Things we’ve picked up along the way
Registration, relocation, careers and life on the other side of the world — field notes from the NHS, New Zealand and Australia.
The international recruitment toolkit
Our playbook for building an international workforce that lasts: two data primers and eight practical chapters, sourced from the OECD, Ahpra and Health NZ.
Supervision should not be the reason international recruitment fails
Done well, supervision is one of the strongest predictors of long-term success. A four-part discussion for clinical leaders on planning, the candidate experience, a practical framework, and how regions might work together.
From the people who moved
Stories and case studies“I never planned to leave the NHS”
Megan Barnes was a radiographer in Manchester and wasn’t looking to emigrate. The LinkedIn message, the million questions, the terror, and the afternoon she finished work and swam.
“I had never heard of Whāngārei”
Emad Kabiri, an anaesthetic technician and keen hiker from Iran, on the Northland town he had never considered, and why he’s glad he did.
From South Africa to Auckland
Janita came as a nuclear medicine technologist, with Jonathan and a dachshund called Nova. Safety, things that work, two sets of visiting parents — and the year it took Jonathan to find a job.
From Kerala to Palmerston North
Neethu, Anu and Rezon came by way of Abu Dhabi and Qatar. Three anaesthetic technicians, three families, and what the first year in a New Zealand city looked like.
Case studies: international recruitment that lasted
Real workforce examples: a rebuilt Anaesthetic Technician team in Palmerston North, and the lives that took root around the move.
Workforce strategy
For healthcare employers & leadersThe cost of an unfilled vacancy
Beyond the locum bill: the wellbeing, retention and continuity costs of a role left open, and why long-term planning matters more.
Why reducing agency spend starts with retention
Agency cost is usually a symptom, not the cause: why sustainable reductions begin with workforce stability.
People & culture
Why people stay, and thriveWhat your workforce is already telling you
Exit interviews, stay interviews and staff surveys are the most underused workforce-planning tools you already have.
Onboarding is where a move succeeds or fails
The best international recruitment doesn’t end at arrival. What great onboarding looks like, why cultural transition matters, and how people are helped to thrive.
International recruitment
What the move asks of everyone involvedAre we missing great talent by focusing too much on system familiarity?
Why an over-reliance on local-system experience quietly screens out excellent clinicians.
Speaking up, patient safety and the international workforce
Are we preparing internationally trained professionals for the culture of speaking up that modern healthcare expects?
Is using an agency worth the cost for international recruitment?
When a specialist partner adds value, and when recruiting directly is the better choice.
What good international recruitment looks like
Far more than a job offer and a visa: the year either side of a move that makes it last.
Most of what is written here came from a conversation with someone in the middle of it — a clinical lead rebuilding a team, a radiographer three weeks off a plane. If you are in the middle of one of these, we would rather talk than publish at you.