administration of €2.50 a week, our training department and compliance team ensure that all your training certification is kept up-to-date. This also prevents you from any big up-front payments.
Pay
Agency workers tend to be offered competitive rates of pay and verified experience always works to your advantage. We do our best to offer Servisource employees the same rates of pay as those who would be working alongside you.
- You receive your pay on a weekly basis which can enable you to budget and monitor finances effortlessly.
- You are entitled to holiday pay, which provides you with the same benefits as those in fulltime employment.
Note: under the Temporary Agency Work Act you are entitled to regulated pay as well as accrued holiday pay. You are also given the same quality of working conditions as your permanent colleagues.
Application Process
We have a very easy and straightforward process within Servisource whereby you can:
- Upload your contact details,
- Let us know the type of work it is you are looking for and where,
- Then the relevant recruiter in that specific area will be in contact with you in due course.
The recruiter is your direct point of contact from initial commencement of the application process; stright through to final placement providing as much support and assistance as possible.
Servisource Healthcare are a leading international supplier of high quality and innovative healthcare staffing solutions, enabling continuity of care during peaks in demand, by supplying fast, flexible and reliable staff at short notice.
Servisource Healthcare provides cost effective solutions; helping our long-standing clients manage budgets, reduce workloads, maintain staffing levels and deliver premium patient care.
Click here to view all open roles in Healthcare
If you would like to accelerate your healthcare career, please contact us today on healthcare@servisource.ie
Article Written By:
Lisa Curran | Recruitment Consultant DNE
Email: LCurran@servisource.ie
DD: +353 42 936 8343 | Tel: +353 (0) 42 93 52723
