Your Talent Partner - Natalie Jones

I’ve spent more than 20 years working in talent, from attraction through to development, and from early careers through to leadership.

Yes, I understand talent strategy, hiring, and the practical decisions that shape great people outcomes. But what has always interested me most is people themselves - what makes someone thrive in their work, where potential gets overlooked, and why some decisions that look right on paper don’t always work in reality.

I still remember offering my very first role to a candidate and feeling unexpectedly emotional about it. It wasn’t just that a role had been filled. It was knowing something meaningful had shifted for that person - a fresh start, a better fit, an opportunity they were genuinely excited about. That perspective has stayed with me.

Over the years, I’ve worked across agency recruitment, RPO, in-house talent acquisition, executive hiring, employer brand, talent transformation, and enterprise talent strategy, helping businesses make better people decisions at every stage of growth.

What became increasingly clear is that, even 20 years later, many organisations still rely heavily on past experience as the primary signal for future success. Experience matters, of course, but it rarely tells the full story.

When I discovered strengths-based hiring, I was hooked. That curiosity led me deeper into strengths accreditation and positive psychology, because when you look beyond what someone has done before and begin to understand the skills that energise them, you unlock a much richer view of potential - and that’s often where the magic happens.

That thinking sits at the heart of Blooming Potential.

While much of my work focuses on helping businesses hire more thoughtfully through a strengths-based approach, I also support individuals navigating career change, confidence challenges, and the often overwhelming question of what comes next. Understanding both sides of the hiring equation brings a perspective many traditional recruiters or career coaches simply don’t have.

Outside of work, I’m endlessly curious, love an arts and crafts day with the kids, am deeply interested in positive psychology, and am probably far too capable of turning a simple idea into an unnecessarily ambitious project. I’m also regularly interrupted on calls by Bear, our dog, who appears to believe he works at Blooming Potential too.

If you’re looking for a more thoughtful, strengths-led and future-focused approach to hiring or career growth, welcome.