The return of a boomerang employee is a vote of informed confidence.
So reveals a recent report by the Society of Human Resource Management, which indicates that nearly five percent of new hires aren’t new — rather, they are old friends. Fully aware of the culture to which they are returning, the arrival of a boomerang employee is the affirmation of a workplace well cultivated.
Boomerangs return to familiar stomping grounds for a wide range of reasons: culture fit, professional challenge, impactful leadership.
For Shannon O’Doherty, it was all three.
Now the Skilled Nursing Division Coordinator at Full Spectrum Search Group, O’Doherty was drawn back to the Full Spectrum team after a two-year sojourn by its conspicuous growth and pioneering leadership.
“When I reconnected with Full Spectrum, I realized that so much had changed since I left,” O’Doherty said. Full Spectrum is innovating how the recruitment process is happening.”
Once powered by the full desk model of recruiting, Full Spectrum has shifted to a framework of specialized teams, which operate in niche markets and focus on expertise in sourcing, sales development, and recruiting.
“Our CEO Maxwell McNamara and Senior Managing Partner Gaston Wilder had the foresight to realize there’s a better way,” O’Doherty said. “In our four-part team, each part of that team is dedicated to a single area of the recruitment process — which leads to specialization and higher success rates.”
Beyond innovative processes and rewarding work, O’Doherty identified one overwhelming reason for her return: trust.
“People do business with people that they like and trust,” she said. “From the first interaction that I had with Max and the rest of the Full Spectrum team, I felt like I could thrive here.”
We sat down with O’Doherty to learn more about her journey back to Full Spectrum, what she loves about Skilled Nursing, and what she looks for in a stellar candidate.
What is your role at Full Spectrum Search Group? How long have you been with the firm?
I first joined Full Spectrum back in 2018. I worked with Max and the rest of the team for a few years — the firm was much smaller then. I reconnected with Full Spectrum recently and realized so much has changed. It seemed really exciting, and I knew I wanted to come back.
Now, I’m the Division Coordinator of Skilled Nursing. Our team specializes in recruiting and placing leadership positions within the Skilled Nursing Industry.
People do business with people that they like and trust — and the same is true of work. People work for and with people they like and trust. Otherwise, you see them leave or struggle to be successful. When you see people excel and work environments, they are working with people that they like and trust.
From the first interaction that I had with Max and the rest of the Full Spectrum team back in 2018, I felt like I could thrive here and depend on them for honest and inspirational leadership. At the end of the day, people are looking for opportunities to work for people, not the business.
Welcome back! What drew you to Full Spectrum?
There are multiple things that drew me back to Full Spectrum. One of them was the leadership. Another is the amount of innovation of the recruitment process that’s happening,
When I worked here previously, we were using a recruitment model called “full desk.” In a full desk model you’re a one-woman or one-man show — from identifying and sourcing candidates to screening them, taking them through client submission to the interview process, and, finally, offer placement. On the flip side of that, you are doing business development, working with clients, and managing those client relationships. That full desk model is really common in search firms all over the country.
But Max, Gaston, and Full Spectrum have had the foresight to realize there’s got to be a better way to do this. Now we run via a team-based model. It’s a four-part team — each part of that team is dedicated to a single area of the recruitment process. This leads to specialization and higher efficiencies, which translates into being able to help our candidates and clients achieve better success.
How did you start your career in recruiting?
Most recruiters just fall into recruiting. I don’t know that anyone is growing up as a kid and going to the, you know, show-and-tell saying, “I want to be a recruiter when I grow up, and I want to work in the search space.
I know that I wasn’t! I think that, People gravitate toward this field. Once I got a taste of it, I couldn’t ever see myself leaving.
What do you love about working with SNF clients and candidates?
I came from a financial services and sales background. In that environment, I was working with businesses to help them solve problems that they knew that they had, while helping them anticipate unperceived needs and mitigating potential problems down the road. How can we optimize things within a financial framework?
There are pieces of that in recruiting as well. On that client side, I’ve really enjoyed working helping them solve an immediate problem — helping fill an opening that they have in a really pivotal leadership role that’s going to impact the people that are going to work under that person.
What I love about recruiting is feeling like I’m able to be a changemaker for the clients that I’m working with, bringing them folks that are going to make a positive impact on their facilities. I enjoy strategizing around unperceived needs, deciding when to backfill some of these positions, or looking at developing another pipeline.
On the candidate side, it really comes down to the fact that you’re helping someone look at other opportunities that are going to impact their life in a positive way. You spend more time at work than you do at home. I love helping candidates find places that they feel like they have greater access to advancement opportunities — saying “What will your life look like in three years or five years?” or “Let’s look at other companies and see how they stack up against your current role and one another” — and helping them explore every option.
What qualities do you look for in the candidates you interview?
Just like I want to do business with people that I like and trust, I want to trust the candidates I work with. I really don’t take them through the process unless it feels right. I’m looking for qualities like honesty — have they been honest with me about working with other recruiters? Are they looking to explore other opportunities?
I also look for vulnerability and transparency. Have they followed through when they say they will? As you’re having conversations with the candidate, are they giving you a real picture of the things that matter to them? What are the reasons that they might actually consider making a move? If someone is just telling me they’re driven by money alone, that’s not going to be a candidate that I’m going to work with.
It’s about the total picture that they paint for me. Ultimately, I’m looking for a direct level of communication, honesty, vulnerability, and transparency.
What is unique or special about recruiting in Skilled Nursing?
The things that are really unique about the Skilled Nursing space is the tempo, the speed, the pace. It’s much faster paced than Senior Living and Home Health.
I’ve heard it said that SNF is “the real grind.” You don’t often see people leave the industry. It’s not for the faint of heart. People fall in love with it, and then they might try something else, and then they decide that SNF was the right fit. They’ve got to come back to it — that’s what’s happened to me as a recruiter!
There’s something about Skilled Nursing I can’t put my finger on. There’s a level of complexity in SNF — in terms of medical care, legal requirements for licenses, complex relationships that people have working in those environments.
From Home Health and Hospice industry trends to women in Senior Living leadership and beyond, Full Spectrum Search Group is in constant conversation with the industries it serves. To read more insights from Full Spectrum’s recruiting experts, visit our blog.
To connect with Shannon O’Doherty, CEO Maxwell McNamara, and the rest of the Full Spectrum team, visit Full Spectrum Search Group.
