All for One

Roles band together to deliver on the company’s purpose

Operating in all but a handful of states, LiquidAgents Healthcare has been recognized as a best place to work numerous times by industry, regional and national media sources. The Plano, Texas-based company has been placing healthcare staffing professionals in hospitals since 2003; its mainstay is staffing travel nurses, or travelers. This year marks the 11th time the company has landed on SIA’s Best Staffing Firms to Work For list.

What’s its secret? Many different roles go into building such a reputation — from account managers who foster relationships with hospitals, to recruiters who advocate for their nurses, to the operations department — and LiquidAgents Healthcare balances well on all fronts. But the internal staff have much to do with placing the right clinicians in the right roles.

While its internal staff works together diligently to make LiquidAgents Healthcare an excellent launching pad for its nurses to have flourishing careers, it comes as no surprise that the privately held company believes its number one asset is its internal workforce — and it shows in their treatment, from employee wellness checks to coffee deliveries for all.

“I never had so many check-ins with me one-on-one,” says Cheyenne Elliott, corporate recruiter, who joined in August 2021 as a talent advisor, or nurse recruiter, and transitioned into corporate recruiting to help with growth. Her team is evaluated for how they feel they are doing, not just the numbers they are producing, she says, and you can see that care for employees is evident. “As someone who never saw herself in a recruitment position, I really could not see myself being anywhere else now.”

Open Door

It takes everyone in every department to deliver on the company’s mission of providing healthcare staffing, from the client side to recruiting, from payroll and back office to the facility. For its part, management follows the mantra when it comes to its internal staff: What can we do to make you more successful?

One of the ways they do so is by making themselves available. “We try to make sure every leader is accessible, all the way up to the CEO and CFO. If an employee ever needs to meet with somebody, the door is always open,” says Senior VP Scott Clutter, who supports and oversees the production side of the business. “I know a lot of companies will say that, but this company is unique in that way. They care about their employees.”

In the 14 years that Clutter has been with the staffing firm, he has worked in many roles and knows what it is like first-hand for employees in different departments, which in turn enables him to know how best to support them.

A Job Well Done

A significant element in enjoying your workplace is taking pride in the work you do while there. Personalized service and relationships are at the heart of what the privately held staffing firm delivers to make the best matches and assignments for travelers. And the internal staff is proud of the contributions they make when placing nurses and taking care of their needs throughout their assignments, especially amid the pandemic.

Hospital nurses have always been mission critical, but in the past few years, as demand for clinicians skyrocketed, LiquidAgents Healthcare was already well-positioned to deliver. The teams have to work together to make each assignment work and ensure the nurses are set up to be successful.

“When a traveler comes in, they are often expected to hit the ground running, so it is our job to navigate and make sure the person is a good fit,” Clutter says. That calls for a cohesive team working together. “If there is one area not included, it breaks down our system. Ultimately … it trickles down to the [nurses] because they rely on us to help them find the best places to go and a good match for them, depending on what their requirements are.”

To this end, leadership ensures internal employees are continually updated on best practices and ways to be more efficient, to ensure any issue gets resolved accurately in a timely fashion for the assigned nurses’ continued comfort, Clutter notes.

“You want [their assignment] to be as good a fit as possible so ultimately they have a good experience, and we keep working with them from there.”

And that attention to detail pays off. A big chunk of travelers return and refer their networks, and then “people are coming to you, which is always a good feeling,” Clutter says.

Covid Spotlight

Everyone has been touched one way or another by Covid, Clutter says, and LiquidAgents has taken steps to ensure the well-being of its entire workforce — internal and assigned. While the internal staff keeps a mindful eye on their external staff for burnout, the company recognizes added stress on its internal staff as well. The recruiters are the nurses’ lifelines in many ways, so the company always looks for new and creative ways to keep staff engaged as well as to give them a mental break from the job. “Not that we are taking care of patients, but there is a level of stress that goes along with taking care of people in the field,” Clutter explains.

An Inclusive Atmosphere

“I really love working with the people internally,” says Chelsea Valdez, who started out as a recruiter two years ago and now leads a team of 10 that work with nurses all over the country, from helping with timesheets to rebooking on new assignments. “We all come together to solve problems and create a team atmosphere. We get pumped up and excited to work every day — and from the nurses that are out in the field, the feedback we get is that they enjoy working with LiquidAgents simply because of our customer service.” “If there is a meeting, they invite everybody, including the newer members of the company, which does not happen in many places,” Valdez says. “An unusual perk is there are a lot of off-site destination meetings.”

In addition to off-sites, there are also happy hours and meetings to get the energy going and for everyone to know each other. “Sometimes if you are just in your department, you only talk to those people,” Valdez says. “With Covid it has changed a little bit; we try to do it safely so we can really get to know each other and build each other up as a team.”