Despite softer sentiment among jobseekers, Calder says demand for skilled talent remains intense across sectors – from retail and hospitality to corporate roles – leaving employers “almost held at a little bit of a mercy” with the people they do have.

“There’s a skills shortage, but it’s a human shortage as well,” she said. “You might have more people available if unemployment moves, but that doesn’t mean you suddenly have more skills or more talent.”

That tension is changing hiring behaviour. After the rapid, sometimes frantic recruitment that followed lockdowns, hiring managers are now more cautious and selective. Many are adding extra interviews, assessments and even trial days to convince themselves they are making the right choice.

“The cost of a bad hire is now more costly than the cost of an empty seat,” Calder said. “It used to be that the empty seat was the big problem. Now, a wrong hire can hurt culture and productivity in a big way.”

Some employers have experimented with short trial periods borrowed from hospitality-style hiring, bringing candidates in for a few days to “test” them in the role. But Calder questions how much value those exercises really add.

“You might get someone working for you for three days, but you’re not seeing the real them,” she said. “The real person comes after six months, when they’re comfortable and you can see their habits, behaviours and patterns.”

Longer, more complex processes also risk losing strong candidates partway through. Calder says HR leaders should be asking hard questions about the purpose of every extra step.

“If it’s just adding time to fill and you’re losing candidates in the process, you really want to re‑evaluate why you’re doing it,” she said.

The cooling economy appears to be taking some heat out of the job‑hopping trend, but HR leaders are being urged to look beyond the surface of a candidate’s CV.

Calder distinguishes between “smart and strategic” moves and reactive ones disguised as pay plays.

“People will often say they moved for an extra $5,000 or $10,000, but really it’s because they didn’t like their boss, the structure or the feedback they were getting,” she said. “If I can see it’s been a strategic move, I’m comfortable. If it’s more about environmental factors, I become wary.”

That wariness grows as salaries climb.

“When you’re starting to pay more executive‑level salaries, you can’t job hop on that,” Calder said. “If you’re taking on a permanent position, you need some ‘stickability’.”

In the long run, she argues, candidates need a mixture of experiences: evidence they can step up and adapt, but also proof they can stay long enough to deliver depth, not just a string of six‑ or 12‑month stints.

One of the biggest risks for employers in this environment, Calder warns, is failing to update roles before they go to market.

Typically, when an employee resigns, managers reach for the job description they used years earlier and post the same role again.

“Someone like you might resign, and your manager just pulls out the job description they hired you on and goes straight to market,” Calder said. “But by then, you’ve grown, the role has changed, and that description is a little bit redundant.”

She argues every vacancy should trigger a rethink: what the role looks like now, how it has evolved, and how it could be reshaped to better support the business in the next few years.

“In this market, where it’s so fast‑moving and especially with tech, we should be constantly evaluating titles, job descriptions, structures and processes,” she said. “If we want to be nimble and productive – and Australia has a productivity issue – HR can’t afford to be reactive.”

Calder believes this is also where HR can demonstrate its strategic value at the executive table, an area where she says the profession has “always struggled” compared with functions like finance.

While AI and tech skills dominate boardroom conversations, Calder says employers are quietly rediscovering the value of more mature workers.

“There’s always been this assumption that because you’re a younger worker, you’re automatically across AI and tech,” she said. “Yes, sometimes more mature workers are a bit slower to pick up some of those pieces. But they’re also incredibly adaptable.”

Workers in their 50s and 60s, she points out, have ridden out wave after wave of disruption – from the rise of the internet to major economic crises and the pandemic.

“They’re the ones that have gone through the most change,” she said. “I actually believe they’re probably among the most adaptable in the workforce.”

Calder is now seeing more clients open to hiring older candidates, a trend she welcomes as overdue.