Wongaburra Society – Case Study
We partnered with Wongaburra Society to stabilise their aged care workforce, dramatically reduce agency costs and improve staff retention through strategic recruitment and new rostering practices
Workforce Improvement Project
Background
Wongaburra Society (Wongaburra) is a community run not-for-profit aged care provider based in rural Beaudesert, Queensland. Wongaburra was facing significant workforce challenges from the Covid 19 pandemic including high staff turnover, overtime and agency costs impacting their budget, staff burnout and associated absenteeism and an inability to recruit and retain qualified staff. Our team was engaged as specialists within the aged care industry to provide both strategic advice and operational support to overcome these challenges and build sustainable workforce systems, ensure compliance with new government requirements and position the business for ongoing success.
Approach
Our team collected and analysed workforce data, policies and procedures, and spoke to staff to gain insight into different perspectives of the challenges facing Wongaburra. We then identified high-risk areas requiring urgent attention, with particular focus on staffing within the clinical care team as the priority. They included:
A high number of vacant shifts within the Master Rosters
Insufficient staff to fill rosters resulting in high usage of agency staff
High staff turnover rates with 43% of staff exiting within 6 months or less
High levels of unplanned absenteeism
Staff burnout and training fatigue (relating to high turnover)
Poor rostering practices resulting in compliance risks, errors, and workforce instability
An action plan was presented to and endorsed by the CEO and Board with the key objective to stabilise the workforce through a variety of strategies including:
Urgent recruitment of suitable staff using innovative recruitment and selection strategies that focused highly on personal qualities and behaviours required for various positions. This included the introduction of an Assessment Centre recruitment process to assess candidates across a variety of scenarios and providing applicants with a greater understanding of the role and work environment.
Significantly expanding the onboarding process to address high turnover rates in the first six months of employment. The key was to provide staff with greater support, particularly for inexperienced staff, with a new buddy program to provide a positive learning environment, tailor the learning process to the individual, and maximise the retention of new staff.
Undertake a major review of staff rosters and rostering practices, improving the linkages between recruitment, onboarding, and roster planning. The centrepiece was a new proactive planning rostering model with flexibility to respond effectively to changes in operational requirements and ensure compliance with new government requirements for minimum care minute targets.
Outcomes
Our team provided hands on operational support to the Wongaburra team across a period of 6 months to implement the action plan, the results of which exceeded the expectations of the CEO and Board. Key outcomes included:
Recruitment of 42 staff (across clinical care) while maximising the hours of the current workforce to fill Master Rosters and provide sufficient staffing levels for leave relief
Implementation of updated Master Rosters aligned to a new Model of Care designed to provide flexibility and ensure compliance with mandatory care minute requirements
Implementation of a Relief Pool of permanent staff with capacity to backfill periods of planned and unplanned leave without the need for high-cost agency staff
Implementation of new, proactive rostering procedures and practices that have improved compliance, continuity of care, attendance, reporting, workforce stability, and staff morale
Significant reduction in agency and overtime costs to below budgeted targets. The agency staff expenditure decreased from a peak of $200,000 a month to less than $5,000 per month.
Compliance with government mandated care minute targets and an increase in the Star Rating for the staffing category (Department of Health and Aged Care information on the performance of residential aged care homes across Australia)
Turnover rates reduced by over 150% with a notable improvement in retention within the first 6 months of employment
Following the success of the initial 6-month action plan, Wongaburra continues to engage the team to provide HR support and implement strategies to further improve the operations of the business.
