It’s been exactly a month since Blackthorn moved into our first commercial premises at Level 2, 245 St Asaph Street.And it’s been great! The flow state is back, we’re bumping into clients and candidates daily, and our operational rhythm is humming in sync with the CBD. To the point that earlier this week, we realised (perhaps embarrassingly) we have been eating our lunches off paper plates since the day we moved in.

So, we bought real plates this week, and it sparked an interesting conversation across the desk. Paper plates are brilliant in a pinch. They work fine when you are moving fast, setting up a new space, and just need a temporary vessel to hold a sandwich. But eventually, you try to put a heavy, complex meal on one, and it immediately folds in half, sending most of your lunch to the floor.

It made us look at our own industry and ask: what are the "paper plates" of talent acquisition? What are the quick-fix, temporary recruitment solutions that practices rely on, completely unaware that they are about to collapse under commercial pressure?

The "Post and Pray" Job Advert

Throwing an ad on a job board is the ultimate paper plate. It works adequate in a pinch, maybe for high volume entry level roles. But when you need a Senior Accountant who isn’t actively looking? The flimsy ad folds under the weight of the market. Engaging specialist technical talent requires active, confidential relationship building with discretion, not a passive digital net.

The HR Portal Black Hole

HR software has come a long way, and maybe AI is helping with that. But relying on an automated system to screen complex professional resumes is a temporary convenience that strips away vital context and filters out the nuance of a candidate’s career journey and reduces their commercial experience to a keyword. Real advocacy requires an deeper understanding of the person wanting to join your organisation. It means picking up the phone, and talking to the candidate or the hiring manager and seeing the strategic human capital hiding behind the CV.

The "Warm Body" Hire

When a practice is squeezed for capacity and partners are drowning in billable work, it is incredibly tempting to hire the first person who seems to meet the base requirements. It’s a quick fix, and you might get lucky. But while a candidate might look sound on paper, if their motivations and professional goals don’t align with your specific culture, that hire is going to buckle the minute the pressure of the role hits, like the paper plate it is.

Anchoring our footprint in the Christchurch CBD has forced us to upgrade our physical environment and throw out our paper plates. If your practice is trying to secure high value talent in an increasingly complex market, it might be time to audit your own talent acquisition process. If you’re still relying on temporary, paper plate recruitment strategies, it is only a matter of time before you lose your lunch.