This week on Behind the Scenes at Florence we're talking to Emily, our Head of Operations and Compliance.
Emily started out as a mortgage broker in Australia before deciding she wanted to help with the staffing shortage in the healthcare sector. Since then, she’s never looked back!
What do you do at Florence?
I look after our operational support, which is made up of dealing with our customer service as well as inbound management; ensuring that people can reach us and can get an answer to their queries no matter the time of day.
On top of that, my team deal with the maintenance of our professionals' profiles and making sure each and every nurse or carer we welcome is ready to work.
What made you want to join Florence?
I started in healthcare recruitment back in 2017, and working off Excel sheets and a shared work mobile was all I knew. But it was a bottleneck, and incredibly reactive too.
From the care homes' perspective, there was very little choice, and even less oversight on who was coming into their services.
Florence was completely unconventional by putting both care organisations and professionals in the drivers' seat. Clients have a complete overview of every single nurse or carer who is booked in, and care workers will never have to walk in blind to a shift. I had to be a part of this! And I’m so glad I made the move.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given?
That’s a good question!
It would be “Words matter.”
Pick your words carefully when speaking to people. You never know what personal battle someone is facing.
This applies to speaking to our customers, whether you’re a care organisation or one of our professionals - even to our internal team. Empathy and consideration is important.
What’s your favourite thing about working at Florence?
I think how it can be so quick to change sometimes.
If there’s a legislative change for nurses and carers we need to react to, we can get started on that immediately and without all the operational work which is needed in a more traditional agency.
What’s the biggest challenge Florence is facing at the moment?
We’re growing very fast which means we sometimes have to take a step back and work out “Are we scaling properly?”
Operations are at the heart of what we do, but we can’t forget the rest of the body. The only way we can stride forwards is by supporting marketing, supporting finance as well as supporting ops.
What’s a fun fact about you that might surprise us?
Fun question!
I’ve got two.
I spent ten years living in Australia; and I was bitten by a dolphin…
With the dolphin, I was nine years old at SeaWorld. It was my fault, I was told not to show a fish to the dolphin, which I did. The dolphin thought my finger was a fish and it bit me!
SeaWorld’s response was to give us full access to the dolphin enclosure which, after I’d just been bitten, was the last thing I wanted! My parents loved it though!
What piece of advice would you give to someone thinking about joining Florence?
If you want to be part of changing social care and healthcare, then now is the time to join Florence and take that opportunity.
There's so much we're planning for the near future, and we’d love for you to be a part of the journey with us.
Where do you see Florence in five years?
I reckon we’ll be on all seven continents, yep including Antarctica! Ok, no, six continents...
If you’d like to join our team, we’re hiring across the business. Check out our vacancies here.
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