HealthSectorTalent (HST) was today named Resourcing Supplier of the Year in the UK at this year’s Personnel Today Awards for its work in managing one of the largest recruitment campaigns in the history of the NHS during the initial outbreak of Covid-19.

Led by the Department of Health Northern Ireland, an emergency temporary staffing recruitment campaign was created and launched with the urgent objective of ensuring additional capacity was available in the event of the health and social care system being overwhelmed.

The HSC Workforce Appeal was designed, built and managed by HST on behalf of the Department of Health, the five Health and Social Care (NHS) Trusts and Northern Ireland’s Ambulance Service.

The strategy included rapidly creating a recruitment brand for the health and social care system in Northern Ireland; assembling a recruitment project team representing each of the key stakeholders and forming a central recruitment command and control centre to act as a single point of contact for all stakeholders and suppliers.

Pathways and workarounds were required to overcome strict protocols around the recruitment of clinical professionals including the application and interview process, employment checks and onboarding in a world of social distancing and remote working.

Over the course of 35 days, the Covid-19 Recruitment Project Team of 162 people working across 9 organisations (mostly working remotely due to social distancing and travel restrictions) delivered the largest recruitment campaign of its kind in Northern Ireland.

Personnel Today Award Judges Stated;

“HealthSectorTalent impressed our judges with its emergency response to the first wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in Northern Ireland. It rapidly built up a contingent workforce of clinical and non-clinical healthcare workers, attracting, selecting and deploying workers into the health and social care system. Our judges described its work as “amazing” in a unique and challenging situation.”