By Anna Roussos, Director, Roussos Recruitment
Across engineering consultancies, architecture studios, and construction firms in South Australia, a slow-burning crisis is reaching a tipping point: the retirement of Baby Boomers. These are the leaders, site managers, designers, and technical experts who helped build the modern face of Adelaide, and with every retirement, a wealth of institutional knowledge leaves with them.
This isn't just a generational shift, it's a potential operational risk.
What Is the Brain Drain and Why Should You Care?
The “Brain Drain” refers to the mass departure of experienced professionals who carry deep knowledge, most of it undocumented and unshared. It’s the senior engineer who knows how to negotiate complex stakeholder politics on government infrastructure projects. The site manager who can anticipate risk based on patterns no AI software can replicate. The architect who’s navigated decades of DAs, heritage overlays, and community engagement.
And while their departure is inevitable, their knowledge loss is not.
Why Succession Planning Is Being Ignored?
In speaking with SA business owners, one theme emerges again and again:“We’re too busy to think about succession.” But ignoring it doesn’t make the risk disappear.
The problem isn’t just retiring leaders, it is the lack of mid-level readiness. There are too few up-and-coming professionals being prepared to lead. When a senior leaves, gaps appear not just in delivery, but in client relationships, internal cohesion and strategic continuity.
What’s Stopping Us?
Busyness and short-term thinking
The project delivery cycle leaves little room for mentorship, training or shadowing.Cultural resistance
Some senior staff don’t want to let go, fearing loss of relevance or identity.Lack of process
Many businesses don’t have formal structures to document processes or facilitate knowledge transfer.
The Businesses Getting It Right
We are seeing some great models emerging across South Australia:
Formal mentoring and shadowing programs for staff approaching retirement.
Knowledge capture systems where key learnings from projects are documented.
Advisory roles for retiring leaders – a softer off-ramp that keeps their insight accessible.
Reverse mentoring, where younger staff help older leaders stay updated on tech, while learning from their wisdom.
Your Next Steps...
If your business hasn’t started succession planning, now is the time to:
Identify your knowledge holders – who would leave a major gap if they retired tomorrow?
Create a transition roadmap – who can step in? What do they need to learn?
Incentivise knowledge sharing – make it part of performance and leadership KPIs.
Normalise legacy-building – reframe succession as a career milestone, not an exit strategy.
People don’t just retire. They take decades of experience with them. The companies that thrive in the coming decade will be those who treat succession not as an afterthought, but as an integral part of business continuity.
It’s not just about who’s next. It’s about what knowledge needs to be passed on now, before it’s gone forever.
We'd love to help if we can. Email anna@roussosrecruitment.com.auor phone 08 7073 6872