The people a business relies on most are often the ones carrying more than anyone realises.

In this episode of Leader Scout, Tom looks at what actually makes good people become open to leaving, why it’s often not just about money, and the conversations leaders should be having long before there’s another offer on the table.

Because the best people don’t need another employee benefit or a conversation once they’ve resigned.

Leaders need to understand whether the job still works for them before somebody else asks.

🎧 Listen to The Employee You Can’t Afford to Lose on Spotify.

Follow Leader Scout for practical conversations on hiring, leadership and retention across construction, infrastructure and project-driven businesses.

Australia has the infrastructure pipeline.

The harder question is whether we're developing enough capable people to deliver it.

Steve Adamthwaite, ANZ Water Business Leader at Arup, joins Tom to talk engineering careers, leadership, retention, mentoring and why solving tomorrow's skills shortage starts with how we develop people today.

A practical conversation about what separates technical capability from leadership, why good engineers leave, and what the industry needs to do differently with the talent it already has.

Follow Leader Scout on Spotify or YouTube for practical conversations on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

Salary gets uncomfortable when two people walk into the conversation with completely different numbers.

And too often, businesses don't find that out until they've already found the person they want to hire.

In this episode, I break down what I'm seeing in salary conversations across the market and why "market rate" isn't always as straightforward as people make it sound.

Because finding a $30,000 gap at offer stage isn't a negotiation strategy. It's a conversation that should have happened weeks earlier.

Follow Leader Scout on Spotify or YouTube for practical conversations on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

Construction leaders know their businesses need to change.The harder part is actually making it happen.In this episode of Leader Scout, Tom sits down with Alastair Blenkin, Founder and CEO of ProcurePro, to unpack what he’s learned building a construction technology business from Australia to roughly 100 staff and expanding internationally.They get into why construction businesses can be slow to adopt new systems, why previous technology failures create resistance, and why having more data or AI doesn’t automatically mean better commercial decisions.Alastair also breaks down how ProcurePro approaches its own hiring as the business scales, including why every role starts with defining WGLL “what good looks like”, how founder videos are used to qualify candidates, and why the work done before the interview can matter more than the interview itself.

Connect with Alastair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alastairblenkin/

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Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leader-scout

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@leaderscoutpod

If you're responsible for hiring, commercial performance or leading change inside a construction business, this conversation is worth your time.Break it. Build it. Share it.

Every conversation, every update, every delay, and every piece of feedback tells candidates what it's really like to work for your business.

In this episode, I revisit three hiring habits that continue to separate businesses that consistently attract great people from those that keep missing out.

• Why communication shapes the candidate experience

• The role honest feedback plays in protecting your reputation

• How speed can be the difference between securing great talent and losing it

Follow Leader Scout for practical insights on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

We've convinced people there's only one way to have a successful career.

Get promoted.Manage people.Lead a team.

But what if that's exactly where we're getting it wrong?

In this episode, I explore why some of the industry's most important roles are becoming the hardest to fill, what I've learnt from speaking with engineers and employers across construction, and why career progression doesn't have to mean moving into management.

In this episode:

• Why estimating has become one of the hardest roles to recruit
• The story that changed how I think about career progression
• Why businesses need more than one definition of success
• One practical change every employer should consider

Because the people who win projects, solve problems, and master their craft are just as important as the people leading the team.Listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Follow Leader Scout for practical conversations on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

Every business wants to grow.

But growth becomes difficult the moment it asks us to change the way we've always done things.

In this episode, I unpack why businesses resist change, what it's really costing them, and how the best leaders know when to challenge the status quo before it becomes a competitive disadvantage.

• Why "We've always done it this way" might be the most expensive mindset in business
• The hidden fears behind resistance to new systems, technology, and better processes
• Practical ways to evaluate whether a new idea will improve your business or simply add complexity
• The leadership behaviours that help teams embrace change instead of resisting it

Because the biggest risk isn't trying something new.

It's staying comfortable while the industry moves forward.

Listen to the full episode on Spotify.

Follow Leader Scout for practical insights on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses

I've shared my thoughts on hiring, leadership, retention, alignment, and building better businesses on previous episodes.

This week, I wanted to take a step back and explain where those ideas actually came from, and what building People8 has taught me about leading people, growing a business, and knowing when it's time to let go.

In this episode, I share some of the biggest leadership lessons I've learnt since starting People8.

• Why building a business forced me to think beyond recruitment and focus on long-term partnerships

• The quote that changed how I think about leadership, delegation, and growing a team

• Why great leaders don't try to carbon copy themselves, they build capability in the people around them

• How clarity, expectations, and trust create the foundation for teams that can grow without becoming dependent on one person

Because if you want to build a business that lasts, leadership isn't about doing more yourself.

It's about creating an environment where other people can succeed.

Listen to the full episode now.

Follow Leader Scout for practical insights on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

AI isn't coming. It's already here.

The question isn't whether you'll use it. The question is whether you'll learn to use it well while keeping people at the centre of your hiring decisions.

In this episode, I break down where AI adds real value to the hiring process, where it falls short, and why the best hiring managers will always stay in the pilot's seat.

• Why businesses that ignore AI risk being left behind
• How AI can remove repetitive admin and speed up your hiring process
• Where human judgement still matters most, from interviews to hiring decisions
• Three practical questions to help you decide where AI belongs in your business

Technology should improve the way you hire. It should never replace the people responsible for making the decision.

Follow Leader Scout for practical insights on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.

Too many businesses try to assess capability, sell the role, discuss salary, and make a hiring decision all in one conversation. The result is two polished sales pitches instead of an honest discussion about whether both sides are actually the right fit.

In this episode, I explain why I've stopped calling the first meeting an interview and started calling it an alignment discussion.

• Why trying to achieve too much in the first interview increases hiring risk
• The three areas of alignment every hiring manager should explore before discussing salary or benefits
• Better questions that uncover expectations, motivation, and long-term fit
• A simple framework you can use to make better hiring decisions from the very first conversation

Alignment is what gives both the business and the candidate the best chance of succeeding.

Follow Leader Scout for practical insights on hiring, leadership, retention, and workforce strategy across construction, infrastructure, and project-driven businesses.