BHS job fair attempts to break barriers to health care opportunities
A recent job fair highlighted more than 150 available positions at Butler Memorial Hospital.
The job fair, which was the first Butler Health System has hosted in a number of years, featured representatives from the hospital’s various departments.
Christina Atherton, senior talent acquisition specialist at BHS, said organizers decided to plan a job fair in part because of the state of the economy, where many people are searching for work. Planning an event where potential employees could meet with department heads was thought to eliminate some entry barriers to applying, she said.
“I just think with the times that we are all working through right now, we are thinking outside the box and looking at what we can do as an organization,” Atherton said. “From the Butler Hospital standpoint, we had the health care department, dietary, nursing supervisors for all of our nursing positions — we had someone there to talk about all of those opportunities.”
About 20 people attended the job fair at Butler Memorial Hospital on June 29. Another was held simultaneously at Clarion Hospital.
Atherton said representatives from different departments, and even other BHS locations, were present at each to provide information about available jobs.
Butler Health System has a careers web page, which on Friday listed 153 available positions at Butler Memorial Hospital. This list encompasses several departments from allied or technical positions to nursing to finance jobs.
Emily Pollock, talent acquisition specialist for BHS, said a majority of Butler Memorial Hospital’s department managers were present at the fair.
“We really wanted to give our community members the opportunity to come in and meet with not only us, the human resources team, but our hiring managers as well,” Pollock said. “So people could be able to really put themselves out there.”
Atherton said administrators are considering organizing another job fair, thanks to the success of the most recent event.
“It was very successful, and we plan on having one in the future as well,” Atherton said. “We do take phone calls, and we were very happy to assist people further with questions.”
