As an employer (Avensys Medical) I am finding it very difficult in recruiting experienced biomed? What can Companies like Avensys, TBS, EBME, BCAS and others do/offer from an employment perspective to entice engineering technicians from the NHS into the private sector? Is it conditions of service, wages, pensions, cars, travel, training, promotion, holiday entitlement, healthcare...what?

The alternative is to breed our own engineers via the level 3 courses and foundation degree we run in partnership with falfield (eastwood park), but that’s a very long process...

I would appreciate some feedback....

Ah yes ... the blokes.

As you may recall, Rob, this is a topic of great interest to me as well.

How to get, and then retain (motivate, and all the rest) good techs?

Not easy.

I'm a bit snowed under just at the moment, but be sure that I shall be keeping an eye on this one, and may well respond later in greater depth!

PS: better file SWM under "others"!

Could try tapping into the Forces leavers market. I recall a Forces resettlement magazine called Pathinder (or Pathfinder)which detailed case studies of service leavers but was mainly a brochure for Resettlement Training Courses offered by various industries and Training Companies, such as Computeach, (I spent my grant on Fibre Optic Installation & Testing C&G's with Fujikura). All leavers are entitled to these grants and they could be used to pay for the training you mention above.
Could make contact with RFEA (Regular Forces Employment Agency)also.
In my case (ex Aircraft Avionics Tech) i had absolutely no idea Techs existed in Hospitals to maintain equipment, you just don't think about it. Therefore if you could tap into this market (maybe contact pathfinder to see if you could write a brief column about the EBME role or advertise courses), you could potentially bring our proffession to the attention of thousands of potential candidates who currently are not aware it exists.
Topper

I'm sure each individual would have different reasons for staying in an NHS role or moving over to the 'Dark Side'. Some would be attracted by higher wages in the private sector, but put off by travel or the possibility of having to work longer hours. Not forgetting the public sector pension anyone with a few years service is unlikely to want to give up.

Breeding your own engineers may be one option, but training someone doesn't mean they won't be enticed by other employers - public or private sector. Gone are the days of working in the same department for 30 years+.

Do you only want experience, or are you trying to recruit a certain type of individual? Having experience doesn't mean you'll get a proactive, dedicated worker - there are a lot of people with experience sitting back waiting for a pension!

Perhaps you need to have the flexibility in your recruitment policy to offer specific enticements for certain roles or to target individuals with whatever they want (within reason of course!).

Rob, check your PM,s Tony

Further to my earlier post ... perhaps it would be wiser for me to keep my powder dry on this one.

What do I mean by that? Well, I have my own "man management" techniques, used with (some) success, developed and refined over the years ... so should I share these (give them away) in Open Forum? Especially, that is, as I also seek good technicians for the Dark Side.

But here are a couple of clues:-

There is nothing particularly clever about it, Rob, and certainly nothing more than you and I learned (usually the hard way, in my own case at least) back in the Mob.

But regarding Topper's point about ex-Service techs. I too always used to favour them. But I'm sorry to report that recent experiences have changed my opinions on that one somewhat. It seems that they may not be the easy answer, after all.

As you know (and as Pipsy suggests) the needs of the Dark Side and those of the Public Sector (eg, the NHS) are significantly different.

And as we all know (and as I have remarked many times before) there isn't (and never will be) a bottomless pit of good techs out there just sitting around waiting to be hired. They have to be attracted towards joining the company (dare I suggest the word "excited")! And (again as we know) different guys get hooked in different ways. Some (but by no means all) want money. Others may actually enjoy driving about, or the long hours (and the technical challenges) ... etc., etc. But I believe that everyone likes to be part of a well led, properly organised, "winning" team. OK that's enough (no more clues).

But ... to cut to the chase ... how to motivate and retain? In my opinion, it's all down to that same old word that I've used so many times before - leadership. Shouldn't be a problem at Avensys I would have thought, Old Mate.

Hi Rob

It isn't just a problem attracting people into the private sector, it seems just as impossible to get people into the NHS.

When we recently advertised for a supervisor (band 7) we had less than 6 decent applicants and out of those only 1 turned up to the interview. Within the NHS there’s hardly any reason to move hospitals - without promotion money stays the same so unless the hospital offers something extra (career goals etc) people don’t move. Actually that’s where you have an advantage; the NHS has no flexibility on wages, no chance of company car, healthcare etc.

There just isn’t enough staff to go around. I suppose it’s a case of supply and demand, there’s no supply so in theory wages should go up. If you offered enough you get staff.

I came in from non healthcare industry and I think we’ve only employed one tech with any healthcare experience in recent years. I think you’ll probably have to train your own staff and just make sure the benefits of working for you are more attractive than your competitors!!

As for me personally I enjoy being based at one site, knowing a good portion of the staff and working as one big team for the greater good. Not sure I’d like moving from site to site never really getting to know the people you’re working with. There’s practical no chance of promotion here, but I’m happy for the moment actually doing something practical. Apart from the wages I can’t see any attraction in being promoted to management, sitting behind a desk all day with all that stress!

Unfortunately, it's not usually easy (and probably not a sound business proposition) for small independent service providers to train up their own techs.

One of the reasons for that are ... well, all the clues are there! Small means that everyone on the team has to pull their weight (and then some). There simply isn't time to pay much attention to an "apprentice" (or whatever).

Don't forget also that we are talking here about businesses. New hires don't usually get er, hired, unless and until new work (often a new contract or service commitment) is at least imminent.

Which (and I'm guessing here) is probably the situation that Rob is facing, I should imagine.

The preferred business model is to have lots of capital (no pun intended there, Rob) and be able to hire (grab) suitable techs if ever and when ever they become available (that is, before the competition does something similar). Sorry Rob, but this could mean you need to sell the motorbike, Mate!

About the Foundation Training comment. How to prevent the guy simply moving on once you've trained him up? Back again to motivation, and all the rest (see my earlier post). When and if the team appears to be dragging their sorry butts more than usual, then it's up to the leadership to make sure that there is always something new and exciting happening (or about to happen). H'mmm - now where have I heard that before?

Leadership. Team building. Giving everyone a fair crack. And making sure that everyone feels valued and respected. "Lead, follow, or get out of the way"!

For instance, Tesco have "cherished employees", you know.

I know that some on here will mock this (but who cares about them) ... but here goes:-

In my experience and opinion (which, I might add, has varied almost not at all over these last 35 years or so) the best people (and we're talking about biomeds here) don't need motivating.

That is, they (should) come along with self-motivation built in. If that's not the case, then you would be better off showing them the door straight off the bat.

Real biomeds enjoy their work. They are rarely "9 to 5" types, at all. As I have said before, a willingness to do the actual work (what I like to call "cracking on") is more important than any bit of paper.

As I say, you just need to entice them with an interesting job (eg, not simply driving a van about the length and breadth of the UK, for instance), treat them well, and then let them get on with it.

So much to say ... so careful how to express it.

Having worked for one of the companies mentioned by Rob, I feel suitabley qualified to comment. I also have extensive experience in the NHS as well as working for several other OEM companies.

I also have a military background ... but I don't think that is relevant here.

Geoff is quite right, contract and employment are closely linked when working for a "small" organisation providing Biomed support.

I'm not demeaning "small" private companies but contract length, support required on assets covered and geographical coverage are somethings people working in "large" NHS Biomed outfits would see as a "risk" if they were to take the plunge.

Maybe after next Thursday and with hard times to come in the NHS, then Rob,Geoff et al may find there may be NHS Biomeds who may be looking for work.

Severe cuts to come in the NHS over staffing will effect Biomeds.

This isn't scare mongering, this will happen, the onus on all NHS organisations is to save, staffing is the easiest way.

I don't think it is the right way, I think we Biomeds are a precious source, but I think there will be defining moments in the years to come which will result in differing "partnerships" and changes to working practices that will impact on public and private service providers