It is very exciting to have launched Pharmacy Recruit in New Zealand. I feel an immense need for some interference with a currently flawed system for finding staff and jobs in community pharmacies throughout the country.
On my return from 10 years practising as a pharmacist in Australia I can clearly see the faults. In the NZ pharmacy industry we used to network and find ourselves a great job. This process has been morphed into a social media world which under powers our professionalism. We are stuck between an old school system of walking in the door and marketing ourselves, one in which word of mouth was very effective at recruiting and a world of desperate plea on a Facebook group for a permanent or temporary staff member.
As a non-owner locum pharmacist I can clearly see how under powered some pharmacists and technicians are feeling. The texts I receive are short and often rude, my name has been passed on and I have messages from people I've never heard of "are you free tomorrow to work in Mount Roskill?". They don't even introduce themselves!
Lets get one thing straight, I am not free and I never have been, I am a together, professional mother of three who has been a pharmacist in three different countries over two decades! What ever your story I am pretty certain you don't feel empowered by these texts either.
I intend to bring this system back to a decent level, build relationships, find you staff who are good at their jobs for a good fee, seek feedback on them, carefully recommend the good ones, engage with the ones who need more training and assistance.
I am certain, owners will feel better about where they find their staff and employee's will feel more empowered in the process.
