Aaron Neilson
Principal, Strategic Partnership
CEO, The Next Group
Aaron has spent more than 20 years in safety recruitment and workforce consulting. He knows what organisations look like when their people and safety strategy is working, and what it costs when it isn't.
How Aaron arrived at
The Strategic Step
Aaron began his career in safety recruitment in Melbourne, eventually becoming Managing Director of Safesearch before leading The Safe Step as MD. He now serves as CEO of The Next Group, the parent company of The Safe Step and The Next Step.
The Strategic Step grew out of a gap he kept seeing. Recruitment solves two thirds of the puzzle: permanent and contract labour to fill structural gaps. The other third is harder: complex problems that need strategic expertise, not just a placement. The Strategic Step was built to solve that third.
Aaron’s Approach
Aaron's starting point is always the problem, not the solution. That means getting close enough to a business to understand it properly — its people, its culture, what it's actually trying to achieve — before offering anything.
He describes The Strategic Step's role as an extension of a client's own team rather than an external party brought in to deliver a scope. If the problem sits outside what the advisory can genuinely solve, he'll say so and point clients toward someone who can.
“Our service is to support businesses to grow capability, capacity, and have greater impact within their own enterprise strategies.””
What motivates Aaron
Twenty years of connecting people and organisations has kept one question consistent: where can we create real value? For Aaron, The Strategic Step is the latest answer to that question — a way to help businesses realise their potential through workforce strategy, not just workforce supply.
Aaron is based in Melbourne and works with clients across safety, HR, and related disciplines nationally.