September has brought a lot of activity across regional Queensland, with investment in infrastructure, housing and tourism helping to generate employment and business opportunities in many communities.

Local Government remains an important part of this activity, with Councils progressing road, water, sewerage and housing projects alongside broader community infrastructure works.

A highlight for Cameron and I this month was attending the recruitment industry professional body, RCSA SHAPE 2026 Conference in Kingscliff. It was a great opportunity to spend time with leaders from across the recruitment industry and hear different views on where our industry and the wider workforce are heading.

There were some outstanding speakers covering a wide range of subjects, including Gen Z and workforce retention, skill shortages, the changing workforce and why people are holding on to jobs longer in uncertain times. AI was, of course, another major topic, with the interesting question of what we will do with the extra 30% of our time technology is expected  to give us back?

One interesting presentation ‘why isolation is killing performance’, and our growing loneliness epidemic. It looked at the health and wellbeing implications of WFM and reminded us of the importance of spending time with other people, building real connections and to set a simple goal of trying to make one good new friend a year.

Another thought-provoking session on the Cultural Fit “myth”, should we instead be looking for a behavioural fit? What behaviours do we value in our team? What are we missing, or what would we like to add? It was a good reminder that recruitment shouldn’t always be about finding more of the same.

My best fun fact takeaway from Milo Wilkinson – Behavioural Scientist: The key to best performance is to be hydrated with 2-3 litres of water per day, with the first litre before 9am. She also spoke of the need to be positive, with 70% of our thoughts naturally leaning towards the negative, her advice was to acknowledge and then break that ‘script’ instead, asking what success looks like in this/a scenario.

Of course, there was plenty of discussion around AI and technology, but one of the strongest messages was that good recruitment will always rely heavily on people. Relationships, judgement, understanding teams, clients and candidates, leadership and adapting to change were all major themes throughout the conference.

It was encouraging to come away seeing technology not as a replacement but as another tool to help us work smarter and provide a better service in our workplaces and to our clients and candidates.

With the final quarter of the calendar year approaching, there is plenty happening across the employment market and we look forward to seeing what the coming months bring.

Thank you again for your ongoing support. If you are considering your next hire or your next career move, our Precruitment team would be very pleased to help and advice.