We are UHB: Laura Wagg

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust runs Good Hope, Heartlands, Queen Elizabeth and Solihull hospitals, Birmingham Chest Clinic and Solihull community services.

After I left school, I moved to Spain with my parents but when I came back to the UK I knew I needed to find a job and managing retail stores is where I landed. But, in 2015, I was made redundant and I really didn't know which route I wanted to go down. I looked here, there and everywhere for jobs before I found a Recruitment Officer role at the then-Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT). Recruitment wasn't completely new to me; I had dipped my toe in but, aside from my own stores, I hadn’t done the job fully. My mum worked for HEFT at the time and she really recommended the NHS as an employer and it was a new start for me. I had also just had a baby and so a week after being made redundant, I started the job.

I'm one of those types of people that if I do something, I want to do it properly, not half-hearted. So I'll just throw myself into it, or not do it at all. I think it's just the way I was brought up. That being said, as well, my daughter is autistic, which can be really hard to navigate. So, I throw everything I have into work because it's my release and helps me focus. When I'm at work, I can forget about everything else. After the recruitment officer job, I went on to become a Recruitment Advisor, and then a Team Leader. After HEFT merged with University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), the recruitment team's workload grew hugely so we needed to find an applicant tracking system (ATS). We started working with Oleeo, and I was asked to help test and implement the system into the Trust. This really opened my eyes and allowed me to stretch my knowledge. I then became Recruitment Manager in July 2022. So I feel like everything has happened for a reason.

My normal day includes pulling lots of data and hosting training sessions on topics like recruitment and selection. I also do lots of troubleshooting, which is almost like piecing together a massive jigsaw puzzle. We're constantly trying to put all the right pieces into place. We're a team of 42 people now, which is fantastic, but it can be stressful. But the biggest part of my role is getting candidates into the Trust to ultimately help us provide the best patient care, and it's so important to us to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and has equal opportunities to get into UHB.

A successful day for me is getting as many of the right people successfully through the UHB doors as possible, while also making sure our internal stakeholders are happy. So it's finding that juggling act between doing things in a really good time with a really good turnaround, but also doing it safely and compliantly. Our ‘customers’ are not just candidates; they're our managers, our patients and service users, everyone.

One of the biggest and constant challenges is having people understand why we do things the way we do them. There's always a large element of safety, safeguarding and doing things properly, and sometimes it can feel like we're putting blockers in the way. But there is always good reason for that. Similarly, when you make massive changes to people's working lives, such as bringing in new systems, it can be hard to get people's buy in. But when you start to see people's mind's changing, it's such an achievement. We're on the same path and we all want the same thing at the end of the day; to get the best people to come and work in our organisation.

I've learnt in life that you can't please everyone and sometimes you do have to make really difficult decisions. It's learning how to juggle lots of priorities; that's what has been my biggest learning.

People in recruitment work really hard – and it's not an easy job. It's a constant juggle between hiring managers, candidates, and internal stakeholders like our occupational health department. But then you've also got Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and juggling different platforms, so the journey to get that candidate in on day one is not an easy one. A recruitment officer can look after anywhere between 60 and 100 candidates each, so there's never a quiet moment.?

The main thing that I would like people to understand is that they all work really hard. And they're absolutely smashing it at the moment, I am so proud of our team and what we are achieving.

If you like the sound of UHB, visit our jobs website