A few months ago, the podcast passed 1 million downloads, and it feels fantastic to get to this next milestone of 300 episodes. A big thank you to everyone for all the support you give me, whether that’s through listening, sponsoring or appearing on the show. This podcast would not exist without you, and I’m incredibly grateful.
Unlike the 100th episode where I published a whitepaper or the 200th episode which I recorded live at RecFest, I’m no doing anything special to mark this triple century. Instead, I’m focusing on continuing to create valuable content as well as shaping my plans to take the show to 400 episodes and beyond. I’ll be sharing more details on those in the coming weeks.
With the pandemic shaping the content of the last 52 episodes, it seems very appropriate in this episode to talk to Nicola McQueen, the CEO of NHS Professionals. NHS Professionals is owned by The Department of Health in the UK and is responsible for providing the NHS with a flexible workforce of Doctors and Nurses. This really is the frontline of recruiting during the pandemic, and I’m grateful to Nicola for sharing the story as well as some lessons learnt around rapid change and agile workforce deployment that all employers can learn from.
In the interview, we discuss:
• The role of NHS Professionals
• Stand Up, Step Forward & Save Lives
• The unprecedented challenges of recruiting during a pandemic
• Reducing onboarding from 4 weeks to 24 hours
• Change and motivation
• Long term talent pipeline engagement
• The importance of being bold
• Agile workforce deployment
• What comes next
