A Hull-area healthtech business believes the release of its new platform in January will create 100 new jobs in 2022, with expectations for its workforce to increase to more than 400 by 2024. Latus Health, a remotely-operating occupational health provider launched by two former professional rugby league players and their former Royal Marine brother, currently employs 85 people.

Plans are now in place to more than double in size in the next year to handle current booked work and an expanding pipeline. Discussions are underway for a new purpose-built base to facilitate online appointments, with client privacy at the heart - while the potential for clinicians to work from home will also aid scalability.

Jack Latus, Managing Director of the Melton business, said: “Our recruitment drive is a great example of how technology creates new jobs. Too often people fear that the development of tech will reduce the need for people, but it is usually the opposite. As we continue our mission to become the first and only fully remote occupational health and wellbeing company, we are on track to grow our clinical team to be 400 people strong by the start of 2024, at which point we will have the capacity to deliver 8,000 virtual health screening appointments per day.

“This is all thanks to the Connected Healthcare Platform software that we have developed, as it wouldn't be physically possible for us to deliver that many appointments on a daily basis otherwise.

“The technology allows us to help more people stay healthy and creates more jobs in the process, plus it’s a much more environmentally friendly way to deliver our services. It's a win-win-win situation.”

The majority of the new roles will be within the clinical team, including nurses and more than 50 health technicians. Latus will also recruit a team of 30 physiotherapists and rehab specialists to facilitate its expansion into that area of healthcare.

“The technician roles require no specific previous medical experience, as we run an intensive in-house training programme to train new starters,” Mr Latus said. “This includes all the certifications required to qualify as an occupational health technician. This role is perfect for recent graduates and those looking for an exciting career change.”

Clients include major Hull manufacturers, Groupe Atlantic, Swift and Willerby, but the footprint is ever-increasing, with acquisitions also made to supplement the core business.

Mr Latus said the greatly expanded team will provide the clinical service behind the company’s UK-wide online physiotherapy offering, while also seeking to capitalise on growth opportunities for the provision of physiotherapy on a local basis - complementing Latus Training gym in the city.

At present Latus only provides physiotherapy services as part of its occupational health offering to businesses across the UK. The aim is to improve access to physiotherapy through the platform, making it open and affordable to all.

The platform is also leading to the creation of more central support roles, including sales, marketing, finance, customer engagement, collaborations and partnerships managers.

Despite the difficult job market, Latus Health is confident in its ability to recruit at such high levels. People and culture manager Mike Sison said: “We are able to recruit with relative ease at the moment, whereas our competitors are struggling. We put this down to a combination of factors, but on the whole, people join Latus because they buy into our mission and what we are dedicated to achieving.

“Coming to work every day knowing that your contribution is helping people to be healthy and live better lives is a powerful motivator. We are a relatively young company with an ambitious vision, but now that people are starting to see the results of our hard work, the belief grows and it becomes this positive growth cycle.”

Latus recently appointed Hull-based creative marketing and PR agency Drunk Animal Creative Studio to provide wrap-around brand development and strategic marketing.

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 (Image: DA Creative Studio)