Walk us through how you get to where you are and what drew you specifically to the marketing side of recruitment.

Yeah, so I have to think back to 2001 now, when I first got into recruitment.

Fell into it, I think, as most of us do.

And I went for a job interview for a sales job at the time.

And there was a recruiter who was interviewing me, said, have you ever considered recruitment? I thought, well, what's that? I really didn't know too much about it at the time.

And yeah, sort of that was that.

Started my recruitment career in Stockport, Greater Manchester.

It's more like we have this job and people will apply.

How much of an issue is burnout for emergency service volunteers?

It's a huge issue.

Uh, it, it's a huge issue, and I think we see certainly both anecdotally and through the data that where community, uh, demand increases, where the need within community increases, people naturally just step up and fill that gap.

Um, uh, again, the, the latest data shows us, yes, there are the same number of volunteers volunteering, but they contributed last year 128 million more hours than they did previously.

So it tells you that the same number of people are doing the volunteering, but they're having to spend more of their time in volunteer roles.

And for many people that's fine, they're happy to do it, but it's critically important that we understand the issues around burnout, around the, um, the toll that takes on people to be engaged n- not in, not just in any, any part of volunteering or, or community broadly, but when it comes to emergency services, there is oftentimes trauma associated with it.

There is a far greater responsibility that comes along with those sorts of roles, and awareness around that in the first instance is really important.

Mark, what other supports could we formalize so that, uh, volunteers all over Australia are as well supported as it sounds like Lachy's been able to be?

How much of an issue is burnout for emergency service volunteers?

It's a huge issue.

Uh, it, it's a huge issue, and I think we see certainly both anecdotally and through the data that where community, uh, demand increases, where the need within community increases, people naturally just step up and fill that gap.

Um, uh, again, the, the latest data shows us, yes, there are the same number of volunteers volunteering, but they contributed last year 128 million more hours than they did previously.

So it tells you that the same number of people are doing the volunteering, but they're having to spend more of their time in volunteer roles.

And for many people, that's fine.

They're happy to do it.

Mark, what other supports could we formalize so that, um, volunteers all over Australia are as well supported as it sounds like Lachie's been able to be?