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Q3 2026 HR Health Check: 5 Things to Fix Before the Year Ends

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Q3 2026 HR Health Check: 5 Things to Fix Before the Year Ends

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Business Update, Career Planning, Change management, Culture, External HR Support, HR essentials, Leadership

Day 31 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — the final day of the series, and I’m sending you into then last quarter of 2026 with a practical action list.

The end of August is an underutilised moment for SME leaders. You’re past the mid-year mark, the December holiday period is still far enough away to actually fix things, and Q4 is close enough that the decisions you make now will determine how you finish the year.
Here are five HR priorities worth addressing in the next eight weeks.

 

 

1. Review your employment contracts and policies

If you haven’t looked at them since before the last round of Fair Work Act changes, they need a review. Employment law has moved — pay rates, Award obligations, flexible work rights, psychosocial safety requirements. What you don’t know about is still your legal liability.

 

2. Address any outstanding performance issues 

If you’ve been managing a performance concern informally and it hasn’t resolved, formalise it now. A structured improvement process started in September gives you a proper timeframe to assess progress and make informed decisions before the holiday disruption of December.

 

3. Run retention check-ins across the team  

Have direct, genuine conversations with your key people. Not a formal survey — a human conversation. Ask how they’re going. Ask what would make their work better. Listen to the answers. People tell you when they’re thinking of leaving, if you ask the right questions and make it safe to be honest.

 

4. Audit your leave balances

Excessive annual leave balances are a liability on your balance sheet and, in many Awards, a compliance issue. If people are accruing significant leave entitlements, now is the time to encourage and plan leave before December when everyone wants to take it simultaneously.

 

5. Plan your last quarter resourcing

Are you going to need additional capacity for your busiest period? If so, the recruitment process needs to start now — not in October when you need someone by November. Identify the gaps, build the plan, start the process.

 

That’s 31 Days of Better Workplaces 

A full month of practical HR insight and forward-thinking perspective designed to help Australian businesses build workplaces where people actually want to work.
If any of these posts raised a question you want to dig into — or if you’ve been reading along and realising it’s time to take a closer look at your HR foundations — let’s talk.

 

Book a free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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The Hiring Myths Costing Businesses Great Candidates — and the New Thinking That’s Replacing Them

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The Hiring Myths Costing Businesses Great Candidates — and the New Thinking That's Replacing Them

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Career Planning, Change management, Culture, External HR Support, HR essentials, Leadership

Day 29 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — hiring is the conversation that connects all the others. Get it right and you build the culture, the capability, and the team you need. Get it wrong and everything else becomes harder. 

Most businesses hire using assumptions about what good looks like that haven’t been seriously interrogated in decades. And the workforce they’re trying to hire looks nothing like it did when those assumptions were formed.

 

Myth 1: ‘The best CVs gets the job’ 

The CV tells you what someone has done. It tells you almost nothing about whether they can do what you need, whether they’ll fit your culture, or whether they have the capacity to grow into the role’s future demands.
Skills-based hiring — evaluating candidates on demonstrated capabilities rather than credentials and employment history — is one of the most significant shifts happening in the global HR space right now. IBM, Apple, Dell, and the Australian Public Service have all removed degree requirements from substantial portions of their roles. The evidence is that job performance correlates poorly with where someone went to university and well with whether they can demonstrably do the work.
For SMEs, this is genuinely liberating. You’re competing for talent against companies with bigger brand names and bigger compensation budgets. A skills-based approach lets you find exceptional people that credential-focused companies are filtering out.

 

 

Myth 2: ‘We’ll know the right person when we meet them’ 

Gut-feel hiring is one of the best-documented sources of bias in the employment process. We like people who remind us of ourselves, who make us comfortable, who communicate in familiar ways. We discount people who are different — different background, different style, different way of presenting.
The research on unstructured interviews is unambiguous: they have poor predictive validity for job performance. Structured interviews — with consistent questions assessed against defined criteria — consistently outperform them. Standardised work samples and practical assessments outperform interviews.
This doesn’t mean you hire someone you don’t like. It means you separate your subjective response from your assessment of capability.

 

 

Myth 3: ‘Gen Z candidates just don’t have the work ethic’ 

This is perhaps the most damaging hiring myth circulating right now. Gen Z is the most educated, most digitally capable, most values-driven generation to enter the workforce. They have high expectations — of transparency, of purpose, of being managed well. Those expectations are not a character flaw.
The businesses that dismiss Gen Z candidates based on stereotypes are cutting themselves off from the majority of the available talent pool. The ones treating them as the discerning, capable adults they are — with clear communication about what the role involves, what the culture is like, and what development opportunities exist — are consistently reporting strong outcomes.

 

What smart hiring looks like now

Define the skills and capabilities the role actually requires — not just qualifications and experience — before you advertise. Build a structured process that assesses those capabilities consistently. Treat the candidate experience as a brand experience — how you hire reflects on who you are as an employer. Ask yourself honestly whether your hiring process is designed for the candidate market you have today, or the one that existed fifteen years ago.

Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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Strengths-Based Leadership: The Performance Approach That Changes Everything

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Strengths-Based Leadership: The Performance Approach That Changes Everything

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Business Update, Career Planning, Change management, Culture, External HR Support, HR essentials, Leadership

Day 28 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — today I want to make the case for strengths-based leadership as one of the most evidence-backed and under-utilised approaches in the modern workplace. 

And I want to be honest about why it’s still underused: because most leadership systems are built around fixing weaknesses, not amplifying strengths. Performance reviews spend the majority of time on development areas. Coaching conversations default to what’s not working. Improvement plans are, by definition, focused on deficits.
This is understandable. It’s human to notice what’s wrong. But it’s also producing worse outcomes than the alternative.

 

 

What the research shows

Gallup’s research — across millions of workers in dozens of countries — has produced a consistent finding: employees who use their strengths every day are six times more engaged than those who don’t. More engaged employees are more productive, have lower absenteeism, deliver better customer outcomes, and stay significantly longer.
The evidence on strengths-based interventions is also compelling in terms of performance improvement. Focusing development conversations on what someone does naturally well and building more opportunities for them to do it more produces measurably better performance outcomes than focusing exclusively on correcting weaknesses.
This does not mean ignoring genuine performance problems — and I want to be clear about that. If someone’s weaknesses are causing real harm to their work or team, those need to be addressed. Strengths-based leadership is not an excuse to avoid difficult conversations.
But it does mean rebalancing. The current default in most performance management systems is heavily deficit-focused — and the research suggests we’ve got the ratio wrong.

 

 

What’s emerging in contemporary businesses 

Strengths-based hiring: using tools like CliftonStrengths or DiSC (I’m an accredited DiSC facilitator) not just for development but to inform role design and team composition — understanding which combinations of strengths create high-performing teams.
Strengths-based job design: deliberately building roles and assignments that allow individuals to spend more of their time in areas of natural strength, rather than requiring everyone to perform identically across all dimensions.
Strengths-aware leadership conversations: leaders who understand the strengths profile of each team member and use that understanding to assign work, provide feedback, and have development conversations.

 

 

What this looks like in practice

Instead of asking “what do you need to improve?” in a performance conversation, also asking “where do you feel most energised at work, and how do we create more of that?”
Instead of designing teams for homogeneity, designing them for complementary strengths — understanding that what looks like “a difficult personality” is often a misapplied strength.
Instead of managing everyone the same way, adjusting how you communicate, delegate, and develop based on what each person naturally brings.

 

My view

The businesses building strengths-based cultures right now are not doing it because it feels good, although it does. They’re doing it because the data says it works. It produces better performance, better retention, and better wellbeing outcomes simultaneously — and in a tight labour market, that combination is a genuine competitive advantage.

Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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Conflict at Work: When to Intervene and How

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Conflict at Work: When to Intervene and How

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Career Planning, Culture, External HR Support, HR essentials, Leadership

Day 27 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — workplace conflict is inevitable. How you respond to it is not. 

Most leaders fall into one of two patterns: they intervene too early — stepping in to resolve things that the parties involved could have worked out themselves — or they wait too long, hoping things settle down and allowing conflict to escalate and damage both relationships and team performance.
Neither approach serves the business well.

 

 

The three types of conflict 

Task conflict

  • disagreement about approaches, methods, or work content.

This is actually healthy in small doses — it produces better decisions. Leaders should facilitate these conversations, not suppress them. 

Process conflict  

If employees do not feel safe to raise concerns, issues often stay hidden until they escalate. Businesses need reporting pathways that are trusted, clear, and free from fear of retaliation.

3. Workplace policies need to be lived, not just written 

  • disagreement about how work gets done, who is responsible, and what the expectations are.

This is often a management failure — unclear roles, poor processes, or misaligned expectations create the conditions for this type of conflict. The fix is usually structural, not interpersonal. 

Relationship conflict

  • personal friction between individuals.

This is the most damaging, the slowest to self-resolve, and the one that most requires active management intervention.

 

When to intervene

If the conflict is affecting the work, affecting other team members, or showing signs of escalating — intervene now. The “wait and see” approach for relationship conflict almost always results in a worse outcome.
Early intervention looks like: a private conversation with each person to understand their perspective, followed by a facilitated conversation between them where the goal is a workable way forward, not a declaration of who was right.

 

What not to do 

Don’t take sides based on seniority or performance history. Don’t discuss the conflict with other team members. Don’t make promises you can’t keep about outcomes.

 

When it’s beyond a conversation 

If the conflict involves allegations of bullying or harassment, it needs to be managed as a formal matter — with a proper investigation process, appropriate documentation, and adherence to your policies and the law.
Getting conflict management right protects the individuals involved, the team around them, and the culture of the business.

 

Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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Offboarding: The Process That Protects Your Business When People Leave

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Offboarding: The Process That Protects Your Business When People Leave

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Business Update, Culture, External HR Support, HR essentials, Leadership

Day 26 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — offboarding is the business process that most SMEs have never thought about deliberately. They have an onboarding process — or at least the beginnings of one — but when someone leaves, it’s often managed reactively, inconsistently, and incompletely. 

That creates risk. Here’s what a proper offboarding process covers. 

 

 

Knowledge transfer 

When someone leaves, their knowledge leaves with them — unless you’ve deliberately captured it. Before their last day, critical processes, contacts, client relationships, passwords, and institutional knowledge should be documented and handed over. This is particularly important for long-tenured employees or roles with high operational dependency.

 

System access

On or before their last day, all system access should be revoked: email, CRM, finance systems, cloud storage, social media accounts, and any other platforms they had access to. Failing to do this promptly creates security exposure that may not be visible until there’s a problem.

 

Client and stakeholder communication

For client-facing roles, manage the transition actively. Who tells key clients? When? What’s the narrative? Who takes over the relationship? A poorly managed departure can cost you a client who would otherwise have stayed.

 

Return of company property

Laptops, phones, access cards, company credit cards, and any other physical assets need to be returned and logged. This is legally required where these items are specified in the employment contract, and practically important regardless.

 

Exit interview (see Day 9) 

Already covered earlier in the series — but it bears repeating here as a structured part of the offboarding process. The exit interview should happen in the final week, conducted by someone the departing employee trusts to use the information constructively.

 

Final pay and documentation

As we covered on Day 23 — final pay must be processed within the required timeframe and must include all owed entitlements. Provide a letter confirming end of employment if requested.
The way someone leaves your business becomes a story they tell. A clean, respectful, well-managed exit creates an ambassador. A chaotic, incomplete, or poorly handled one creates a reputation risk.

 

Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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Working Rights Are Changing. Here’s What Australian Businesses Need to Know — and What’s Coming Next.

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Working Rights Are Changing. Here's What Australian Businesses Need to Know — and What's Coming Next.

Filed Under: Advisory and compliance, Business Update, Change management, External HR Support, HR essentials

Day 25 of 31 Days of Better Workplaces — flexible work is the issue that’s generated more questions from my clients than almost anything else in the last three years. The legislative landscape is evolving, the employee expectations are settled, and the gap between the two is where most of the conflict lives. 

 

 

What’s already changed 

The Fair Work Act amendments have progressively strengthened employee rights around flexible work requests. Employees with caring responsibilities, disability, pregnancy, or employees aged 55 and over now have an enhanced right to request flexible arrangements, and employers must have a genuine reason grounded in reasonable business grounds to refuse.
The bar for what counts as “reasonable business grounds” has risen. “We prefer people in the office” or “it’s how we’ve always done things” is not a sufficient basis for refusal. Specific, demonstrable operational requirements are required.

 

 

What employers are getting wrong 

Blanket policies. A policy that mandates a specific number of office days for all employees — regardless of role, caring responsibilities, disability, or individual circumstance — may be lawful in some contexts and discriminatory in others. Blanket mandates are increasingly being challenged, and the outcomes are not always going the employer’s way.
Refusing requests without genuine consideration. The right to request is not a guarantee of a specific arrangement, but it is a guarantee of genuine engagement. Brushing off a request, responding slowly, or giving a form-letter refusal creates legal exposure.
Conflating presence with performance. The evidence on remote work productivity is mixed — it depends heavily on the role, the individual, and the quality of management. But businesses that measure performance by presence are increasingly out of step with both the evidence and the regulatory direction of travel.

 

What’s coming

The conversation in Australia is moving toward the framework already established in some European jurisdictions — a more explicit right to disconnect outside of standard work hours. The Closing Loopholes legislation has introduced a right to disconnect for many workers, meaning employers need to review their expectations around after-hours communication.

 

 

What forward-thinking businesses are doing 

They’re building flexible work policies that are specific, fair, and genuinely applied — not blanket rules or empty commitments. They’re training managers to manage remote and hybrid teams effectively — not assuming that managing in-person and managing remotely require the same skills. They’re treating flexibility as a retention tool, because the evidence is clear that access to flexible work is a significant factor in how employees evaluate whether to stay.
The future of work is hybrid. The businesses building the frameworks to manage that well, now, are the ones that will retain the talent that makes it possible.

Book your free 30-minute consultation at Blue Kite HR Consulting 

 

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