Atlas All Access

Atlas Medstaff's Meet And Greets - Atlas All Access 103

Atlas Medstaff's Meet And Greets - Atlas All Access 103

In 2020, we are going to be hitting it hard with our Meet and Greets.

Why does Atlas pay for Meet and Greets? What kind of things do we do with our travelers on a Meet and Greet? How do I get involved? What do I do if I think that Atlas MedStaff should hold a Meet and Greet in my current/future location?

Listen to Vice President, Rich Smith, and Travel Nurse Recruiters, Jake Brower and Maggie Hammer, talk all about Meet and greets and how they work.

Speaking of Meet and Greets I believe we have one coming up! Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2657626187840682/

I also heard a rumor that we will be in the Phoenix area for a Royals vs Rockies Spring Training game the first week of March.

Be on the lookout on Facebook, from your recruiter, and/or in your email for more info on all future Atlas MedStaff Meet and Greets.

Rich Smith: I'm sure you've seen them online. Companies do meet and greets all the time and it's been a focus for us over the last year and now 2020 especially. Atlas meet and greets throughout the country, not just in Las Vegas or coming up here in Nashville in April. We want to get out more all through the country and see all of our travelers while they're out on a contract. We think that's one of the best ways to connect once you take that contract and you start that job. So I have two veteran recruiters who have been on... You like that? Veterans.

Jake Brower: That's new. I don't think if I've ever been called that before.

Rich Smith: Who have been on a lot of meet and greets before, here to talk about what you should expect if a meet and greet is coming to your town, where you're on a contract. Atlas All Access starts now. Jake Brower, Maggie Hammer are both here. So you have both been on a lot of meet and greets over your recruiting careers, correct? I mean quite a few.

Jake Brower: Yeah. Maggie's kind of like the rock star of meet and greets.

Maggie Hammer: I love to get out there.

Jake Brower: That is true.

Rich Smith: So talk about that. I'll get into my questions a little bit though. Why do you like to get out and do that?

Maggie Hammer: I mean, one, gosh, it's a vacation. And what better way than to go on vacation with these people that you work with day in and day out. I mean they're people too so it's a blast to go out and see them in that different atmosphere, different environment on a different level. So I just think it's super, super important to get out there and meet your nurses outside of work and just to get to appreciate them too.

Rich Smith: There's conversations that you can have sitting at dinner or in a car driving to the snowboarding event or whatever it is that you're not going to have on the phone during the day. Right? I mean, that's completely different atmosphere. Right?

Jake Brower: Yeah, 100%. I think that the best thing about them to me is it creates a context for a relationship that's already fairly close. We talk to these people daily and we get used to having a phone relationship, a text relationship, but there's something really different about connecting face to face with somebody you feel like is already on the verge of family/close friend. It's just weird. Every time I meet a new traveler on a meet and greet for the first time, I feel like I really know this person well, but you realize I've never actually met them in person.

Jake Brower: So it creates this really kind of fun, exciting dynamic that we're lucky to have.

Rich Smith: And that answers my first question honestly, but let's dig into it just a little bit deeper. Why do we do these? Like why do we spend that money to get out there and do these meet and greets? So you've got one coming up here when spring training starts.

Maggie Hammer: Mm-hmm (affirmative). First week of March.

Rich Smith: First week in March. Right. So why? Why? Why besides just making that connection that it's fun to travel. I love to travel too. Right. And I think that's one of the things. I live vicariously through every single traveler out there that post pictures online or talks about the fun stuff that they're doing while they're out there. So in addition to all of that, why would you get out there and do that or why would we pay to have that done?

Jake Brower: I think there's two reasons, really. One, probably my favorite one is just to make nurses feel valued and appreciated.

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Jake Brower: We have a block of time where we just get to kind of spoil them and tell them they're important and build that relationship. But selfishly, it's really good for Atlas as well. We get to have an inside look at what goes on in the cities that our travelers are traveling to and get insight into how they're actually feeling, what they're actually experiencing. So that for the next run of travelers, they have a little bit more info.

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Maggie Hammer: Right. And it's weird. On the day to day here, it's not just 8:00 to 5:00, I mean these phones don't shut off. But sometimes it's really hard to separate yourself from the business and work side of things and to kind of just let loose and like just be yourself. So at night when the phone rings, I mean that's business talk. Either something's going on, something needs to be handled. And when you get out there, it's like somehow some way, I mean even on my own personal vacations, it's hard to shut this phone off. But when you're around those nurses, everything kind of goes to the side. I mean it's just like your main focus then in there. So yeah. I mean it's different, it's weird the experience, but it's so great and it's very fulfilling because you work so hard and then you get to actually go out there and spend the time and spend money and I mean just hang out with them. So I think it's super important.

Rich Smith: Okay. So next question then. While we're out there, what do we do? When you're looking to plan a meet and greet in let's say Denver or spring training or whatever, what are we looking to do? How do we come up with those ideas?

Maggie Hammer: I think mainly, I like to have a variety. So it's like a sporting event. Awesome. It'll bring everybody out. It's four hours long. So if you can make it, great. Then, you have a bar scene. I mean you do a happy hour. You have drinks, cocktails, food, and then, gosh, like an outdoors-y event if you can, I mean, Phoenix, you can pretty much hit all of that, so a hike or a brunch or something. So I think it's good to kind of have, like I said, I mean just a different variety of different events and you check out what's in the area. I grew up in Arizona, so it's easy for me to go out there and I could pick 10, 15 different things. It'd be tough to narrow it down, but it's really kind of what are the attractions out there, explore the area. I mean have you been to a meet and greet in an area where you haven't ever visited before?

Jake Brower: Yeah. Had my first one in Reno. I had never been to Reno before, so that was really fun like we were exploring with them. I think my goal for all of the meet and greets is just to kind of... a meet and greet is sort of like a microwave for building relationships. So the goal is to create space for actual connections. So I mean we're not going to take nurses to a movie where the lights are off and we're staring at a screen. We're going to go somewhere like Top Golf or we're going to go on a long hike probably that people will complain about because it was too long. Actually happened in Reno. But it creates these experiences that even when like... I love doing hikes because when it's hard, even a little bit hard, you have an experience with somebody that actually creates this sense of... it's a memory.

Jake Brower: I have pictures of me and the travelers that went on this hike at the end of it and everybody's exhausted, but everybody's kind of smiling. We go to dinner together and we talk about everything that we just experienced. And it's a microwave for building those relationships. And that's kind of I think my goal is to create space for that to actually happen.

Rich Smith: I think when I've looked at these before and I've planned my share of them along the way, I start selfishly with myself. I'll use Las Vegas for example, because we go there every year. Like what do I want to do? And then you started involving people from there because if I want to do it, then I know there's a number of other people out there that want to do it or this one that we just did in San Francisco with Alcatraz.

Rich Smith: That'd be super cool to go see Alcatraz. Right? If you're on a contract there, is it something that you're going to do? But if you get a group of people together, you're totally going to go do that.

Jake Brower: Well, and two things are true about travel nurses. They're up for an adventure, but they want to have an adventure with other people. They're always looking for that. So being able to create that space for them and potentially cover some of the costs so that they can do it kind of worry free. That's just super fun.

Rich Smith: Mm-hmm (affirmative). All right. So final question then. How can one get involved? Let's start with, one you're not an Atlas traveler whatsoever. Okay. And you see it online. How can you get involved?

Maggie Hammer: Gosh, I mean there are quite a few non Atlas travelers that do show up to these events. Now again, it's either from being online or word of mouth. I mean Mayo Clinic for example in Arizona, we always have a ton of nurses come out. Well up until about a month ago, we didn't have that contract. Now we do and it's incredible. I cannot wait and I hope to someday have them with us at Atlas, but word of mouth and I received Facebook messages, text messages. That is to me the coolest thing when we have these nurses who don't currently with us, show up to these events. So yeah. I mean any way that they can get ahold of me or anybody as I said, Facebook texting. Reach out and 100% show up. I think it's awesome.

Rich Smith: I think what's important there too is as much as we talked about this is a way to get to know people better and hopefully maybe they are travelers for us some day. There's no hard sell there. It's let's just go have fun.

Jake Brower: Let's go have fun.

Rich Smith: Right. It's really not recruiting.

Maggie Hammer: By the end of it, we'll forget you're not with us. You know what I mean? You are. You're with us. And again, there aren't the business cards on those trips and it's... Just come out and have fun.

Rich Smith: Yeah. I think that one might a little bit different is we don't necessarily take business cards. That isn't a part of the deal or whatever. Let's just go have some fun like you said.

Jake Brower: And I think that's huge because every business corporation where it's all people. Right? It's all we work with. Our product is people. Everything is about people. Even the jobs that the nurses are doing is about people. If we can interject or inject even just a little more humanness, it's so worth it. And that's what these meet and greets do is it's a face to a voice or to a tech screen. And the more I can see a nurse as a human and the more a nurse can see the recruiter as a human, the easier and more fun it is to do the daily business of finding and placing and building payback bridges. And-

Maggie Hammer: We all can do the job. It's our job to get you a job, but if you can have that relationship and that bond, the passion. That's where I think the passion comes from. So.

Rich Smith: Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So if you want information about any of our meet and greets, you can find them on our Facebook page and then for each one of the individual meet and greets, there is a separate group. Is that what we're calling? Is it a group, Dolan? Yes. Shake your head. Yes? No? Then, we create event-

Jake Brower: Event page.

Dolan: Event page.

Jake Brower: And there's always RSVP. Some stuff you need to RSVP for. For example, the Alcatraz thing.

Rich Smith: Yeah. So check the event on the Facebook page or if all else fails, on the event, you'll see who from Atlas is going. Maggie, for example, will be in Phoenix for the spring training trip. You can just message her.

Maggie Hammer: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Rich Smith: Even if she's not your recruiter, that's okay. I think all the recruiters here at Atlas kind of have that understanding that if they're not going, if Jake's not going to the event, his nurses are totally fine in Maggie's hands like there's no competition there whatsoever. Go out and have some fun. Do whatever it is you're doing at the event and then-

Jake Brower: Yeah. I think with the last time you did it, you took like four of my nurses out. And just had a blast. They're like, "Maggie's so much fun!" Like yeah. Probably more fun than I would've been.

Maggie Hammer: No business that trip.

Rich Smith: If you go on a meet and greet with Jake, he's going to take you on a five mile hike.

Jake Brower: Apparently. But you'll make memories.

Maggie Hammer: Yeah. You'll feel good after.

Rich Smith: And a few blisters along the way. All right, Jake, Maggie. Thank you so much. Again, if you want any more information, it's on our Facebook page. Each one of our meet and greets has an event. Go check out that event if it's coming to your area or if you're in an area and you have some travel nurse friends or other traveling healthcare professionals that you're with and you want us to come out and there's cool stuff to do, let us know. They'll put my email or my Facebook right here. Let me know. Maybe I'll come out. I want to do some fun stuff. In 2020, I want to get out just a little bit more than last year, so let us know. We'd be happy to come out.

Jake Brower: Very good.

Rich Smith: All right?

Maggie Hammer: Good deal.

Rich Smith: See you next week.

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