Hello, hello everyone. We’re just waiting for people to join us. We’ll give them about two minutes and then we can start.

Those of you that are joining us, we were waiting just a little bit on anybody else. We have a couple of other people that are probably going to join late, but I’ll probably just go ahead and get started just because it is 30 minutes is pretty quick. So I don’t want you all that joined in on time to miss out on this. Oh, we got another one. Perfect.

So thank you so much, everyone, for joining us today, especially on, you know, at least for our end, it’s a rainy Wednesday. My name is Jen. I’m the business development manager here at Magnus HRS. And I’m joined by Matthew, our colleague. He is partnership, strategic partnership manager here at Magnus HRS as well, and a former recruitment lead. So we actually work with a lot of healthcare professionals across Canada, just to help them, you know, land really great opportunities, as well as answering any questions and just helping out a lot of our local Canadian communities as well.

So like I mentioned earlier, our time today is very, very, very quick and short, just because we wanted to keep this very high level for everyone. So it’s going to be as practical as possible. We’ll walk you through some basics on Contracting, spend some time on some of the questions that everybody submitted beforehand, and then at the end, we’ll leave some time for any live questions that you want answered. And for those of you joining right now, we will be recording this session. So don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything important. It was more of an intro. And you’ll have that recording. You can have it and look at it back on it, as well as share it with anybody that you think might benefit from it.

And if your questions don’t get answered, please just know that you’ll have our contact information. Don’t be shy. Reach out to us. We’re here for that to answer your questions. So what we’ll do right now is, I guess I want to ask everybody on the chat,

Yeah.

that is here if you’re comfortable. Let us know what your current role is. If you’re a nurse, a PSW, you can type it in if you feel free to do that. And then if you’re new to contracting or if you’re just kind of a veteran looking for some more connections and opportunities.

I do know from the sign up, there was quite a bit of a diverse, you know, just a diverse roster of people. Oh, yep, we got a lot of LPNs, RNs, PSWs. Yep, ultrasound 2, which is really interesting to see. I think we have a sonographer in here, so if you’re there, hello. Thank you, Ash.

So, okay, just to recap what I just mentioned, this webinar in general is about answering your questions if you’re curious about working with an agency and how contracting works in the healthcare space here in Canada. So whether you’re a PSW, whether you’re a sonographer, whether you’re an LPN, it doesn’t matter. There is a spot for you. Again, we’re covering big picture, high level questions here today. But by the end, what you should have from this webinar is you’ll have a very clear understanding of what agency and contract work looks like here in Canada right now, the basic steps to get started, and what expectations to have. So I’m going to start with the basics and we’re going to go back and forth between Matt, who is lovely enough to spend some of his time with us here today.

So Matt, can you tell us what it actually means to work as a travel contractor at an agency?

Absolutely, and thank you for the very warm introduction. Happy to be here today. So in short, travel work specifically means utilizing your education, your certification, and your workplace experience to help organizations that do not have the resources to support themselves. Just honing in on the travel component, most times, 99.9% of the time means relocating to a more remote community, whether that be somewhere up north in the province you live in or in another province altogether.

So it sounds like this is a very specific job, I think, for a particular person. But in order to even make a decision whether to do travel nursing or not, do you think that you can kind of go over what some of the pros and cons are? That was actually one of the questions that we did get as well.

Yeah, absolutely. So the number one pro, and you see it in the news, you see it on the floor, you see it talking to your neighbors, is the money. When you do work a travel assignment, you are paid considerably more than the permanent employees in a given community.

As well as something not spoken about as much would be the ability to control your work schedule. So I know personally I am envious of teachers who get summers off after working a very long school year. As a travel contractor, you’re able to dictate what months you work and even the type of shifts you work—being able to go and say, I’m only taking contracts that work night shifts. I only want to work in facilities that will accommodate my work schedule of Monday to Friday. Those are negotiation tactics that you can bring in as a travel contractor.

Another aspect that you’re not going to really see kind of looking at social media would be diversifying your work experience. When you do work in major city hubs, you’re usually siloed into working very specific roles, whether that be because of the certification you have or because that’s usually the need and how hospitals or long-term care homes are orchestrated in big cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Hoover, Calgary. As a travel contractor, you do have the ability to kind of open yourself up to opportunities you just might be interested in. Maybe you are tired of working in hospitals and you want to try working in the private sector, working at a clinic. Maybe you’re a long-term care nurse who wants to try working at a hospital.

This is a great entryway in order to diversify your experience in a way where you can test the waters. And then lastly, this is something that everybody’s excited about, is travel. So being able to see different parts of Canada, one, traveling at your own pace at the expense of somebody else is always, always exciting. And as somebody who loves traveling in Canada, it is a beautiful, beautiful country. Always, always recommend traveling to the East Coast, the West Coast, even up north. There’s so many beautiful sights to see in our wonderful country. So why pay out of your own pocket when you can have an organization pay that for you?

Yeah, 100%. I agree with that. And I think like, it’s not often talked about how I know currently we’ve been doing a lot of work in Yukon. And I’ve heard that it’s just very, once you get there, it’s just a very different world completely. So there’s a lot of exciting places to work, but when you go and do those contracts there, you’re making an actual huge impact. Normally, you know, what it means for these organizations, let’s say a hospital in the Yukon, not having maybe that staff that they need, like a sonographer, an ultrasound person, it would mean a closure for that department. You are actually doing something very good to help that local community that you wouldn’t normally see at one of those major city hubs. So I guess my follow up question to all of this is, are there any roles specifically that Magnus HRS is currently looking for?

Absolutely. So if you are a healthcare worker in any capacity, there’s always, always an opportunity for you to work. Again, Jen touched upon it. There’s so many communities in Canada that do not have the resources just simply due to population size to provide adequate care to their communities. So whether you’re a sonographer, ultrasound tech, or as you see always in the news, a nurse, there’s always an area in Canada that could use your expertise to make a huge difference in that community.

Is there a specific province or region right now that you know of that, you know, there’s more demand for travel contractors?

All of them. So I know a lot of people want to go where the demand is. The demand is everywhere. So every province in Canada has a need of some sort. The question is, how much are you willing to utilize your services for in terms of payment and then comfortability?

So just as a simple equation, the closer you are to a city hub in any given province, the less the pay rate is, but the higher the comfortability. There are some staff members who are okay going in the middle of nowhere, fly in, fly out community, because they’re there to work and make a huge difference to that community. And that is fantastic. And then there’s other travel workers who want to be a little bit closer to a city center, have the ability to fly home maybe every weekend or every other weekend. And that’s equally as fantastic. So it’s really just dictating your comfortability level and then how much you want to be compensated for that given service.

Okay, so I think something that I personally found when I started working with Magnus HRS and going back to what, or just adding to what you mentioned, is the fact that because we have been in the business for a really long time, and because we have built a pretty strong network across Canada, there are, like you said, not just remote, but urban opportunities. So don’t feel like this is just like a nursing agency. Like we are a health care contracting agency at the end of the day. And we do have a lot of contract work happening right now, even in the allied health space that’s just growing in demand. So this is an area that has been growing. I do know that even from my own personal experiences. So I want to just talk a little bit, Matt, if you don’t mind, about maybe what are the steps to just applying or getting started with contract work.

So, okay, so if for those of you kind of wondering, okay, how do I get this journey started? I have been interested for a while, or even right now, it’s kind of peaking your interest. The first step is talk to a recruiter. I know that might not be what you want to hear, especially because, you know, just it can feel a little bit daunting to have that start that conversation. But I can tell you that there is an opportunity for you. We have a lot of things happening right now. And the roles that you see online are usually just a small percentage of what actual opportunities that are out there.

So I would just really encourage you to talk to a recruiter. They’re going to answer your questions. They’re going to customize an opportunity for you. That’s what they’re there for, to help you, and they’re on your side ultimately. So the second step is to make sure that you confirm your licenses and where you can work. So, you know, have your certifications ready, have your registration, all of that needs to be in good standing in the home province or the province that you want to work in.

The second thing is resume. I honestly, I know it’s daunting to get that resume updated, but it is so, so, so, so important. Not only for the recruiters, not only for you to get the right opportunity, but to just be able to also outline some of the work that you’ve done. Because a lot of these experiences, they’ll need like cross, you know, skills of maybe you worked a little bit of ER, you maybe worked this. Like there’s just so many different ways to shape that. And again, talking to a recruiter, they can help you with that.

The other thing is get your TB and your vulnerable sector check, you know, updated as well. There’s a lot of times that I’ve personally seen where that’s been kind of a blocker or leads to, you know, maybe a contract being delayed because a TB test is expiring or the VSC is expired, things like that. So get all your immunizations, certifications, anything that you might need up to date and ready to go. And lastly, you should have your banking information and your ID ready just so that we can get you on boarded with Payroll and things like that.

So talk to a recruiter, get your license and certifications up to date, resume up to date. And the third step is life arrangements. And this is more of a personal thing. So let’s say you’re on boarded with Magnus HRS, you look for a contract, you’ve been submitted, you get the role. Just be prepared to give that two weeks notice if you are currently hired right now or a leave of absence and prepare your travel arrangements. But all of this will be taken care of on our side from our team through the client liaison. So we do have somebody that is personally assigned to you that will walk you through this step as you progress through that submission for contract work or as you’re waiting for an opportunity to come by. So you’re never left in the dark.

You know, at Magnus HRS, we’re here to help you and we have the right people here to help you and to walk you through that step, especially if you’re a first timer into this kind of or this type of work. So I was going to say last and last. This is my own thing. Just be ready to make money. I always, I think that’s why a lot of people get into travel work. It’s a really good opportunity to kind of just, you know, make that extra cash, do some savings, maybe for something important in your life. But ultimately, it starts with speaking to a recruiter. So make sure you connect with them. It’s absolutely worth it.

So what I’m going to do is I actually want to now answer some of the questions that we received before the webinar. One of the questions that we received was, if you want to work at a specific province, let’s say you’re working in Ontario, but you want to work in Vancouver, should you apply or get a license ahead of time or wait for a contract in order for you to start working there?

Great question. Overall, it really depends on your situation and what you’re looking for. If you have your heart set on working in a specific province, 100% it is way, way easier to find an opportunity if you’re already licensed in that province. The big stipulation is really what province you want to work in. Licensing in some provinces is way easier than licensing in others. To maybe give an example and put it into perspective, if you want to work in Nova Scotia as a nurse, getting your license is roughly around 5 days, which is very, very easy to work around and complete after you get accepted for an opportunity to work in Nova Scotia. That same licensing process in BC can take well over 30 days. So in that instance, not having that license could be a detriment, especially if you really do want to work in that province. So really ask yourself, hey, I really want to work in this province. What do I need to do? Just look up how long it takes to get licensed in that province. If it’s only a matter of a few days, absolutely you could feel free to apply to opportunities knowing you could get the license after the fact. But if it’s going to be longer than a week, maybe even 2, then I would look into getting that license beforehand.

Okay, so it sounds like you have to sort of have that pre-work done and get your ducks lined in a row, especially if you want to open yourself up to more opportunities. Okay, the second question we got was, what are the pros and cons of being a sole proprietor compared to being an employee of the agency?

Yeah. So first and foremost, we cannot give you legal or financial advice. And this might be something you want to consider speaking to an accountant about. But there’s no right answer on what is preferable between incorporation, being a sole proprietor, or being a T4 employee. It’s all about your risk tolerance and then how much administration you want to handle yourself and how that aligns with your long-term goals. So as somebody who is a sole proprietor or incorporated, you’re going to have a lot more control and a higher gross pay potentially. So the con is, oh, you’re going to be making more money. You do have the responsibility of paying your own taxes, writing off your own expenses, and dealing with your own admin. So if you’re okay with taking on that responsibility with the understanding that you’re going to be making a little bit more money, absolutely, that’s something that we encourage and something we hope you speak to your accountant about. If you don’t feel like that responsibility is something that you care to handle, then T4 is most likely the role for you.

Okay, so it sounds like it’s more about, you know, what kind of risk tolerance the individual has, how much admin work you want to handle on your end, and just like if it aligns with your goals or not. And I can’t say this enough, speak to the recruiter. They’re going to kind of walk you through that and advise you. And I think this is one of those questions where, yeah, just the more they know about you, the more that they can kind of tell you and guide you through that process. So the third question, this was pretty interesting. So this person asked, I got my RN years ago. They passed, you know, the boards and everything, but they never worked as a nurse. So they have the education, they have the licensing, you know, what do they have to do if they want to start or restart their career?

I would recommend first and foremost contacting their licensing board. Most times there is a requirement of a certain amount of clinical hours to maintain your license and licenses expire. So first and foremost, getting that renewed so we can place you to an opportunity is what I would consider the first step. Without the license, we’re unable to place you. You do need certifications in Canada to work for most of the roles that we are staffing for. So contact your health authority, the licensing board, and see what’s necessary in order for you to work in that given field.

So is there a particular amount of experience that you’re looking for in terms of like getting, you know, if I wanted to start working, like is there something that you would recommend or suggest?

So we do take all experience levels. However, the more experience you have, the more opportunity that is going to be available to you. So usually for most opportunities, they do ask for our workers to have at least one year of Canadian health care experience, but that is not something that’s exclusive to Magnus HRS. There are a ton of opportunities that are looking for new grads or individuals who might not have all of their experience in Canada. However, they might be limited comparatively to somebody who has over five years experience in the field in Canada.

Okay. And so this is the other question that we got. Apart from pay rate, is there any other perks for being a contractor?

Absolutely. So there’s a ton of different perks that you can potentially get with a given client, whether that be accommodations, so just lodging when you are traveling to that given location, travel stipends, food stipends, dealing with external expenses that you might incur while all on assignment and bonuses. Usually what you find is that when you do get perks such as stipends and other expense reimbursement, that the pay rate is lower. So what we found most likely to happen is the higher the pay rate, the less perks provided, or the more perks provided, the lower the pay rate. So it’s really kind of deciding how much of that burden you want to take on yourself.

What I’m going to do is if there are no further questions, or if you prefer to just speak to us directly or send us an email, please, please, please know that we’re here to answer any question that we haven’t gotten to or that you’re still curious about, or even if you just want to have a conversation. What I’ll do is I’ll answer, maybe I’ll ask you one more question, Matt, one or two, and then I’ll wrap up, give our contact info. And yeah, and let everybody know about our next webinar series coming up. So one of the questions that we got was, can we bring family and pets on an assignment?

Absolutely. You could bring whoever you want, family, friends, pets. However, an organization is only responsible for you and your well-being. So if you do want to bring family, if you do want to bring pets, usually that has to come at your own expense. So if it is really important to you to have that support system with you, absolutely, I fully, fully encourage you taking on that expense so that you can be comfortable on assignment. However, I would not expect any contract to provide accommodations for your family or pets.

Yeah, and it depends again with the organization, as you mentioned. Like I know that personally, recently I vouched for a contractor who had her cat with her. And as you said, that was her emotional support. So there is always ask, you never know. That’s how I’m going to put it. Ask, you never know.

And then choosing a, this is actually really important. So there’s lots of contractor healthcare agencies out there, a ton, especially nowadays, a lot of one-offs, mom and pop shops. How do you choose what’s the best agency to work for and can you work for multiple?

I am a little bit biased. I will say Magnus HRS is the best agency that you could retain your services to. However, there are, when I would look at agencies, the first thing I would look at is kind of the longevity of the business. So how long has this organization been around? Is this a company that started just a week ago, or is this an organization that has been around for, I would say, probably a couple years? Magnus HRS, for instance, has been around since 2011. So there is some security knowing that we’re not going to disappear next week.

And then the second thing I would look at is just from a payroll perspective. There’s a lot of organizations that work fraudulently, which might mean that you do not get paid. There’s a lot of horror stories out there. You can speak to other travel staff where they have retained their services to agencies that did not pay them on time or did not pay them at all. So always look at the payment history of an organization. Here at Magnus HRS, we have never missed payroll. As long as you complete all of your documentation and you’re in our payroll system, you will be paid on time. So just because you’re working in roughly harsh conditions, you know, if I could speak bluntly. We want to make sure that you’re as comfortable as possible and you don’t have the added stress of thinking, I might not get paid this week.

Yeah, and I know that that’s something that we’re very proud of. Okay, I do want to get to actually have these question before I just end things. So it seems like for registered nurses, the opportunity to be a travel nurse is decreasing in certain specialties. What can one do to secure consistent contracts? That’s a really good question.

That is a really good question. Yeah, so there is a little bit of a decline in certain areas and specialties as a travel nurse. However, I would never say the opportunity will go to zero. There will always, always be opportunity. It just might be in more remote areas. Jen touched upon it earlier on. We’re doing a lot more work in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. There’s areas in Northern Ontario that are fly in, fly out. So there’s never going to be a specialty that has zero opportunity for travel work. So it would just be about talking to a recruiter and seeing how remote these opportunities are and then your palette for working them.

And then in terms of certain specialties that I would say have the most abundance of work, they would be ER and ICU. ER is probably the largest specialty that is requested of us, simply because that is probably the biggest burden on hospitals right now is overrun ERs. So if you are looking for the most opportunities out there, I would say set your sights towards ER.

Yeah, and I can’t, like, I mean, I know personally, I just got an order for a bunch of ER, ICU, and that’s been something that’s just kind of coming back. So I can’t echo that enough that we do need a lot of ER and ICU nurses. Oh, mental health. Yes, yes, we need them. Just to let you know, mental health, social worker, we don’t have, I don’t have enough time to go over all the roles. That’s why I was saying it’s only what you think of an agency nurse classically as being like, just RNs, this and that. Like, no, there’s a lot of opportunities out there. Physiotherapist, occupational therapists. There’s a lot out there that we are in need of. So I’ll list out maybe in our wrap up email after this, some of the roles that we are looking for and currently hiring for. I’ll send out a recording so that you have this with you and you can share it. but I’ll follow up with any frequently asked questions that we didn’t get to. And then yeah, please feel free to contact us. So Matt, how can I get in contact with you or with a recruiter?

All of our contact details will be in an email. And again, I did see a question from Sonia who asked if she can change recruiters. We have a ton of recruiters here at Magnus HRS and they all deal with their own specialties and different roles. So at any point, if you want to talk to some of our other recruiters, all you have to do is ask and we can absolutely get you reassigned. But please, please, please reach out when you do get our contact details. We are very, very happy to get all of you guys placed in contracts that fit your needs. Again, we’re not going to place you the very first place that pops up on our radar. We want to make sure that wherever you go, you’re going to be comfortable, happy, and want to stay there long term.

I agree. Well, thank you so much, everyone, and Matt for your time today. I know that flew by really, really, really quickly, but we are going to be having these more frequently. And the next one actually that I think would be really helpful, and you can give us feedback too in an email, would be resume one on 101, which is something that I personally am championing here at Magnus HRS because I want to, a good resume really, really takes you to the opportunities that you want. So we’re definitely going to have that next month. You’ll see that in your inbox, a reminder, so feel free to sign up again. And yeah, thank you everybody. I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.

Fantastic. Thank you for joining.

No, thank you. All right, see you. Bye everyone. And remember, you can email us. We’re here for you.