Written by Jude Lowe, Project Officer – Sector Support and Development, Southern Service Reform Group (SSRG), City of Onkaparinga
Janine Margarita Dizon, Research Fellow, Knowledge and Implementation Hub, ARIIA
Recruiting aged care workers is important. But recruitment alone won't solve the workforce challenges facing Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) providers.
The first Workforce Wins session from the Southern Service Reform Group (SSRG), featuring ARIIA Research Fellow Janine Dizon, explores an important question: what makes people want to stay?
For older people receiving support at home, workforce retention is more than an organisational issue. A familiar worker can understand routines, preferences and individual needs. Frequent changes can affect continuity, relationships and confidence. ARIIA’s research highlights that retention is influenced by multiple, interconnected factors. Supportive leadership, positive workplace culture, job autonomy, clear role expectations, and opportunities for training and development can all contribute to workers feeling valued, capable and committed.
For CHSP providers, the unique context and challenges matter. Workers may spend much of their time working independently in people's homes, travelling between clients and having limited opportunities for informal contact with colleagues. Understanding what helps people stay therefore requires more than looking at workforce numbers or turnover rates. It means listening to workers and understanding their experience of the job.
This raises an important question for providers: are we focusing enough on what makes a worker want to stay, not just what makes someone apply?
Training and development are part of that picture, but their value goes beyond meeting a training requirement. Providing access to training and mentoring helps workers see a future within the sector. Even when formal promotion opportunities are limited, supporting skill development and recognising expertise can boost job satisfaction and commitment. Learning can build confidence, strengthen connection with an organisation and give workers opportunities to develop and apply their skills and expertise.
This is particularly relevant as the aged care sector continues to navigate increasing workforce expectations alongside growing compliance and quality requirements. Providers need to meet those requirements, but they also need to create workplaces where workers can develop, contribute and feel supported to do their jobs well.
The Workforce Wins series will continue this conversation from different angles. We will look at what makes people recommend and remain with an organisation, the role of cultural safety in recruitment and retention, and how employers and training partners can work together to build skills and create reasons for people to stay.
From there, we will explore what happens after training is completed: how learning becomes capability, how evidence and knowledge become everyday practice, and how workplaces can become environments where learning happens as part of the job.
There is no single and one-size-fits-all solution to the workforce issues the sector is facing but there may be a useful place to start exploring the options: listen to the people doing the work, understand what matters in your particular context, and look beyond recruitment to the conditions that help good people stay.
Useful resources:
- ARIIA – Workforce Retention Hub:
- Australian Government – Guide to creating a workforce training plan