How to gain and retain employees in a candidate-focused climate

In the current candidate-focused climate how can you ensure candidates will pick your role over others? We’ve brought together our insights on making your role as attractive as possible, as well as key ways to make sure your new hires stick around for the long run.



Let’s start at the beginning, what's the first thing your possible candidates are going to see? The advert that you put up! The most important thing here is honesty. Mentioning the benefits and culture of your business is essential, but keep in mind not to over-sell or be deceptive about the reality of the position. Candidates are much more likely to leave their new position if they feel like they have been misled or lied to at any point throughout the hiring or onboarding process.


Try comparing your job ad to others. What kind of language are they using? What benefits do other companies have that make their ad stand out? This can be a great time to review internally and identify any improvements that can be made to the remuneration and benefits on offer to candidates. Benefits like subsidised registration, funded study, progression plans, and additional leave such as mental health days are being adopted into many workplaces. If it’s possible for the role and within your budget, advertising relocation and accommodation support can open the door to a much larger pool of suitable candidates. Additionally, selling the position as a way for a candidate to progress towards their career goals is a great way to make a position more attractive. 


Wonderful! Your listing is grabbing attention and you’re ready to begin interviewing applicants. At this point in the process, you should be ready to show some personality. Creating a connection and leaving a lasting impression on each candidate is essential. During your interviews ensure you are noting where flexibility may be needed for each individual. That way, when you are ready to offer your prefered candidate you can ensure your first offer is specialised for them. This shows that you value them as a person, not just their CV and can't wait to welcome them into your team. 

This is one of the many ways working with a recruitment company can help streamline your recruitment process. Our in-depth knowledge of each one of the candidates we partner with ensures we know what's going to motivate them to accept or decline an offer.

Let’s move to the next step, offering the position. In our current climate, we are seeing an increase in counter-offers and bespoke remuneration packages. For the right candidate, this likely means you’ll have to show some flexibility within the position. In many health roles, the salary won’t be flexible and working from home won’t be an option, however, many other aspects can be flexible. If possible, highlight that there can be flexibility with rosters and offer adjustments that suit the candidates’ work-life balance. The key here is to show potential employees that you will value and care for them and not just see them as a number.


Another roadblock that we are repeatedly seeing, which is costing businesses great candidates and time to recruit is internal processing issues with documents. Have your contracts drafted and ready to go before you present your offer. A verbal offer isn’t enough security for a candidate to leave their current position. Think of how quickly your ideal candidate could interview and receive an offer from another business, or receive a counteroffer from their current employer in a bid to retain them.


Finally, a focus and investment in retaining your existing staff is your greatest asset. Whether they’ve been in the business for 6 weeks or 6 years, creating a workplace where each employee feels respected and valued will mean you have to go through the hiring process a lot less often! The first 90 days of a new employee's journey are the most pivotal and defining. This often means making sure their onboarding experience is thorough, and that you remain flexible so their work-life balance doesn’t lean so far into work that life gets left behind. Be honest about the realities of the role from the beginning; people understand that no job is smooth sailing, and knowing the challenges of the role before they begin ensures your new employee won’t feel caught off guard and helps ensure they feel confident in their new role. By setting them up for success you’re ultimately ensuring your own success too. 


The rate of counter offers and multi offers are higher than ever, causing frustration for employers all over New Zealand. If you’re interested in more advice on counter offers, non-starters and fall overs we’ve put together a guide for employers like you. Simply message one of our recruiters in your area to get your guide! Best of luck with your hiring journey! 

The Role of Culture in Retaining Healthcare Professionals

By RWR Group Marketing • July 6, 2026
Salary gets people in the door. Culture is what keeps them there. Across New Zealand's health sector, we are seeing the same pattern repeat: organisations lose their best senior people not always to better pay, but to better workplaces. The professional has found somewhere that feels right. And that feeling is built on culture. What Professionals Are Looking For After years of experience, health professionals know what they want from a workplace. They are not easily impressed by perks or job titles. What they respond to is depth: clear values, consistent leadership, psychological safety and a sense that the organisation genuinely cares about the people delivering care. In our conversations with experienced GPs, allied health clinicians, practice managers and aged care leaders, a few themes come up consistently. WHAT CULTURE MEANS TO HEALTH PROFESSIONALS Leadership that listens and follows through A team that supports each other, especially under pressure Recognition that goes beyond performance reviews Genuine flexibility, not just a policy on paper A workplace where raising concerns is safe and welcomed Culture Is Not a HR Initiative One of the most common mistakes health employers make is treating culture as something the HR team manages. In reality, culture is built and broken in everyday interactions. How a person is briefed before a difficult conversation. Whether a practice manager is consulted before a process change. How a team responds when someone admits they are stretched. Leaders at every level carry culture. And senior professionals are watching closely. What This Means for Retention When a high-performing person hands in their notice, it is rarely a sudden decision. It is the end of a longer journey that often started with a moment of disconnection. A decision made without their input. A value that was stated but not lived. A leader who did not follow through. The organisations retaining their people are the ones paying attention to these moments. They are conducting stay conversations, not just exit interviews. They are creating conditions where people feel seen before they start looking elsewhere. Start the Conversation If you lead a health organisation and you are not actively talking to your people about what they need, now is the time to start. Not just about pay. About how the work feels. About what would make them stay for another three years, not just another quarter. At RWR Health, we work with health employers across New Zealand to attract and retain permanent staff across primary care, aged care, allied health, NGO and private medical sectors. Visit www.rwrhealth.co.nz to find out how we can help, or get in touch to have a confidential conversation about your team.

Work-Life Balance Tips for Healthcare Professionals in High-Demand Roles

By RWR Group Marketing • June 10, 2026
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Healthcare Immigration Success Stories: Candidates Years Later

By RWR Group Marketing • May 19, 2026
Real long-term outcomes from healthcare professionals who migrated to Australia and New Zealand. Where are they now and what would they tell you?

Is AI Taking My Job? Why Healthcare Is One of the Most Future-Proof Careers You Can Have

By RWR Group Marketing • May 14, 2026
Worried AI will replace your healthcare role? Here's what's actually changing, what isn't and why the sector remains one of the most secure career paths.

Help, I'm a Clinician, Get Me Out of Here

By RWR Group Marketing • May 1, 2026
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Why Your Best GP Is Quietly Looking Somewhere Else

By RWR Group Marketing • March 27, 2026
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Leadership Shapes Care: The Critical Role of Leadership in Aged Care Recruitment

By RWR Group Marketing • March 19, 2026
Discover how strong leadership shapes aged care recruitment across Australia and New Zealand.

Why Leading A Company Is Like Playing A Stadium Show

December 19, 2025
By John Caldwell

Recruitment is Broken. Here’s How We're Building the New Model.

By Shazamme System User • September 11, 2025
By John Caldwell Let’s be honest. For too long, the recruitment industry has been running on an outdated operating system. It’s become a transactional numbers game of shuffling résumés, matching keywords and pushing candidates into roles that fit a brief but not a purpose. It’s slow, impersonal and fundamentally misaligned with the speed and soul of modern business. This old model treats people like inventory. It’s the reason why so many companies feel underserved by their recruitment partners and why countless talented individuals feel unseen in their career search. That model is broken. And we’re not here to patch it up. We’re here to build its replacement. From Gatekeepers to Champions The fundamental flaw of the old model is its mindset. It positions recruiters as gatekeepers and guardians of a rigid process designed to filter people out. We believe in a different role entirely. We are Champions of Opportunity . This is more than a tagline. It’s actually a mandate. It means we are curious, fearless and relentless in our pursuit of the perfect connection. It means we don’t just wait for opportunities to appear; we actively create them. We ask the questions others don’t, we see the potential others miss and we understand that a single placement can change the trajectory of a career, a company and an entire industry. The New Model: Tech-Enabled, Human-First As a futurist and an entrepreneur, I believe technology is a powerful catalyst for change. We leverage the latest AI and data analytics to streamline processes and uncover insights that were previously invisible. But we do so with a clear purpose to free up our most valuable asset (our people). Technology can’t build trust over a coffee. It can’t understand the nuances of a company’s culture or the unspoken ambition of a candidate. It can’t forge a genuine connection that transforms a professional relationship into a true partnership. Our new model uses technology to enhance human intuition. It allows our specialists to spend their time on what truly matters: advising, coaching and building the deep, authentic relationships that lead to transformative outcomes. An Ecosystem of Ownership and Expertise Perhaps the most radical departure from the old model is how we are structured. RWR Group is not a top-down monolith. We are a thriving ecosystem of specialist business owners. Our franchise model is a core part of our vision to disrupt the industry. We empower the best recruiters to become leaders in their own right and true owners who are deeply invested in the success of their clients, their candidates and their communities. When you partner with RWR Health, Retailworld, Hospoworld or RWR Construction, you’re partnering with a business owner who has skin in the game, who lives and breathes their specialist sector and whose personal success is inextricably linked to yours. This is the power of "Playing as One" and "Owning It." It creates a level of accountability and passion that the old model simply cannot replicate. This is the Future of Recruitment This new model is about moving: From transactional placements to transformative partnerships . From filling roles to building careers and shaping industries . From a centralised machine to a community of empowered experts . We are building a new standard, one that is personal, bold and relentlessly focused on championing opportunity. The old way of doing things is finished. Are you ready for a recruitment partner that's built for tomorrow, not yesterday? Let's connect. 

This Mistake Cripples Businesses. Here's How to Stop It.

By RWR Group Marketing • August 27, 2025
By John Caldwell Throughout my career at RWR Group, I’ve seen the same costly mistake repeated time and time again. A business takes its top individual performer, a brilliant operator or a star salesperson, and promotes them into a leadership role. Everyone celebrates the promotion as a success. Six months later, that new leader is struggling, their team’s performance has dipped, and the culture is starting to sour. This isn’t a rare occurrence; it’s an epidemic of what I call ‘accidental managers’. And the data backs up what I've seen on the ground for decades. A recent Chartered Management Institute (CMI) study found that a staggering 82% of managers have received no formal leadership training. Think about that. We’re handing over our most valuable assets, our people and our culture, to leaders who have never been taught how to lead. It's no wonder Gartner found that 60% of new managers fail within their first two years. We are setting them up to fail. It’s a Selection Problem, Not Just a Skills Gap We can’t just blame a lack of training. The real issue starts earlier; it's a fundamental failure in how we select leaders. Too many organisations confuse operational excellence with leadership potential. Managing a P&L or driving sales is a completely different skill set from inspiring a team, driving strategic transformation, or building a high-performance culture. It is blunt: only one in ten people possesses the natural combination of talents to be a great manager. When we promote without a rigorous process for identifying that talent, the ripple effects are enormous: Top talent walks. People leave managers, not companies. I’ve seen entire high-performing teams dismantled by one poor leadership placement. Performance craters. An unsupported manager can’t set clear goals or motivate a team, directly impacting productivity and profitability. Brand value erodes. Your leaders define your company’s culture and reputation, both internally and in the market. Ineffective leadership damages your brand from the inside out. Building a Future-Proof Leadership Pipeline The good news is that this is entirely fixable. It requires a strategic shift in how we approach leadership development, both for external hires and internal promotions. First, hire for potential, not just past performance. When we partner with businesses, we look beyond the resume. We assess for emotional intelligence (EQ), learning agility, and genuine values alignment. Does this person have the humility to learn and the resilience to lead through change? Can they build a culture, not just manage a spreadsheet? Second, onboarding is everything. A leader's success shouldn't be left to chance. The placement is just day one. True success requires a structured development plan from the very beginning, including executive coaching, mentorship, and crystal-clear expectations for the first 90 days and beyond. At RWR Group, this is at the heart of what we do. We don’t just fill a vacancy; we act as strategic partners to help you identify and nurture leaders who are equipped to drive real transformation. Building a robust leadership pipeline isn’t just good practice—it’s the ultimate competitive advantage.