Creating Development Plans That Deliver for Your Legal Team

October 16, 2025

Ask any business leader in the Legal industry, and they’ll tell you it’s becoming a lot more difficult to keep teams fully staffed, engaged, and confident in their skills. Across industries, hiring is starting to feel more like plugging leaks than building momentum.

75% of employers say finding qualified people to fill roles is their biggest challenge. As technology evolves and skill gaps grow wider every year, it’s no wonder. New demands arrive faster than many teams can respond.

It’s common to spend months recruiting only to see another critical role open when someone leaves. That’s why strategic development planning has moved far beyond optional training budgets or nice-to-have perks. A clear, thoughtful growth plan is now one of the few tools that can help keep good people engaged and ready for what comes next.

Without it, there’s little chance of staying ahead of rapid change or keeping the Legal employees who care about staying productive and competitive. A future-ready workforce depends on a strong development plan.

The question is how you build one.

What Makes Development Plans Deliver

A development plan works best when everyone knows why it exists. It isn’t just a record of training courses. It’s a simple way to show how someone’s skills can grow in a direction that matters to them and the business.

Many plans fall short because they stay too general. They rely on the same list of goals for every role. Over time, people stop seeing the point. If a plan doesn’t connect to real work, it becomes a paperwork exercise. You need a cohesive strategy if you want your plan to deliver a competitive talent advantage. That starts with goals.

The SMART Goals Framework keeps things grounded. It drives companies to set specific, practical objectives that lead to measurable development outcomes. “Get better at data skills” doesn’t mean much. A stronger goal might be, “Finish a data analytics certification by October and use it to improve the next reporting cycle.”

It also helps to think about how learning happens. For most Legal employees, it doesn’t come from sitting in a classroom. The 70-20-10 model indicates that about 70% of skill development happens as a side effect of daily work. 20% comes from social interactions (coaching, mentoring, and peer conversations). Only about 10% comes from formal courses.

That balance might differ depending on your team, though. Some people want to learn with hands-on experiences; others need time to watch examples or walk through steps. Smaller, targeted lessons can also make learning feel manageable. Many Legal companies are moving toward microlearning, offering short videos or guides that employees can pull up when needed.

Whatever approach you take, make sure there’s alignment between individual aspirations and preferences, and organisational objectives.

The Strategic Development Planning Framework

A development plan is easier to build when there is a clear process behind it. Many Legal teams try to start with a list of training courses or generic goals. That approach rarely holds up over time. For measurable development outcomes, you need more clarity.

Here’s how to start:

Conduct a Skills Assessment & Gap Analysis

Any effective development plan starts with understanding the skills your teams already have. Competency mapping doesn’t have to be complicated. It can start with simple questions about the types of tasks employees handle well, and where projects slow down. You might consider what sector-specific capabilities will be more important tomorrow than yesterday.

Take a holistic view. Assessing technical Legal skills will be important, particularly as demand for certain things, like digital literacy, continues to grow. But remember to consider soft skills, leadership qualities, and transferable skills.

Think ahead and remember that some skills are becoming essential across all industries. AI proficiency, data analysis, and automation skills are becoming more relevant to all kinds of Legal employees. Will those be crucial to your team moving forward?

Explore the Four Types of Development Plans

Once you’ve mapped your skills gap, you can look at the bridges that might fit. Not every plan needs to look the same. Sometimes, you’ll be focused on improving employees’ skills in a specific Legal role. Other times, you’ll want to prepare staff to grow into new positions.

Consider a broad range of:

  • Skill-based plans strengthen the abilities a person uses most days.
  • Succession plans prepare someone to take over a crucial role for progress.
  • Management development plans help new leaders feel steady and clear about expectations.
  • Career transition plans support employees moving into a different part of the business.

Sometimes, your entire development plan will borrow elements from multiple different areas. What matters most is that your approach makes sense to you and your employees.

Define Your Resource Allocation Strategy

Strategic development planning can stall when resources feel limited. Many Legal companies set aside 2-5% of payroll for development, but there’s no ideal budget. Some organisations choose to spend a lot more. After all, certain studies have shown that learning and development has an average ROI of 353%.

If putting more into development helps you spend less on constant recruiting, high turnover, and work that keeps getting redone, it’s usually worth the investment. Learning and growth don’t just improve productivity. It also makes your company more appealing to candidates, keeps people engaged, and helps morale stay steady.

If your resources are limited, look at budget-conscious options:

  • Cross-training helps people build skills by learning directly from colleagues.
  • Mentoring connects senior and inexperienced employees for peer-to-peer learning.
  • Short online courses or microlearning tools can fit into busy schedules without much cost.

Technology is also changing what’s possible. Some teams use simple learning platforms to track progress. Others bring in AI-powered tools to suggest training options or measure results. These systems don’t need to be elaborated on to be helpful.

Remember Cultural Integration

The last piece is making sure development fits the way people already work. A plan that ignores culture can feel forced.

Remote and hybrid teams often need more flexibility. Different types of Legal staff members prefer varying approaches. Certain employees prefer to learn independently, while others need regular check-ins to stay engaged.

Development also means different things to different generations. Early-career employees may want to build credibility, while someone later in their career might focus on mentoring others.

Plans should reflect the fact that people learn and grow in different ways. They need to show their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. When employees see that development is set up to work for everyone, they’re more likely to take it seriously.

A plan that accommodates different needs and backgrounds feels more genuine. It shows that learning isn’t just an extra thing to do when there’s time; it’s part of how the team works.

Implementation Best Practices: From Plan to Performance

A Legal development plan can look amazing in a document, with clear goals, good intentions, and a timeline everyone can follow. But sometimes those plans fall apart because they don’t account for a careful launch, regular monitoring, and future growth.

Here’s how you can plan for success.

Develop a Clear Launch Strategy

How you introduce a plan is important. Without your team’s input, it shouldn’t feel like it was developed behind closed doors. When employees get to share what they need and what feels realistic, it’s easier to get real commitment.

It’s worth talking early about what success should look like, too. Be specific about who will be responsible for what, and what should happen month after month. Make sure everyone knows what resources are available to help.

Don’t overlook basic preparations, too. Setting up logins, ensuring reading materials are easily accessible, and even figuring out how to record milestones early can make a plan feel more structured.

Master Monitoring & Evaluation

It’s common to see plans lose momentum when nobody checks in. Without regular conversations, goals lose their meaning. Some Legal teams meet monthly to see how things are going. Others chat every couple of weeks, even just for ten minutes. What matters is that it happens.

Measuring progress doesn’t need a big system. A few questions work fine. Are new skills showing up in daily tasks? Are people more confident? Is turnover steady? These are the signals worth watching.

You can usually spot the impact if you look for it:

  • People stay longer because they feel their role has a future.
  • Projects finish faster with fewer mistakes.
  • More employees are ready to step into bigger jobs.
  • Teams can handle more complex work without needing outside help.
  • Surveys or informal chats show people feel supported.

Don’t wait for a formal review or exit interview to spot issues. A quick conversation can uncover small problems before they turn into big ones.

Commit to Continuous Improvement

The Legal industry, and your business will continue to change. Your development plans shouldn’t stay frozen in place. It helps to define moments when you’ll review what’s happening and decide whether it’s working for your team.

Be ready to adjust when a new project, a shift in priorities, or a change in employee aspirations arises. Keep communication fluid, too, focusing on regular feedback. Gathering insights from team members about what they would like to improve can help you optimise your training resources. Recognizing staff for their efforts keeps motivation high.

The last step is constantly documenting the lessons you’re learning as a business. When a team finishes a development cycle, pause and look back. What worked? What slowed things down? Collect those insights so the next plan feels easier to start and simpler to follow.

Turning Plans into Real Progress

There’s no perfect recipe for strategic development planning. What works for one Legal team might hold another back. Every organisation has its own mix of challenges, priorities, and learning preferences.

But one thing shows everywhere: people want to know their skills matter. They want to see that there’s a path forward, especially when everything around them feels uncertain.

A good development plan helps meet that need in a real way. It tells employees that growth isn’t something they have to figure out on their own.

Getting started doesn’t take a huge step; it just requires a clear goal, a conversation with your team members, and a small investment in the right resources.

If you’re unsure where to begin, don’t wait for the perfect moment or plan. The most important thing is to start somewhere. Even a simple, honest approach can go a long way if it stays connected to people’s daily work.

Finding the Best Healthcare Recruiter: The Simple Guide

October 9, 2025

Even when you’re eager to find the ideal Healthcare role fast, getting constant messages from recruiters can be stressful. Some are thoughtful and specific. Others look like they were copied to a hundred people at once. It’s hard to know which ones deserve your attention and which will end up wasting your time.

Finding a recruiter who genuinely cares about your goals makes a huge difference to your career. A good recruiter doesn’t just pass along job postings. They help you consider your wants and introduce you to roles you might never see. That matters when up to 4 in 5 jobs today are never advertised publicly.

Unfortunately, not every recruiter has your best interests in mind. Some focus only on hitting their placement targets, and others know enough about your sector.

You need to know what to look for and what to avoid, which we are sharing in this week’s post.

The Foundation: What Makes a Great Recruiter

A great recruiter isn’t just a middleman who fires off job descriptions. A truly reliable Healthcare recruiter acts as your guide – they’re honest with you, direct, supportive, and knowledgeable.

You can often start to see if you’ve found the right person. For one thing, a good recruiter listens. They’re not just nodding along while they look for keywords on your CV; they’re asking questions, diving deeper into your goals.

Instead of jumping straight to, “Can you start Monday?”, they might say, “What would a meaningful next step look like for you?” That’s not something you hear from everyone.

It also helps if they really know your industry. The best recruiters can talk through the state of the market without having to check a cheat sheet. If you’re in healthcare, they’ll understand the certifications and work environments that matter. That kind of industry knowledge is hard to fake.

Good recruiters are also clear communicators. They don’t keep you guessing. If a process usually takes six weeks, they’ll say so. If a promising role has challenges you must overcome, they’ll iron them out for you. Then, there’s how they treat the relationship.

The best Healthcare recruiters don’t vanish if a job doesn’t pan out. They’ll stay in touch, check in once in a while, maybe even send over information on a networking event or course that might be helpful. That tells you they see you as more than a slot to fill.

Communication Red Flags to Watch For

How a Healthcare recruiter communicates with you is a big factor. Not every initial message you get from someone looking to fill a job role is worth your trust. Not every recruiter bothers to stay transparent and accessible throughout your job search process.

First impressions matter with recruiters just as much as they do for candidates. If you notice any of the following, step back:

  • Messages feel copied and pasted: The message could have gone to fifty others. There is no mention of your work history or anything personal; it is just a bland pitch.
  • They can’t tell you why you’d be a fit: They don’t mention why they reached out to you or reference your credentials. When you ask why you’re right for the role, they give you a canned response.
  • The details are vague: You get a message about a generic Healthcare job – no reference to responsibilities, requirements, or anything.
  • They push you to act fast: Maybe they say you need to share your CV instantly to get a chance, or complete an online test without any background.
  • They disappear. You had a good conversation. Maybe send over your details, and then nothing. The recruiter seems to vanish into thin air.
  • They avoid your questions. You ask about the company’s culture or the salary range, and they either dodge or give you generic answers. You probably won’t get transparency later if they can’t be upfront.
  • They complain about other people. Maybe they talk down about other candidates or vent about clients. It’s unprofessional and usually means they won’t speak well of you either.
  • It’s all about their deadlines. You hear many “I need to fill this quickly” and not much about whether it aligns with what you want.

If you start to feel nervous because you’re not getting answers, or they’re applying a lot of pressure, it’s okay to back off. You don’t owe a recruiter your time or your personal details.

Questions You Should Always Ask

Ask a recruiter questions. You’re trusting them to talk to companies on your behalf, and that’s no small thing.

Here are some things worth asking when you first start talking.

  • “Why do you think this role fits me?” They should be able to tell you exactly why they reached out, not just say you have “a good experience.”
  • “What did you notice about my experience?” They probably don’t know anything about you if they can’t name anything specific. You might be a name on a list.
  • “How do you usually keep in touch?” Some recruiters will text or call every few days. Others might email now and then. It helps to know.
  • “What’s the culture like at this company?” See if they can tell you something concrete. They might share stories, examples, or information about the employer.
  • “How long does this process usually take?” They might not be able to tell you when you’ll get a job offer, but they can give you a basic timeline.
  • “Can you share a couple of references from folks you’ve placed? “Anyone doing this for a while will have people they can talk to.

Evaluating Recruiter Industry Knowledge and Approach

You can tell a lot about a recruiter by how much they understand your field. Some people will say they ‘specialise’ in an industry, but when you ask a few questions, they don’t know much beyond the job titles.

The best way to determine this is to listen to how they discuss your work and the market overall. Here’s what to look for.

Assessing expertise:

A good recruiter can discuss the Healthcare work itself with you. If you start describing what you do and they look confused, that’s a sign. You want someone who:

  • Knows the language of your industry, without getting confused.
  • Understands your role’s latest trends, challenges, and opportunities.
  • Can map out the standard career path for someone in your work.
  • Asks you about specific technical skills and competencies.

If you bring up a common concept in your industry and their eyes go blank, that probably means they’re not as much of a specialist as they say.

Professional approach indicators:

Beyond knowledge, please pay attention to how they handle the whole process of representing you. What they do before and after you talk will give you clues about their professionalism.

A Healthcare recruiter worth your time will:

  • Look into your background before calling you, so you don’t have to explain everything from scratch.
  • Show you multiple options, if possible, rather than pushing you hard toward a single role.
  • Share honest insights about salaries or benchmarks in your role.
  • Give you direct feedback you can use, whether you move forward with the position or not.
  • Stay friendly, while being professional, clear, and straightforward.

Some recruiters will also share advice you didn’t even think to ask for, like how to highlight certain parts of your experience or what to expect in an interview.

Building Productive Long-term Relationships

Once you find a recruiter who feels like a good fit, you must consider how to keep that relationship strong over time. The best connections aren’t just about landing one job. They’re about having someone you can call years down the road when you’re ready for a new step.

Here are a few things you can do to build that rapport:

  • Be honest about what you want: If you’re still figuring out your Healthcare career roadmap, that’s fine – but say so. If you have dealbreakers and priorities already, share them early.
  • Give feedback: If they share a role with you that isn’t right, don’t just ignore them; let them know. Tell them when an interview didn’t go well or a culture didn’t feel like the right match. It helps them help you.
  • Stay in touch: Even if you take a job, check in sometimes. This is just a quick update to keep the connection going.
  • Refer people you trust: If you know someone who’s looking, pass along their name. Recruiters remember when you help them out.
  • Show appreciation: We all appreciate a little gratitude. Thank them if your recruiter helped you find the Healthcare role of your dreams.

Remember, the relationship you build here can be an amazing asset. You’ll have someone who knows what matters to you and can spot the right job when it comes along.

Choosing the Right Partner for Your Career

Choosing a recruiter isn’t something you have to rush. You have more control than you might think. The best recruiters won’t just find you a job; they’ll help you navigate your career.

You deserve a Healthcare recruiter who can give clear answers, honest advice, and respect your time. Don’t settle for anyone who treats you like another number or CV. Trust your gut when something is wrong, ask questions, and take your time.

The right recruiter will stand out because they’ll treat your goals like they matter and go above and beyond to help you achieve them.

How to Handle Underperformers in Your Office and Commercial Team

October 2, 2025

Underperformance in an Office and Commercial team isn’t always immediately obvious, but the side effects are inevitably painful. Whether you’re dealing with a few missed deadlines, the occasional delayed project, or a series of complaints from clients, eventually, you’ll realise something needs to change. That’s an uncomfortable thing for business leaders to recognise.

Approaching an underperforming employee can be stressful and tricky. You don’t necessarily want to convince them to leave, particularly now that 75% of companies struggle to find talent. But you can’t afford to let their potential deteriorate any further either.

Ultimately, you need a plan for employee performance management that gets staff back on track, maintains morale, and tackles performance issues simultaneously.

Understanding Underperformance in 2025

Underperformance in the Office and Commercial workplace shows up in different ways. Sometimes, it’s obvious that people are failing to meet KPIs, upsetting customers, or having ongoing quality issues. Other times, it’s more subtle: employees gradually ignore policies, miss more deadlines, or create a negative atmosphere. It’s easy to assume these things happen because team members stop trying.

Sometimes, that’s the case; 77% of employees are disengaged at work, leading to diminishing motivation, poor productivity, and even quiet quitting.

The root cause of underperformance is usually more complicated. Skill gaps are increasingly contributing to performance issues. The World Economic Forum says most hard skills only stay current for about five years now. That’s not long. Many people end up in jobs where what they knew last year isn’t enough anymore.

Another issue is clarity. Are expectations clear? Has someone explained what good looks like in detail? People might assume they’re hitting objectives when they aren’t.

Then there’s the question of resources. Even strong Office and Commercial employees will struggle if they don’t have the right tools or enough time. Rapid growth, the introduction of new tools, or hybrid work can leave gaps that no one notices at first.

Legal and Compliance Framework

When performance problems arise, focusing only on business needs makes fixing the problem before profits dip critical. But how you approach workplace performance issues needs to be governed by fairness and the rules of employment law.

In most places, you’re required to ensure employees understand what’s expected of them, provide feedback, and give them the tools and development to improve.

If you fire an Office and Commercial employee and they challenge you, you’ll need evidence that the dismissal was fair. That’s particularly crucial if the underperformance issue could be connected to a protected characteristic like a health condition, disability, or age.

Modern Awards or Enterprise Agreements add complexity, setting minimum entitlements, notice periods, and procedure requirements. When you’re planning how to handle underperformers, make sure you:

  • Keep clear records. Note what standards apply to the role, when feedback was given, what support was offered, and how progress was tracked.
  • Involve HR early. A fair, steady process is easier to defend and often leads to better results. If HR doesn’t have the answers, speak to an employment law expert.
  • Allow enough time. Most improvement plans last 30 to 90 days, depending on what’s needed. Create a policy and stick to it unless employment laws change.

The DIRECT Performance Management Framework

Managing underperforming staff is always easier when you have a structure to follow. The DIRECT framework offers that, breaking the process down into six steps. Here’s how it works:

D: Diagnose the Issue

Start by reviewing exactly what’s happening. That means looking beyond assumptions. Pull together data, performance reports, client feedback, and examples of missed deadlines. Be specific. A vague impression that someone is “just not engaged” won’t help you or them.

Also consider what else might be driving the problem.

Are they skills?

Resources?

Something personal?

Separate the symptoms from the real cause.

I: Initiate Constructive Conversation

Once you’ve gathered the facts, sit down privately. This isn’t a time for blame. The tone you set here will shape everything that comes next. Use simple, neutral language: “I’ve noticed your reports have come in late the past two months. Can we talk about what’s getting in the way?”

Listen to your Office and Commercial employee carefully. You need to hear their perspective so you can realistically determine if there’s something you can fix.

R: Develop Response Strategy

After the first discussion, work together on a plan. Make it concrete. Just telling your Office and Commercial team member to “do better” won’t help anyone. Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals together.

Also, identify what support they’ll need. Maybe extra training, clearer instructions, or a mentor to check in. Agree on a timeline for review.

E: Execute a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

Write it all down. A formal Performance Improvement Plan is a roadmap for you and your employee. It should include:

  • The performance issues are stated plainly.
  • The improvement goals.
  • The timeframe (often 30–90 days).
  • The support you’ll provide.
  • What happens if there’s no progress?

Schedule check-ups, either weekly or fortnightly. Don’t make the meetings feel like interrogations. There should be a chance to determine what’s working and what isn’t.

C: Continuous Monitoring and Adjustment

Performance improvement plans need to be adaptable. Don’t set them aside and forget about them. Keep tracking progress. Celebrate with your employees when things improve; recognition can help maintain momentum. If something goes wrong, invite your Office and Commercial team member for another meeting and try to figure out how to adjust together.

This is a good time to update your notes, too. Documenting each check-in will help you remember details and demonstrate that you handled everything fairly.

T: Terminate or Transition (if necessary)

If you’ve given your Office and Commercial employee the best possible chance to improve and you’re still not seeing progress, you need to decide what’s next. That might mean ending employment or shifting them to a better-fitting role.

Before making the choice, review everything. Are you confident that you’ve been fair throughout the process? Is the documentation solid? Do you need to seek extra feedback from HR?

If termination really is the only next step, handle it with compassion. Be clear, calm, and professional, and offer an exit interview so you can learn more about what went wrong.

Alternative Interventions and Support Strategies

Remember, a performance improvement plan doesn’t have to be a starting point. Sometimes, you don’t need something that formal right away. If you think the issue your Office and Commercial team member is having comes from a skill gap, implement a training plan.

A short course or a bit of extra practice often does more than a warning ever could. Mentoring works, too. Pair someone with a colleague who knows the ropes. It gives them someone to ask, and it makes them feel less alone.

Look at the role itself. Maybe part of the job doesn’t fit their strengths. Swapping a few tasks can help them feel more confident.

Be open to flexibility. If your staff is dealing with health issues or family issues, consider lighter hours or different shifts for a while. That compassion could pay off through more engagement, dedication, and motivation from your staff.

Simple tools help more than people expect. Better templates, clear checklists, and automatic reminders can reduce mistakes.

Building a Fair and Supportive Performance Culture

Underperformance is rarely a simple problem to solve. It’s usually not a result of someone just not caring anymore. The issue can have numerous causes, from skills that need updating to unclear expectations or personal stress.

With that in mind, don’t approach employee performance management as a one-size-fits-all process. Commit to getting to the root cause of the problem first. Start having conversations with your employees before the issue compounds and frustration builds.

Be clear about what you expect but listen carefully to what might get in the way. Remember, documentation is part of protecting everyone. It shows you’ve acted fairly and given the person a real chance to improve. It also helps keep decisions consistent across your team.

Even if performance doesn’t recover, a structured, respectful process helps reduce risk and leaves the person feeling decently treated. Over time, this approach strengthens trust and culture.

Building Team Resilience: How to Create Stability When Economic Signals Are Mixed

September 11, 2025

If you’ve felt like the economic signals this year are sending mixed messages, you’re not alone. Global growth is forecast to slow to just 2.3% in 2025. At the same time, the Economic Policy Uncertainty Index just hit its highest mark this century.

This uncertainty leads to tension inside the Office and Commercial workplace, as teams start to ask questions.

  • Is the company okay?
  • Is my job stable?
  • What does this mean for me?

No wonder `resilience’ has become the year’s buzzword. In 2024, the use of that word among Fortune 500 companies shot up by 200% in earnings calls. But just because business leaders are prioritising resilience, it doesn’t mean they’re feeling it. Around 84% of companies don’t feel equipped to deal with the uncertainty they face.

The truth is, building team resilience isn’t just about surviving economic confusion. It’s about unlocking long-term stability and a competitive advantage by investing in people, transparency, and leadership that leads with heart.

Understanding Team Resilience in an Economic Context

Team resilience in the Office and Commercial industry isn’t just about bouncing back. It’s about bouncing forward. It’s that rare ability to meet uncertainty with clarity, regulate stress in healthy ways, and move from “What now?” to “Here’s what we’ll do.”

The benefits of that shift are massive. According to Harvard Business Review, companies with resilient cultures outperform their peers by 8% in productivity gains during economic slowdowns. But achieving true resilience is getting tougher in today’s financial landscape.

Inflation still looms. Banks are being cautious and restricting lending criteria. Global trade is rocky. Plus, we’re watching an enormous workforce transformation unfold. By 2030, an estimated 92 million jobs could be displaced by AI and automation (though 170 million new ones will be created).

Most teams aren’t prepared. Only 23% of employees feel equipped with resilience and adaptability skills, according to research by McKinsey.

So, what’s holding organisations back?

Often, this is the default to short-term thinking: a stress management workshop here, a one-off change management meeting there. But resilience doesn’t work like that. If we want Office and Commercial teams to endure change and thrive through it, we need to start designing for adaptability, not just stability.

Leadership Communication as the Foundation

When things feel shaky, in the market, across the industry, or just inside your business, it’s natural for Office and Commercial leaders to hold back. You might think, “I’ll wait until I have the full picture before I say anything.”

But here’s the thing: people often imagine the worst without communication because silence isn’t neutral: It’s unsettling.

In the absence of information, people don’t assume the best. They fill in the blanks, which rarely end with, “Everything’s going great!”

Silence doesn’t calm anyone; it creates a vacuum. And in uncertain times, that vacuum gets filled with anxiety and speculation. Uncertainty doesn’t require perfect answers. What it needs is presence. A steady voice.

That means saying, “Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t. And here’s what we’re trying to do about it.” That kind of honesty builds trust and confidence.

McKinsey says employees who feel their company is transparent are 12 times more satisfied in their roles.

Of course, communication isn’t just about updates; it’s also about listening. Some of the most powerful words an Office and Commercial leader can say are, “What do you think?” Inviting people to share their ideas and concerns tells them they matter.

Surprisingly, you might uncover a solution you haven’t thought of yet.

Then there’s how you show up. Leaders set the emotional temperature in any workplace. Calm, candid, and compassionate leaders make a difference. When people see their leaders handling pressure with composure, they feel more equipped to do the same.

Finally, great communication needs rhythm and structure. That might mean monthly town halls (virtual or in-person), weekly email updates, or quick Slack check-ins that keep people connected and informed. What matters most is that people hear from you regularly, not just during a crisis.

Employee Wellbeing and Psychological Safety

When the outside world feels unstable, your Office and Commercial workplace need to feel like solid ground. That means creating a culture where people feel safe, supported, and genuinely cared for as human beings, not just employees.

Resilience thrives in Office and Commercial workplaces where teams can ask questions, admit mistakes, and speak up without fear. That’s psychological safety.

You can build it by keeping feedback flowing, making room for honest conversations, and treating mistakes as learning opportunities. When leaders model vulnerability and celebrate contributions, big or small, it sends a powerful message: you belong here.

Supporting Mental Health, Every Day

Mental health is now a central part of performance and retention. Studies show stress and burnout are still among the top reasons people leave jobs.

The good news? Support systems make a difference. Confidential counselling through Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), trained managers who can spot signs of distress, and a genuine respect for work-life balance go a long way.

Wellness programs don’t have to be complicated or expensive; they need to be relevant.  Explore flexible schedules, wellness challenges, meditation apps, and healthy food options. It’s about showing your team that their health matters, not just their output.

The most successful wellbeing programs listen and adapt. Run regular pulse checks. Watch for signs like rising absenteeism or turnover. Most importantly, ask your people how they’re doing, then act on what you hear.

Skills Development and Adaptability

The pace of change right now is insane. Every Office and Commercial company are exploring new tools, shifting markets, and evolving role requirements. What worked three months ago might be outdated today. That’s what makes development such a crucial part of resilience.

Here’s something we know for sure: people want to grow. A growing number of employees are actively asking for more learning opportunities. It is formal training and real skill-building that feels useful, timely, and empowering. Explore:

  • Workshops that help people stay ahead of industry shifts or master new technologies.
  • Mentorship that connects junior talent with more experienced voices, not just for knowledge sharing but also for confidence-building.
  • Flexible access to online learning platforms so that people can learn in the flow of their day, not despite it.

It’s not about turning everyone into a tech expert overnight. It’s about creating a culture where learning is normal, expected, and fun.

Making Adaptability a Core Skill

Adaptability helps people adjust quickly, think creatively, and stay grounded even when things get unpredictable.

Organisations that invest in adaptability see real results: smoother change management, smarter decision-making, and fewer people feeling overwhelmed when plans shift. Here’s how you build adaptable teams:

  • Give people a chance to step outside their silos. Let them join cross-functional projects, try new roles, or shadow a different team for a week.
  • Reward curiosity. Create space for experimenting, asking questions, and failing sometimes. That’s where growth lives.
  • Ensure people have the tools and time to develop new skills. (Stretching without support leads to burnout, not growth.)

Technology Integration

Technology sometimes gets a bad rap; many think it’s out to replace people. But the right tech, used correctly, can improve people’s jobs.

Automation can free up time to focus on meaningful work. Smart tools can help teams stay aligned, make faster decisions, and spot problems early. But the rollout has to be thoughtful.

That means:

  • Training, not just announcements. People need to feel confident, not confused.
  • Choosing intuitive tools that solve a problem, not just shiny new software.
  • Encouraging input from the people who’ll use the tech every day. They know what works (and what doesn’t).

When teams are trained and empowered, technology becomes less intimidating and much more exciting.

Measuring and Monitoring Resilience

Resilience might feel like a `soft’ trait, something you see in your Office and Commercial team’s attitude or energy, rather than on a spreadsheet, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be measured. And if you want to strengthen it, you need to know where you’re starting from and how you’re progressing.

Here’s what you can track:

  • Engagement scores: If people are staying connected, contributing, and showing up with energy, that’s a strong sign your culture is holding.
  • Turnover during tough times: Are people choosing to stay even when things get hard? If so, you’ve built something they trust.
  • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): How fast can your team get back on track after a disruption? The quicker the bounce-back, the stronger the system.
  • Adaptation speed: How long can people get comfortable with a new process or platform after it is rolled out?
  • Innovation metrics: Are employees offering ideas? Are you tracking how often they’re implemented? Innovation is a powerful proxy for psychological safety and trust.

Remember, keep the pulse, not just the score. Behind every number is a person; if you want the full picture, you must listen and measure.

Run quarterly resilience reviews, where you take time to reflect as a team on what makes people feel supported or overwhelmed. Hold post-crisis debriefs, where everyone gets involved, and invest in ongoing feedback loops that keep communication strong.

Bouncing Forward, Not Just Back

The word `resilience’ gets thrown around a lot, but building resilience in the Office and Commercial industry isn’t just about enduring hardship. It’s about learning from it. Growing through it, and using it to create a more stable, human, and future-ready foundation.

Moving forward, the most resilient businesses will lead with clarity, invest in adaptability, and put their people first. They’ll communicate openly, respond swiftly, and support their teams in weathering storms and finding their way through them.

Start with transparent communication, build psychological safety, embed learning into the culture, not just the calendar, measure what matters, and, most importantly, treat resilience not as a core business strategy.

Because the economy may be unpredictable, but your culture doesn’t have to be.

How To Move to a New Role Before The End of This Year

August 29, 2025

A common belief (or myth) is that at a certain point in the year, companies stop hiring. Sometimes they do, but in many cases, the opposite happens.

Here is the truth.

Teams have open roles they need to fill. Budgets must be used, as hiring managers don’t want to start the next quarter short-staffed.

Logically, this is a smart time for candidates to make a move, especially when they’re not switching industries but looking for something new within the field they already know.

It’s easy to tell yourself there’s not enough runway left in the year, and it is better to wait until January. In reality, waiting might mean missing the quietest moment in the hiring cycle, when fewer candidates are applying, but roles still need to be filled.

Right now, another shift is happening. More companies hire based on skills and outcomes rather than ticking boxes on a CV. That means experience matters, and not always in the way it used to. If you’ve been in a job for a while and know you’re ready for a different challenge, there’s room to move before the year ends.

Here is where to start.

Assess Your Current Position & Define Your Target

You don’t have to do a full career reset to make a change. Sometimes it’s more about refining than reinventing. Think about your current role. What parts of your day do you enjoy most? Where do you feel your energy is being drained?

Consider your skills, not just what you have qualifications for, but what you do well.

Once you have a clear idea of your abilities and priorities, start narrowing down where you want to go. Look at a handful of job descriptions in your sector that catch your eye, even if they feel slightly out of reach. You’re not applying yet. You’re collecting patterns.

What do those roles seem to expect? What’s already familiar? What’s new, but learnable? You’re not trying to tick every box. You’re trying to see the shape of the move.

Remember that if money is the main reason for moving, first check if your salary is below market rate, and if all else is fine with your current employer, ask for a pay increase.

If that is unsuccessful, then move to stage two. Do some early research. Look at public salary ranges. Browse live listings. If you have a recruiter you trust, check in with them.

Make sure you have something to fall back on, too, a financial buffer you can rely on while you wait for the right role to come your way.

Leverage the Skills-Based Hiring Shift

One of the more useful changes in hiring right now is that job titles don’t carry as much weight as they used to. Employers are paying closer attention to what people can do, not just where they’ve worked or what their CV/Resume says on the first line.

Some reports suggest that around 81% of companies have shifted to skills-based hiring. That transition is an opportunity, if you know how to use it.

Suppose you’ve been working in your sector for a while. In that case, you’ve probably built up a mix of practical skills, problem-solving instincts, and lived experience that doesn’t always show up cleanly on a CV/Resume, in a more traditional hiring model, that might’ve worked against you. It’s more likely to count in your favour, especially if you know how to present it.

  • Get clear on what transfers: A good place to start is with the last six to twelve months of your work. Think about a few projects or problems you’ve handled, and write down the core skills that made a difference. Communication, decision-making, and time management are broad and transferable skills.
  • Show it where it counts: Once you know your core skills, the next step is weaving them into the places where recruiters and employers look. Start with your LinkedIn headline. Add a short phrase or two about what you’re good at, not just your job title. Something real. “Operations manager focused on clarity and follow-through.” “Product marketer with a bias for clear messaging.”
  • Prepare for a new interview: Companies hiring for skills ask different interview questions. Behavioural questions “tell me about a time…” are common. Prepare for these with a few STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories that share real examples of your value.

Working With Recruiters

You don’t have to go through a job move alone. If you’ve never worked with a recruiter before, it’s easy to assume they only call when you’re not looking for work or only focus on senior roles. But if you find someone who knows your sector and gives them something clear to work with, they can help you find opportunities faster than you ever could.

Look for a focused recruiter that understands what you need. Find out if they have a strong track record in your industry, read online reviews and case studies, and ask questions.

Once you start communicating, be clear and honest about what you want, your timeline, and where you’re flexible. Build and maintain that relationship when you find a recruiter who works with you. Respond when they reach out (even if you’re not looking for work anymore), provide honest feedback, and keep them updated on any changes to your situation.

Apply Smart, Interview Strong

The hardest part of a job search isn’t usually the work. It’s the uncertainty. You send out an application and hear nothing. You get an interview and then wait weeks. Sometimes you make it to the final round and don’t get the offer.

That’s the cycle. For most people, it’s frustrating, even when it’s expected. The way to get through it is to focus on the parts you can control.

Start with your applications. You don’t need to rewrite your CV every time. Just pay attention to the role. Ask yourself: what’s this job actually about? If your experience overlaps, make sure that’s easy to spot. Use the same language where it fits. Cut anything that doesn’t speak to the work.

Cover letters don’t need to be long, though they do need to be relevant. Two short paragraphs. Why this role, why now, and what you bring that’s relevant.

When interviews come around, rehearse and remember that people want to know what working with you is like. Can you explain what you do? Can you talk through how you solve problems? Are you someone they’d trust to follow through?

Pick a few moments from your recent work, where you figured something out, or made something better. You don’t need a script. Just have them in your head. So, when someone asks, “Can you give me an example?” you already have one.

Your Year-End Job Search Timeline

A solid timeline is important, particularly if you want to switch roles by the end of the year. A good strategy is to plan out a 90-day sprint, focusing on tasks to do month by month.

Month 1: The Basics

Get your CV in good shape. Then, update your LinkedIn so it reflects what you actually do, not just your title.

Start looking into recruiters who can help you find opportunities you might miss. Ask them questions about their process. Request feedback from these experts on how to make yourself more appealing to employers.

Next, set up a few alerts. Use job boards you trust, whatever’s most active in your field. Keep the filters tight enough to be useful but not so narrow that you miss something close enough to consider.

Month 2: Active Applying

Apply to roles that feel like a real match. Close enough that you can write a genuine cover message or tailor your CV without forcing it. Even three or four focused applications a week is enough, as long as they’re targeted.

Month 3: Follow through

By the third month, a few things might be happening at once. Maybe you’ve had a couple of interviews. Perhaps you’re in final conversations. Maybe it’s quieter than you’d like.

That silence can be hard, especially if you’ve put time into it. But it’s common. Hiring managers get busy. Budgets stall. Teams pause decisions. None of that has much to do with you.

What helps is staying in motion. This could mean sending a short follow-up message after an interview, checking in with a recruiter, or reaching out to someone you spoke with earlier in the process.

Don’t Put Your Future On Hold

Most people wait until January to make a move. They tell themselves they’ll start fresh once things quiet down. The truth is, by the time they get going, the best roles are already filled, and the momentum is gone.

Now is a good time if you’re thinking about a change. The hiring market hasn’t stopped. Managers still have teams to build and roles to close. There’s less noise this time of year, which makes it easier to be seen.

You don’t need a perfect plan. Just a clear one. Something steady enough to keep you moving, even when the process feels slow. Making a move doesn’t require a new year. Just a decision.

Addressing Employment Gaps: Strategies for Explaining Breaks in Your Career

August 21, 2025

If you’re taking the next step in your Healthcare career this year, and you’re already aware of a glaring gap in your employment history, don’t panic. You’re not alone and probably not at as much of a disadvantage as you’d think. Realistically, career timeline breaks are very common.

Around 62% of employees say they’ve had a gap at some point in their career. Sometimes gaps result from personal circumstances, health issues, or deciding to dive back into your education. Other times, they’re a side-effect of something you can’t control, like the pandemic, or a change in your company’s hiring strategy.

It’s natural to feel anxious about “explaining” these gaps to your next employer, particularly when the current job market is so competitive. But with the right preparation, discussing an employment gap doesn’t have to feel like revealing a shameful secret. Sometimes, your story can make you more compelling to a potential employer.

Here’s how you can confidently ensure you’re ready to explain breaks in your career.

The Job Market Reality: Gaps Are Commonplace

The traditional “linear” career path is becoming somewhat outdated. Today’s Healthcare employees don’t always progress steadily from one role to another. Most people have career moments when they need to pause, pivot, or change something.

Career timeline breaks are now standard due to shifting priorities, unexpected life changes, or the need to regroup.

It’s not because people today are lazy, but because their lives and priorities don’t always follow a tidy path. The good news is that most employers understand. They’re increasingly open to hearing career pause explanations that are open, honest, or backed by a specific purpose.

However, some business leaders expect a more “in-depth” explanation than others. In certain industries, particularly where hiring cycles are extending, you might need to explain yourself repeatedly. Still, they will likely listen if you present your story with confidence, clarity, and a sense of growth.

The Types of Employment Gaps and Their Specific Challenges

Employment gaps in the Healthcare industry happen for many different reasons. The reason behind your break shapes how you talk about it, and understanding that from the start can help you feel more confident and less stuck. For instance:

Family-Related Gaps (Like Parental Leave Or Caregiving):

You might worry that employers will question your availability or commitment, but don’t overlook what you have gained. During these gaps, you may have gained empathy, learned how to stay organised under pressure, and mastered navigating emotional situations.

Health-Related Gaps (For Yourself Or Someone Else):

Gaps related to health can be difficult to talk about. You don’t necessarily have to share personal details if you have to take time out to focus on your wellbeing (or your family). Focus on the fact that you’re ready to re-engage in the Healthcare workplace. Sometimes, you might also be able to draw attention to how the experience made you more resilient or motivated.

Education Or Retraining Gaps:

This is one of the easiest types of career break explanations to frame. Upskilling shows initiative. Make sure you link what you’ve learned to the job you’re now pursuing. If you’ve switched industries or roles, you can highlight how you had to step back, reorient, and develop new skills to ensure you were ready for the next stage in your career.

Voluntary Breaks

Taking a break for yourself doesn’t make you less committed. It can lead to renewed energy and perspective. If you gained life experience, worked on a personal project, or just recharged, talk about what that gave you, not just what you stepped away from.

Layoffs and Economic Downturns

These are more common than ever, especially post-pandemic. What matters is how you used the time. Did you network, consult, take a course, or explore new roles? Share that. Employers respect candidates who take setbacks and stay proactive.

Pre-Interview Strategies: Addressing Gaps on Your CV

If you’re worried about explaining employment gaps, remember you don’t necessarily have to wait until you’re face-to-face with an interviewer to address the issue. Your resume, cover letter, and even your employer brand online can clarify your career story.

Updating Your Resume and Cover Letter

The first step is updating your CV to reduce the focus on your career gaps. If you’ve had multiple career timeline breaks, consider a skills-based or functional format. That way, you can focus on what you can do and what you’ve achieved rather than “when” you did certain things.

If you need to follow a chronological layout, try mentioning the years when you accomplished certain things rather than exact dates. It’s also worth highlighting your proactive work during those Healthcare career gaps.

Maybe you completed a certification online, volunteered for a local community group, or did some freelance work part-time. Combine your updated resume with an effective cover letter.

You can acknowledge the gap in your cover letter, briefly explain its reasoning, and then focus on what you gained. Finally, explain why you’re excited and ready to explore the new opportunity.

Optimising Your Online Brand

Most companies will check your online profiles when considering you for a role, as well as your CV and cover letter. Usually, that means tracking down your LinkedIn account. The good news is that LinkedIn allows you to add career pauses (with reasons) to your profile.

You can label the break (e.g., “Parental Leave,” “Career Transition,” “Professional Development”) and include a short description.

However, you choose to label your breaks, make sure your message is consistent across platforms. If an employer sees a professional gap on LinkedIn that is explained differently in your resume, it can raise unnecessary questions.

Think About the Applicant Tracking Systems

Most employers use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to filter CVs before a human sees them. These systems can flag unexplained CV/resume employment history gaps, so prepare accordingly:

  • Use keywords from the job description
  • Fill in the gap periods with anything relevant, learning, volunteering, or consulting
  • Avoid large blank spots with no explanation at all

A well-structured resume helps you pass the first round and sets the stage for a more confident conversation later.

Discussing Gaps Confidently During an Interview

Interviews are often stressful enough without the added worry of having to explain your career timeline break. But you don’t need to dread the question. All you need to do is ensure you’re prepared to explain your story confidently.

Prepare a Clear, Honest Explanation

Reflect on your employment gap before entering an interview (or logging in to one). What was happening during that time? What did you learn? How did you grow?

You don’t need to go in with a defensive mindset. Instead, think about how you can give the interviewer a clear, honest insight into what’s happened throughout your career.

Don’t avoid the question; explain yourself clearly and honestly. The PAR method can help with this (Problem, Action, Result):

  • Problem: Briefly state the reason for your gap.
  • Action: Explain what you did then, the skills gained, courses taken, and personal development you achieved.
  • Result: Discuss how you’re better prepared and ready for this new Healthcare role.

Emphasize Transferable Skills and Current Value

Whatever the reason behind your Healthcare career break, there’s a good chance you picked up some valuable skills. They may not be obvious technical skills, like new data analysis abilities or a new certification. However, they could still be worthwhile.

You might have learned how to communicate more effectively when travelling worldwide. Maybe you became more resilient and emotionally intelligent when caring with a sick family member. Perhaps you learned how to manage your time more effectively.

Draw attention to the transferrable skills that make you a great choice for your chosen role. Pivot back to the present whenever possible, too, talking about the relevant experience you already gained in other roles or all the new abilities you have to bring to the table after a period of learning.

Tackle Concerns Head-On

There’s a chance that your Healthcare interviewer might have some concerns about your gap, particularly if you’ve been out of the industry for a while. They may worry that your skills have become outdated or you’re unaware of the latest industry changes.

Address those concerns directly. Talk about what you’ve done to stay current, whether taking online courses, updating your certifications, or attending industry events. Maybe you’re following relevant thought leaders online or networking with professional peers.

You could even do some pre-interview homework to be extra prepared. Please read about the topics affecting your industry online and be ready to share your thoughts and opinions. That shows your future employer that you’re staying proactive.

Turning Career Gaps into Strengths

One of the best things you can do now is stop thinking of your employment gap as a setback. If you view it as a black mark on your CV, you will also present the wrong perspective to interviewers.

The key to success is reframing the narrative. Look at your professional gap not just as time away from work, but as a valuable chapter of your life. Find ways to:

  • Introduce New Skills: Highlight all the skills you’ve developed, from technical skills to soft skills like agility, resilience, or just strong communication skills.
  • Show Proactivity: Reassure future employers that you weren’t just sitting back and relaxing during your break. Discuss how you explored volunteering opportunities, took online courses, built your network, or worked on yourself.
  • Connect to Company Values: Show how your growth during your break aligns perfectly with the company’s mission. For instance, volunteering for your local community could resonate with a company focused on positive impact.
  • Show Clarity: Sometimes, stepping back from work helps you see the bigger picture clearly. If you used that time to reassess where you want to be and confirm your priorities, share that with your potential Healthcare employer.
  • Demonstrate Commitment to Growth: Even if you fell behind on training during your gap, show your potential employer that you’re keen to learn and grow now. Tell them about how you’re seeking out new courses, mentoring opportunities, and development strategies.

Address your employment gap from a positive, confident perspective, and it’s much less likely to drive potential job offers out of your hands.

Embracing Your Complete Career Story

Explaining gaps in your employment can feel daunting. You don’t want your future employer to overlook you because your career path hasn’t been linear.

Fortunately, most Healthcare employers now expect to interview candidates with career gaps. They’re not opposed to hiring people with breaks in their employment. They want you to explain the situation clearly, highlight what you gained from it, and show them that you’re ready for the next stage in your growth.

Your career journey, including its pauses, reflects your resilience and adaptability. Embrace your complete story confidently and let it propel you toward new opportunities.

The Return-to-Office Dilemma: Balancing Company Needs and Talent Expectations

August 14, 2025

The Office and Commercial workplace is still in flux. The initial scramble to implement remote work policies during the pandemic has diminished, but now there are deeper decisions to make. How do companies balance business needs with an ongoing employee demand for flexibility?

83% of employees worldwide still want hybrid work. They’ve tasted flexibility and autonomy, and they want more. At the same time, companies are worried about maintaining collaboration, productivity, and company culture in the age of hybrid work.

There’s no easy solution.

Finding the right strategy is equally complex worldwide, as candidates continue to prioritise flexibility and work-life balance.

Ultimately, if you want to attract and retain the right talent in 2025, you’ll need to quickly develop your RTO roadmap.

The Current Landscape: Flexibility Everywhere

The Office and Commercial workplace today has changed dramatically. Once, remote and hybrid work was just an emergency response to a complex situation; now, it’s what talented candidates expect.

Of course, hybrid maturity varies worldwide.

In the UK, about 28% of adults follow a hybrid schedule. In the US, more than 50% of employees are hybrid workers. According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, 37% of Australians worked from home at least once a week throughout 2023, a significant increase from the pre-pandemic level of just 13% of full-time workers.

Adoption is even higher among knowledge-based professionals, with 96% of Australian knowledge-based workers working hybrid or fully remote and 69% of employers now offering hybrid work arrangements.

The main reason for the shift is a change in candidate priorities. Employees don’t just want a wage anymore; they want to work with companies that don’t treat their health, well-being, or personal priorities as an afterthought.

However, while empowering, hybrid models can be complex. Flexibility is liberating for some employees, while others struggle to find a balance between their work and home lives. At the same time, leaders struggle to preserve the benefits of in-person collaboration in a hybrid setting.

The Business Case for the Office Return

On the surface, the demand for hybrid work seems great for businesses. They benefit from happier employees who suffer less burnout and feel more engaged. Plus, many companies have found that hybrid work can reduce operational costs at scale.

However, hybrid work also has challenges.

Although teams embrace technology to help bridge communication gaps, collaboration still thrives in the office. A Stanford University study even found that teams working in physical offices generate 15% more ideas than remote workers.

When Office and Commercial employees share a physical space, interactions are more organic and dynamic. Quick hallway chats turn into game-changing ideas, and a junior employee gains invaluable mentorship by brainstorming with a seasoned professional.

Equity among team members can also improve. Many leaders struggle to give remote workers the attention they offer in-person staff. Proximity bias can be a real problem, particularly for companies with larger teams.

However, it’s not just human connections and company culture that benefit from RTO mandates. Physical spaces cost money. Globally, companies spend billions on real estate, furniture, utilities, and infrastructure annually. These spaces weren’t designed to house people; they were built to enable focus, collaboration, and innovation. Walking away from those investments is difficult, particularly when budgets are tight.

The Talent Perspective: Shifting Priorities

From the perspective of Office and Commercial employees, things that used to be considered perks (flexible hours, remote options, and autonomy) are now crucial. A Guardian global survey found that work-life balance is the most important factor for any employee choosing a role, even ranking higher than salary.

Demand for flexibility is even higher among certain cohorts. Millennials and Generation Z employees crave mental wellbeing, meaning, and freedom in their roles. They want to design professions that work for them, rather than just accepting jobs that pay the bills.

Burnout is rampant, and candidates view companies that offer flexible and remote work options as more willing to actively support their mental health. They’re also more likely to see those companies as innovators in terms of diversity, equity, and inclusion. When companies can hire team members from anywhere, they align teams from numerous different backgrounds and walks of life.

Simply ignoring that employees today choose workplaces that align with their lives (not the other way around) isn’t an option. That’s why so many rigid return-to-office mandates have failed, causing massive turnover, workplace tension, and higher recruitment costs.

Developing Your RTO Strategy: Decision-Making Ideas

Simply asking employees to return to the office full-time won’t work for most Office and Commercial employers.

The truth is, no single model fits every team, role, or person. The companies that get the right results are the ones that don’t just roll out rules. They build flexible frameworks grounded in trust, data, and understanding. Here’s how to start building your strategy.

Ask yourself why it matters before asking people to show up at a desk. What value does the office add for them, not just for the business?

Some types of work thrive in an in-person environment. Employees who need to interact regularly with colleagues or customers, or mentor other staff members, benefit from real-world human connections. But not every task requires a dedicated desk.

Deep-focus work, writing, coding, and data analysis can often be done better from the quiet of home. Define which Office and Commercial roles need an in-office environment, and exactly how frequently team members need to be in the office to get the best results.

Once you’ve gathered the “what” and the “why,” you can start shaping a flexible model that respects both business goals and individual work styles.

Remember, your RTO policies don’t have to be carved in stone; they can evolve with your people and your Office and Commercial business.

RTO Policy Implementation: Ideas for Success

A good return-to-office policy on paper means nothing if it lands flat in practice. Implementation isn’t just about sending out emails and updating your online schedule. Here are some top tips for initiating an RTO mandate that doesn’t drive your top people away.

Start Small with Pilot and Phase-In Approaches

Change in the Office and Commercial workplace is easier to manage when it’s delivered in small doses. Rather than rolling out a full company-wide policy overnight, start with pilot programs. Select a few diverse teams and test various hybrid models.

Remember, different teams may work better with other frameworks. The product team could excel with two in-office days a week, while the marketing team prefers a fully remote setup with regular monthly sync-ups. Track what works, and use that to guide you.

Communicate with Clarity

There’s no such thing as too much communication during times of change. But clarity is everything. Don’t just announce policy changes, tell the story. Share the why and the reasoning behind your decisions. Share the trade-offs, the data, and the goals.

Be transparent about what you know and what you’re still figuring out. This kind of honesty builds trust and can help ensure your Office and Commercial employees feel more “involved” in the process.

Invest in Tools that Support Flexibility

If you’re asking people to work in new ways, you need to give them the tools to do so correctly. This could include smart scheduling platforms, digital calendars, virtual collaboration tools, and desk booking and space management systems.

Experiment with project management tools and cutting-edge communication solutions designed to bring people together in inclusive, immersive video meetings. Ask your team members what kind of technology they need to work more effectively wherever they are, and give your business leaders the resources to track performance metrics for all employees.

Measure What Matters and Keep Evolving

A return-to-office strategy shouldn’t be a one-and-done decision. It should be alive, and adaptive, informed by real results and honest feedback.

Track what really matters:

  • Are people engaged?
  • Are teams collaborating better?
  • Has productivity improved, or dropped?
  • Are we losing good people because of our policies?

Use surveys, retention data, performance insights, and regular pulse checks. Build a rhythm of reflection. Adjust when needed. The best leaders in 2025 aren’t chasing perfection—they’re staying curious, agile, and open.

The right RTO strategy shouldn’t actually be about “going back”, but about moving forward. The workplace and your employees will continue to change, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to keeping both your stakeholders and your teams happy.

The only way to thrive is to experiment. Use data and insights to guide your decisions, and resist the urge to stunt flexibility to avoid complexity.

Recognise that productivity doesn’t always come from presence, and remember that putting your employees’ needs first often pays off more than you’d think.

Career Growth vs. Stability: Making Informed Decisions in Today’s Market

August 7, 2025

One of the biggest questions keeping Retail professionals up at night this year is: “Do I chase growth and new opportunities, or hold onto stability?”

There’s no easy answer. Many people feel stuck between the urge to level up their career and the need to feel more secure.

In the UK, hiring is slowing, while employment costs rise. In America, hiring cycles are growing longer and longer. Australia is dealing with critical skill shortages, and in Canada, economic shifts are forcing companies to rethink their long-term plans. Everyone is struggling.

It’s no wonder that 72% of job candidates say job hunting harms their well-being. Finding the right role is incredibly difficult, but staying put isn’t always the best bet, particularly as companies move forward with AI and automation.

So, how do you ensure you’re taking steps to support you and your priorities this year?

The Realities of the Job Market Today

From a big picture perspective, the current job market is complicated and continues to change fast. In the UK, changes to tax and the minimum wage affect recruitment strategies. Job vacancies are disappearing fast, and pay growth is cooling.

In the United States, it takes candidates an average of five months or more to find a role, and the challenges are even greater for those with limited skill sets. In Australia, the conversation is still about skill shortages, particularly in major sectors like healthcare and cybersecurity. All the while, Retail companies worldwide are rethinking the skills they need.

With AI and automation reshaping everything, you may soon struggle to keep up if you haven’t updated your skill sets. According to CIPD, nine in every ten employees must reskill by 2030. There are still opportunities in this market – if you know where to look for them – but putting growth on hold for stability is becoming more tempting.

Defining Career Growth vs Stability

So, what does it mean to choose between career growth and stability?

Let’s talk about career growth first. Growth in a Retail career doesn’t necessarily mean chasing bigger salaries or promotions. For many candidates, the focus is more likely on stretching skills, learning new tools, exploring different responsibilities, or gaining exposure to technologies as they emerge.

Growth could mean pursuing a new title, exploring more innovative companies, or even pivoting into a different connected field with transferable skills. It could also mean developing resilience in the face of change.

Career stability is about predictability. It means finding a job that feels steady, regularly pays the bills, offers dependable benefits, and comes with a leadership team that doesn’t change every couple of months. It may not be as challenging or rewarding as pursuing growth, but it gives you balance and supports your life, particularly if you have personal commitments to consider.

Most Retail professionals don’t realise that growth and stability don’t always have to be mutually exclusive. Sometimes you can find both – a role that gives you peace of mind and learning opportunities. But that also sometimes means making compromises. For instance, a fast-paced start-up might offer great development but little work-life balance.

Assessing Your Personal Risk Tolerance

Deciding whether you will pursue growth or stability starts with assessing your personal tolerance to risk. Often, most people begin with a financial assessment. Do you have savings you can rely on if something doesn’t work out? Are you managing hefty student loans, supporting a family, or paying a mortgage? How hard would an income gap hit you?

If your budget is tight, you might prefer to focus on stability. Your position in your career, or “career stage”, matters too. If you’re starting in the Retail industry, you might have more room to experiment. You might feel more pressure to climb if you’re in the middle of your career.

Don’t forget your personal circumstances, either. Are you the primary caregiver for kids or parents? Do you have the flexibility to relocate or work long hours? Sometimes, it’s not about what you want professionally but what you can realistically manage right now.

Your mental and physical health count too. If you’re already stretched thin or burned out, making a high-risk career leap might not be right.

Try asking yourself a few honest questions:

  • If this role didn’t work out, how long could I stay afloat?
  • What kind of pressure am I already under outside of work?
  • Do I feel energised by uncertainty, or does it stress me out?
  • What does “too much risk” feel to me, and have I felt that before?

This isn’t about fear. It’s about clarity. When you understand your limits and values, making decisions you won’t regret later is much easier.

Strategies for Growth-Seekers in Unstable Times

If you decide it’s time to grow your Retail career, you might be in for a rocky road. But you can still manage the hurdles carefully, strategically, and proactively.

Target High-Demand Skills

Start with your skillset. Building skills that matter to today’s Retail employers is the fastest way to ensure you stand out and boost your chances of getting a new role.

Focus on a blend of relevant hard skills, AI proficiency, data analysis, digital literacy, and soft skills like communication and resilience. Find out what skills are showing up on job descriptions if you don’t know where to start. Remember, you don’t have to earn entirely new certifications either. Micro-credentials and online courses are great ways to learn.

Demonstrate Your Adaptability and Learning Mindset

Your personal brand matters in a growth-focused job search. That doesn’t mean becoming a thought leader overnight; it just means being visible and intentional.

Polish your LinkedIn profile to highlight what you’ve accomplished lately, the types of projects you’ve been working on, and your interests. Share industry insights or project takeaways that show you’re engaged and curious. Let recruiters and hiring managers see your learning mindset.

Look for Growth Inside Stability

Remember, you don’t have to choose between a fast-moving startup and long-term security. Some larger, well-established companies offer internal mobility, leadership development programs, and innovative opportunities, with the bonus of a reliable paycheck and benefits.

Strategies for Stability-Seekers That Don’t Sacrifice Growth

Before committing to a “stable” job, ensure it’s built to last. A big name or long history doesn’t guarantee security anymore. Look into a company’s financial reports, recent news, and industry trends.

  • Are they hiring or downsizing?
  • Are they investing in innovation or cutting corners?

Stability often exists in sectors that weather economic storms well, such as healthcare, education, utilities, and public services. But even within those, evaluating how each organisation supports its people during tough times is important.

Find Employers Who Promote From Within

Some companies commit to offering long-term careers. Look for Retail businesses known for internal mobility, learning programs, or leadership development tracks. These environments allow you to stay in a secure role while gaining new responsibilities, skills, or even a promotion.

During interviews, ask about the path to promotion or for examples of people who have grown their careers internally at the company.

Invest in Transferable Skills and Specialist Skills

You don’t need to jump roles every year to keep growing, but you do need to stay sharp. Focus on building transferable skills like project management, communication, digital literacy, and emotional intelligence. These abilities add value in any workplace.

They make you more effective where you are now and more agile if circumstances change later. If you want to boost your chances of a promotion, specialist skills can be helpful too. Consider earning specific credentials that will make you crucial to a company’s growth.

Nurture Your Professional Reputation

One of the most valuable forms of career insurance you can invest in is your professional network. Even if you’re not job-hunting actively, make sure you stay connected. Attend industry events, join relevant associations, and build relationships with mentors.

The more you connect and expand your professional reputation, the more valuable you become to companies searching for Retail talent.

Career Growth vs Stability: Making Your Decision

It’s time to decide once you’ve taken stock of the current market and reflected on your priorities. What do you want to focus on right now? Remember, you can change your mind later, but for now, ask yourself some key questions:

  • What are my non-negotiables in a role? This could include flexibility, culture, benefits, whatever you need to feel happy in a Retail role.
  • What does success look like for me in 2–5 years? Try to picture it. Is it a bigger title? More freedom? Work-life balance? A sense of purpose? Let that vision shape your next move.
  • How does this choice align with my long-term goals? Which path will open more doors for you down the line, or give you a sense of fulfilment?
  • If it doesn’t work out, what’s next? Do you have a backup plan if your current choice doesn’t pan out as expected?
  • How will this impact my mental health and overall well-being? Always put your health and well-being first. Your next step should support you, not just your career.

Remember, no decision must be final. Careers are long and nonlinear. All you need to do is decide what’s right for you right now. If you’re struggling with that, remember that Retail recruitment companies are always available to help you.

From Flexibility to Productivity: Making Hybrid Work Models Deliver Results

August 1, 2025

A massive 83% of employees worldwide say they prefer hybrid work models to traditional workplace schedules, but many businesses are still struggling to make flexible models work for them.

What began as an emergency response to an unprecedented crisis has now solidified into a long-term expectation for Office and Commercial employees worldwide. Professionals have discovered the benefits of flexible schedules – better work-life balance, lower travel costs, and less stress- and they don’t want to go back to the way things were.

Unfortunately for business leaders, offering hybrid work options is easy enough, but ensuring teams stay productive, engaged, and aligned is much harder.

Many Office and Commercial employers are walking a tricky tightrope. On the one hand, employees crave autonomy more than ever, while managers need to maintain collaboration, innovation, and constant performance. Fortunately, there are ways to navigate the challenges of hybrid work effectively. You need to be proactive.

The Current State of Hybrid Work in 2025

Employees and business leaders both agree that work needs to be more flexible. According to Zoom, four out of five executives say the future of work will be hybrid. However, actual adoption of hybrid work policies varies across the globe. In the UK, about 28% of adults are hybrid workers. In the US, 52% of remote-capable employees work in a hybrid environment.

Worldwide, everyone seems to be making the shift, but this transition does come with growing pains. Companies are still struggling with:

  • In-office vs. remote tension: While some employees thrive in remote settings, others miss the spontaneity of in-person collaboration. Leaders struggle to create policies that don’t feel arbitrary or unevenly applied.
  • Team cohesion: Distributed teams often feel fragmented, with a noticeable dip in informal bonding and peer learning.
  • Technology gaps: Not all organisations have closed the digital divide, leaving some employees over-reliant on outdated tools or overwhelmed by disconnected platforms.
  • Productivity measurement: Many companies still default to activity tracking rather than outcome-based performance, creating inefficiencies and misaligned expectations.

Plus, hybrid expectations vary widely among Office and Commercial employers. Senior leaders sometimes prefer more in-office time to maintain visibility and influence. Gen Z and working parents (millennials) value location and schedule flexibility more. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution that works for everyone.

Why Hybrid Work Matters to Your Talent Strategy

Embracing hybrid work can be challenging, so some Office and Commercial leaders are tempted to avoid changing anything. But ignoring the growing demand for flexibility could be dangerous. The truth is that flexible work solutions deliver:

Competitive Advantages in Recruitment

As Office and Commercial companies fight for scarce talent, hybrid work becomes a major selling point. Studies show that up to half of all graduates in the UK wouldn’t even consider applying for a job that forces them to be in an office five days a week. Offering hybrid work allows companies to appeal to a wider range of candidates. Plus, it can help expand talent pools by attracting talented professionals located further away from a local office.

Enhanced Employee Retention and Engagement

Hybrid work models regularly improve employee satisfaction and loyalty. According to one survey, employees working for a company that supported hybrid work scored 6% higher on engagement levels compared to the UK average. Those required to return to the office full-time scored 7% lower. Additionally, Stanford found resignation levels fell by 33% for companies that shifted from a full-time in-office to a hybrid work model.

Improved Diversity and Inclusion

Hybrid work arrangements are also excellent for promoting inclusivity and diversity in the workplace. A Office and Commercial company with a hybrid strategy can appeal to a wider range of talented professionals and avoid overlooking candidates with specific schedule requirements. Greater diversity and inclusion generally lead to higher profits and creativity, too.

Common Pitfalls in Hybrid Work Implementation

Hybrid work benefits employers and employees alike. The problem is that implementing hybrid strategies isn’t always simple. The most common hurdles Office and Commercial companies deal with include:

Poor Communication

Communication can start to suffer when people rely on digital tools rather than face-to-face interactions. Employees waste time struggling with complex video conferencing tools, miss important messages or emails, and feel left out of the loop, which can cause productivity and engagement levels to fall.

Proximity Bias

It’s much easier for managers to build relationships with and recognise Office and Commercial employees they see daily. Sometimes, this leads to in-office staff getting preferential treatment over their colleagues. One study found that about 96% of executives admit that they notice in-office efforts more than the contributions of remote workers.

Technology Adoption Challenges

Hybrid work is really only possible with technology—cloud-based platforms, productivity apps, and communication tools. However, not everyone feels comfortable using these tools straight away. A lack of training and integration can mean that tools aren’t used properly, and efficiency begins to wane. User-friendly platforms are a must.

Management Resistance and Traditional Mindsets

As evidenced by countless companies implementing “Return to Office” mandates in recent years, not everyone is comfortable with the idea of hybrid work. Some managers and stakeholders simply don’t believe employees can be productive outside of the office. Others struggle to measure productivity and performance without resorting to tracking things like “hours in the office”.

Corporate Culture Dilution

Preserving a cohesive and supportive company culture can be difficult for a company embracing hybrid work. Some employees can feel disconnected from business values and goals, which leads to a breakdown in collaboration and problems with morale. Business leaders need to make a clear effort to keep everyone involved in the company culture.

Five Strategies to Make Hybrid Work Productive

Demand for hybrid work in the Office and Commercial space isn’t going to disappear. But there are ways to tackle the most common challenges that affect businesses and their teams.

Here are some of the most valuable strategies you can try.

1.    Switch to Outcome-Based Performance Frameworks

The number of hours an employee spends at a specific desk doesn’t really matter to your Office and Commercial company’s overall success. The outcomes they achieve, whether they’re working in an office or from home, are what really count.

Rethink how you track and measure performance. Focus on how productive team members are, how often they innovate, and how regularly they contribute to real business goals. Look at what they’re accomplishing rather than logging their locations and time spent.

2.    Design Intentional Collaboration Strategies

Collaboration is crucial in any Office and Commercial workplace, but it doesn’t happen spontaneously in a hybrid environment, at least not as often. Business leaders need to focus on intentionally bringing teams together. Establish schedules for how frequently teams should meet in group meetings, video conferencing sessions, or in-person meetings.

Schedule regular check-ins between managers and people who regularly work remotely. Make sure hybrid workers know which tools to use for different types of collaboration. For instance, they might work on documents in real time on Google Workspace or chat with colleagues via Slack.

3.    Integrate Seamless Technology Solutions

Technology is the glue connecting hybrid teams, but everything falls apart if staff members don’t know how to use it. The ideal tools for your teams will be the ones that feel natural and intuitive. Look for platforms that integrate communication, project management, document sharing, and more into a single pane of glass—a new “digital workplace.”

Ensure staff members know how these tools work with training sessions and workshops, and ensure they have someone to contact whenever they face technical issues.

4.    Provide Management Training for Hybrid Leadership

Keeping hybrid teams motivated and aligned requires different leadership skills. Managers and supervisors need to know how to share feedback regularly with out-of-office workers, and how to foster inclusivity and cohesion between different groups.

Upgrade your training resources, focusing on skills that will benefit hybrid teams, such as digital communication, emotional intelligence, and adaptability. Listen to the feedback given by hybrid employees about their management preferences.

5.    Reinforce Company Culture Across Distributed Teams

Your Office and Commercial company culture shouldn’t disappear when schedules are more flexible. You’ll need to proactively reinforce your values, share your vision, and highlight your mission to everyone. Host virtual events, create recognition programs, and keep communication constant and transparent.

Find ways to strengthen relationships between all kinds of employees with virtual team-building sessions, social interactions, and even gamified experiences. Ensure everyone feels like they belong to the same cohesive family.

How to Attract Top Talent with Your Hybrid Model

Once you’ve ironed out the perfect approach to managing your hybrid team, the next step is using your model to attract new Office and Commercial talent. Be intentional with how you highlight your approach to flexible and hybrid working by:

  • Showcasing Flexibility in Employer Branding: Highlight your hybrid approach on your careers page, social media platforms, and in employee testimonials. Showing flexibility is one of your values, not just something you’re experimenting with.
  • Update Job Descriptions: Be clear and transparent in job descriptions. Vague references to “flexibility” are confusing. Clearly outline how your hybrid policy works, and whether you’re willing to negotiate on schedules.
  • Showcase Success in Interviews: Use interviews as a platform to demonstrate how hybrid work operates in practice. Share stories of team collaboration, remote onboarding wins, and how employees thrive in your model.
  • Optimise Onboarding: Make sure your onboarding process is structured to support people working outside of the office. Set up remote orientation videos, guides for technology configuration, and digital learning resources.
  • Use Feedback to Refine: Don’t just assume you’re grabbing the right attention with your efforts. Use post-survey interviews and candidate reviews to constantly improve your approach.

Make Hybrid Work Your Competitive Advantage

Hybrid work models aren’t experiments anymore; they’re quickly becoming the new operating system for modern workforces. Success, however, depends on more than just embracing flexibility. You need to design your hybrid model to work for you.

If you take a proactive approach now, reworking your approach to everything from recruitment to employee management, you’ll set yourself up for success in the years ahead. The future of the Office and Commercial industry will depend on adaptability and the ability to balance freedom and autonomy with accountability and consistency.

Struggling to build your hybrid team? Let’s talk about how your hybrid model can attract top talent, reduce friction, and drive better business results.

From Application to Offer: Navigating Longer Hiring Cycles Without Losing Momentum

July 10, 2025

If your Healthcare job search starts to feel like a marathon with no end, you’re not alone. In 2025, hiring timelines are stretching, with some estimates suggesting it takes up to 6 months to find a role. There are various reasons for this.

Companies are reluctant to hire when they’re not sure what the future of work will look like. AI is reshaping roles and responsibilities, new challenges are emerging constantly, and even the workplace is changing, with new versions of hybrid work.

In addition, the World Economic Forum highlights that skill necessities are shifting, with around 40% of the skills companies screen for today set to be obsolete by 2030. When companies do decide what they need, the competition for roles is fierce, meaning business leaders often have more applications to sort through and interviews to schedule than ever before.

While AI and automation can help streamline hiring cycles to some extent, many companies face major delays, directly impacting you as a candidate.

The challenge? Staying proactive and motivated during long periods of silence and uncertainty.

Understanding Current Hiring Timelines

On average, healthcare candidates can expect to spend between 3 and 6 months just finding a relevant role, but that timeline can vary drastically. Depending on the role a company wants to fill, candidates could spend weeks sorting through applications, months arranging pre-screening interviews, and even longer analysing skill tests.

Certain industries experience even longer timelines. For instance, the energy and defence sectors have some of the most extended hiring periods, often exceeding 60 days, due to rigorous security clearances and specialized skill requirements. That means you could wait two months or more for a job offer even after an interview.

The truth is that the modern recruitment funnel has changed a lot. There are various stages involved that weren’t common in the past. After you apply, it might be screened by AI tools and then passed to human experts for review.

From there, there’s a first round of screening interviews, followed by skill assessments, second-round interviews, and even final interviews with panels. Every stage takes time, and as companies struggle with limited administrative support, hiring cycles naturally extend.

Maintaining Momentum: Strategies for Each Stage of the Process

When days stretch into weeks and months, it’s easy to lose motivation, feel disheartened, or feel your confidence dip. The key to success is learning how to maintain energy and momentum through each stage of the process—from application to negotiation and offer.

Application Phase: Quality Over Quantity

It often takes 10-20 applications for one job interview, regardless of your Healthcare role. In certain sectors, like Professional Services, you could send dozens of applications and hear nothing back. The answer isn’t just to send out more applications.

Upgrade the quality of your submissions first. Use keywords from the job description to ensure your resume passes Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Customise each application based on the role and company you’re applying for. Look for ways to differentiate yourself from competitors by focusing on your agility, resilience, or commitment to constant development.

Interview Stage: Staying Engaged

Many Healthcare companies today take a multi-stage approach to interviewing. Even if you excel in the “pre-screening” phase, you must maintain enthusiasm through each subsequent stage.

To keep your energy up, reframe each interview as a two-way conversation. This isn’t just about proving yourself – it’s also your chance to evaluate the company. Come prepared with thoughtful questions that show your curiosity and give you insights into the team culture and expectations.

Prepare yourself for different interview formats with mock practice sessions with friends. Explore the differences between virtual interviews, panel-based interviews, and so on. Know how to follow up politely if you don’t hear back for a week or two after each phase. Remember, don’t pester—just check in once in a while to find out if they need help making a decision.

Assessment Phase: Showcasing Skills

Your credentials and resume can’t guarantee you a job offer anymore. Companies are switching to skills-based hiring – an approach considered up to five times more predictive of future job performance. Be prepared to show your skills in action.

Create portfolios you can share online, showcasing your accomplishments or the projects you worked on in different roles, and share them with employers. Review the core skills listed in job descriptions and seek out practice tools or platforms. If the role requires Excel modelling build a few practice models.

Don’t forget soft skills – many employers will look at your ability to collaborate, adapt and lead, so prepare stories you can tell in interviews that showcase those skills.

Negotiation and Offer Stage: Patience and Preparation

The final stage of the Healthcare job search can be frustrating. Delayed offers are increasingly common as companies finalize budgets, compare finalists, or navigate internal approvals. That doesn’t mean you’re out of the running – it just means it’s time to play the long game with clarity and confidence.

Start by doing your homework. Research market compensation for your role, factoring in location, seniority, and industry. Tools like Glassdoor, Levels, fyi, and recruiter insights can help. Prepare not just for salary, but for the total package.

When an offer is delayed, stay in contact, without being pushy. If and when an offer does arrive, don’t feel pressured to accept on the spot; be ready to negotiate if necessary.

Staying Resilient and Ready: Smart Moves

Beyond carefully preparing for every stage of the new hiring process, it also helps to have a “toolkit” in place to help maintain momentum. Here are some quick tips for success.

Stay Organised with Applications

An organised approach is crucial during an extended Healthcare job search. Applying here and there without a clear system quickly leads to confusion and missed opportunities.

Use tools like Trello, Notion, or Airtable to build a visual pipeline of where you’ve applied, who you’ve heard back from, and what’s next. Create reusable templates you can use for each application, but remember to personalise them for each role.

Watch out for application fatigue. Don’t try to push out 50 applications in one day. Take breaks, and give your brain time to reset.

Managing Uncertainty and Anxiety

Patience might be a virtue, but it isn’t easy to maintain. The silence you experience after submitting an application or completing an interview can easily lead to nerves. Establish a daily routine and implement ways to keep your mind occupied when you’re anxious.

Look after your mental well-being, and touch base with friends and family members when you start to feel overwhelmed. Invest in your confidence. If you’re rejected for a role, don’t beat yourself up—tell yourself you’re learning from each experience.

You could even create a “win” journal to log positive progress, like callbacks, good interviews, and positive feedback from Healthcare leaders.

Using the Extended Timeline to Your Advantage

It might be hard to see, but there is an upside to longer hiring cycles – you have more time to level up. While waiting for an opportunity to arise, you can actively work on filling skill gaps. Find out what matters to the Healthcare companies you’re targeting, like digital literacy or resilience, and invest in workshops and programs to boost your skills.

Experiment with new projects, even if that means volunteering or taking on different tasks in an existing role. Develop your personal brand on channels like LinkedIn with thought leadership content and build out your network.

Join industry groups on Slack or LinkedIn, attend webinars, and connect with like-minded individuals who can help you throughout your job search. Consider partnering with a recruitment expert who understands the current landscape for personalised guidance and a competitive edge. They might even be able to introduce you to new opportunities you wouldn’t find elsewhere.

Know When to Move On

Sometimes, the hardest part of a long hiring process isn’t waiting – knowing when to walk away. In a slow-moving market, stepping back from any opportunity can feel risky. But sometimes, you must identify when an opportunity isn’t right for you.

Pay attention to red flags in the hiring process, such as vague answers to questions, limited feedback, or inconsistent communication. If you lose confidence in the employer and their ability to deliver a great employee experience, it’s okay to step back.

Watch out for signs that the company culture or experience isn’t suitable for you either. How a company communicates during hiring often mirrors how it operates day-to-day. Do they respect your time? Keep you informed? Offer transparency around the role and expectations?

These are strong indicators of how they treat employees, too. If something feels off now, chances are it won’t feel better once you’re on the inside.

Thriving in the New Job Market

Unfortunately, extended hiring cycles are the new normal for many Healthcare professionals. They can feel exhausting, but they don’t have to drain your confidence or derail your career path.

By protecting your energy and confidence, staying organised and focused, and being ready to adapt at all times, you can consistently evolve and grow, even while you’re waiting for feedback from a potential employer.

Need some extra help? Work with a recruitment professional for unique insights into the hiring market, how you can prepare for new recruitment stages, and even access to roles you wouldn’t find anywhere else. A little help can go a long way.