The Problem
The nursing workforce is a challenge across the UK and there are many initiatives in terms of developing/expanding the workforce. Staff shortages are an ongoing issue with a large number of nurses being in the retirement age bracket. Whilst a big proportion of those nurses continued to work through the pandemic to help the NHS, a lot of them are choosing to retire from the profession leaving a gap to fill.
What’s important for the Devon Alliance is to work collaboratively across the system recruiting high calibre Nurses and healthcare professionals from overseas into the NHS in Devon.
They had a target last year for recruitment and therefore needed a plan to meet that target. As part of their plans they were working with well-known third parties which came at a cost.
Their ultimate goal was to have a low cost/no-cost model of recruitment and so they started to build a phased approach to how they delivered that. Whilst building their brand and developing their reputation, they worked initially with higher cost partners but soon moved into a blended approach using some third party partners but with a focus on direct recruitment.
The Solution
This year, the Devon Alliance were doing their first overseas campaign as Devon in Dubai. They approached crooton to see if we could help by repurposing an earlier trial campaign to see if they could attract nurses who lived in Dubai and surrounding areas to the event where the Alliance would be in attendance.
The team pulled a geo-fencing campaign together very quickly in time for the event which resulted in great success. Approximately 120 nurses attended for their interview event and one month on, the momentum is still there.
The geo-fencing campaign continues to run for three months and they’re seeing a great number of nurses coming through from the UAE with a percentage of these being attributed to crooton along with other marketing streams. The Alliance is also seeing an interest from the other countries that have been ring-fenced as part of the campaign that has expanded further than the Emirates.