by Optimum
Share
by Optimum
Share
As we enter FY26 in Australia, many organisations are focused on budgets, forecasts, tax returns and reporting. But there’s one area that often gets overlooked or given little consideration – staffing.
July presents an opportune window to plan the year ahead and ask yourself:
- Do we have the right people in the right roles?
- What is our promotion or succession plan for the year?
- Do we have any “toxic” team members holding us back?
Why Staffing Decisions Made Now Will Define FY26
Planning your staffing requirements isn’t just the role of your HR department, it’s a leadership responsibility. To achieve your financial and operational goals for the year, you need your team delivering high performance, month after month.
From my 20+ years’ experience as a Recruitment Manager, I’ve learned few businesses effectively plan their recruitment activity, more commonly, they react to workload pressure, following a resignation, extended sick leave or winning a new contract.
Now is the ideal time to anticipate requirements for the new financial year. Here’s how:
- Assess your team’s capacity against your growth plans
- Identify potential bottlenecks or gaps in capability
- Plan for upcoming leave, expected projects, or “flight risk” team members
- Build in flexibility (temp/contract, or project-based talent) before demand spikes
Avoid Panic Hiring in August-September
Every year, we see the same pattern. The months of August and September are very busy with reactive hiring, often resulting in rushed hires, who don’t fit your business.
With so many companies hiring at the same time, active candidates can enjoy a buffet of job offers and opportunities to negotiate higher salaries and better working conditions. Ok, there’s nothing wrong with that, but you can avoid this panic hiring by spreading your recruitment activity across the July to December period, supplementing urgent needs with temps or contractors.
The benefits of proactively planning your hiring activity include:
- Better talent pipelines
- More thoughtful recruitment processes
- Time to onboard properly
Don’t Overlook Your Internal Talent
Staffing isn’t always about external hiring. The new financial year is a smart time to review your internal talent:
- Are there people ready for more responsibility?
- Could a change in role re-engage someone at risk of leaving?
- Do you need to rethink your structure as your business evolves?
Recruitment planning, internal promotions, and capability development should all be part of your workforce conversation now, not once it’s urgent.
Ben Walsh
General Manager, Recruitment
Ben is General Manager – Recruitment at Optimum Consulting Group, an Australian employment advisory firm. He has been actively recruiting and managing teams for over twenty years, with industry experience gained in Australia, Canada and Ireland.
Starting a new job in a new industry gave me a sense of excitement, uncertainty and eagerness to learn. Coming into the role as a recruitment consultant at Optimum Consulting, my basic understanding of recruitment was “finding people a job”, and whilst that may be a very vague part of the job, I’ve quickly understood that there is much more to it. […]
Eight weeks ago, I started a new career in recruitment after 11 years as a legal assistant. What led me here was not a sudden epiphany. It was a nearly 12-month-long job search that allowed me to experience firsthand what candidates say is broken about the process. As a candidate, I felt invisible more times […]
I’ve always loved this time of year in Asia. There’s an energy that’s hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it firsthand – the build-up of anticipation, the spring cleaning and new sheets, the red and gold, the ang bao and the yusheng. I’ve been fortunate to experience Lunar New Year in Singapore, Bangkok, Ho Chi […]
In today’s workplace, busyness is often worn as a badge of honour. Full calendars, constant connectivity, and rapid responsiveness are commonly equated with effectiveness. But an important question remains: does being busy actually make us more productive? Busyness vs Productivity Busyness and productivity are not synonymous. Activity alone does not guarantee outcomes. Many professionals spend […]
