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Business Manager Lorraine Ryan shares how TTM has fuelled her career growth and personal development 

You can have all the passion and drive for your career, but if the people you work with aren’t supporting your progression and working with you to develop – it’s a tough journey. Barack Obama once said, ‘it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you’ll realise your true potential.’

 Someone who can testify to this is TTM Healthcare Solutions (TTM) Business Manager Lorraine Ryan: she is among the 75% of the company’s leadership team that has been promoted internally and credits so much of her success to the supportive, nurturing culture of TTM. Whether securing a promotion, putting forward progressive business ideas or finding work/life balance after maternity leave – Lorraine has felt bolstered and empowered every step of the way, and she’s not stopping anytime soon…

“What does this mean for someone thinking of joining TTM? It means you can rely on every opportunity to gain experience, train, develop, grow and succeed. There’s no limit to what you can achieve,” says Lorraine.

Lorraine Then and Now

Lorraine is Business Manager for TTM’s Temporary Ireland team. She manages and handles the budgets for five different recruitment divisions – Health Care Assistants, Social Care, Support Services, Office Support and Public Sector Social Care. She also manages the company’s On Call team. She is responsible for a team of 30, comprising of 5 Team Leaders, Principal Consultants, Recruitment Consultants, Associate Recruitment Consultants and Talent Acquisition Specialists.

Hers is a high volume, fast-paced, dynamic part of the business which coordinates 1500 Temporary workers every week, right across the country. The nature of the Temp work varies - from filling 1-day shifts to 6-month placements, and her work involves a high degree of multi-tasking both internally and externally. Lorraine thrives on the quick-moving nature of her work – and she is proud to say that hers is one of the highest performing business divisions.

Originally from Cork, Lorraine studied Business and Marketing at CIT (now MTU) and completed an HR Diploma at UL. She moved to Australia in 2010 where she had her first taste of recruitment at two major mining companies. Returning to Ireland in 2012 she joined TTM, and her journey within the company began. Lorraine lives in Offaly with her partner and two children – a 4-year-old and a baby of 16 months.

A Journey of Growth and Possibility

Lorraine started at TTM as an Associate Recruitment Consultant. She went on to become a Recruitment Consultant, Senior Recruitment Consultant and Team Leader. In 2017 she was promoted to Sales Manager and to Business Manager in February 2022. She has a passion for people management and different personalities – and of course loves seeing the results of her hard work.

Lorraine enjoys the autonomy and independence her role gives her, but at the same time knows the success of everyone depends on team members supporting one another.

“Tommy Lees has been my manager for 10 years and my mentor through all my different roles. He saw something in me, and he supported me throughout. He challenges me, pushes me, is there if I’m struggling, he has so much energy.”

Lorraine’s TTM career started to take shape when, although still a junior, she won the NRF Consultant of the Year Award in 2014. She then participated in Team Leader Training and had to present a possible business idea. She pitched the concept of creating a TTM Training division – bringing in-house the means to upskill candidates with the necessary training courses and thereby speeding up the recruitment process. The management team saw the potential in this and invested the time and capital to bring the idea to fruition. The Training Division was established in 2015 and has become an important arm of the business and additional revenue stream.

“The team believed in me and in my idea – and they made it happen. It’s incredible to have people invest in you like this,” says Lorraine. “Our MD Paula is in a league of her own. Her leadership as a visionary is unique – and it informs all our work. The team is accessible, open and approachable. They’re present. Everyone sits together, there’s no us-them. If they say they’ll do something – they do it.”

The Training and Support to Get You There

The company holds ‘Realising Potential’ Group Sessions once a month, attended by senior team members across the Broadlake Group, where topics such as management and leadership are thrashed out and ideas are exchanged.

Lorraine also finds she has benefited hugely from one-to-one training sessions with coaching guru Ian Kingston, as provided by the company:

“These sessions are available to all team leaders and seniors. They really help me deal with the challenges that are blocking me and give me the tools I need to manage solutions. I’ve grown personally and professionally through the sessions.”

Support for Work-Life Balance

TTM has always been progressive in terms of flexi-working. Lorraine was given the opportunity to combine office-based work with working from her home in Offaly, then when her second child was born, she reduced her hours to 4.50 days.

“It’s never been an issue – the business supports how I need to work to manage my commitments. When I had my second child, I took 10 months maternity leave as I had leave accrued, and everyone was amazing. It can be quite scary coming back from maternity leave, and I think I had lost some confidence. But everyone was amazing and gave me the time and the space I needed to find my feet again and settle in. You just don’t get that level of support in many businesses…”

Lorraine believes so much of the understanding comes from the fact that the management team are all parents themselves and know how hectic life is:

“I wouldn’t have taken on the role of Business Manager if my bosses weren’t mums and dads doing it all too. Paula herself has two small boys – so she knows the flexibility we need to make it work. There’s no attitude if you need to take your child to the doctor. It’s more a case of ‘Go you! Multi-tasking and getting stuff done!’ It’s amazing to see such a high level of women in management roles: our leadership team is comprised of 53% women. Recruitment in the old days used to be such a male’s world – TTM has done so much to break this mould.”

Potential is Everything

Lorraine is keen to encourage the next generation of young recruiters to benefit from TTM’s commitment to ‘Realising Potential.’

“I’m a big believer in hiring rookies. In choosing people for their attitude, not necessarily their qualifications. If you can show you have the potential, we’ll take you on the journey with us and develop your skill set. It used to be that recruitment was work you did ‘in-between’ other jobs. Now it is a fully-fledged career in its own right, it has evolved so much.”

This is supported by the introduction of a BA Honours Degree in Recruitment Practice, offered by the ERF in conjunction with the National College of Ireland. New recruits at TTM can be offered the opportunity to enrol for the course – fully funded by TTM and combining four days working with one day study per week.

The bottom line? TTM is THE healthcare recruitment company that is serious about helping you build your career, keep climbing and realise your potential. Search our open roles today…