NATIONAL UPDATE
THE MEASURE OF OUR INDUSTRY LASA AGED CARE WORKFORCE BENCHMARKING SETS THE BAR
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eading Age Services Australia (LASA) has collaborated with Mercer to produce the first-ever LASA Workforce Benchmarking Survey, with the LASA Workforce Benchmarking Report now available for purchase.
We are living through a fundamental transformation in age services, and our industry needs a strong workforce strategy underpinned by meaningful data, that will sustain anticipated growth and support changing consumer expectations. Good workforce planning was identified in A Matter of Care – Australia’s Aged Care Workforce Strategy as a key area of development for providers. It was also considered in the Aged Care Royal Commission’s recommendations, in terms of the role of the Aged Care Workforce Industry Council and the collection of aged care data on matters including workforce. The LASA Workforce Benchmarking Survey was a response to this need, with a view to setting a baseline for future surveys, which will help identify trends over time and provide valuable information for providers and policy-makers. The survey saw participating residential care and home care providers completing a comprehensive set of nearly 40 questions, in order to extract essential information on a range of workforce issues. Mercer advised on the survey design, managed the data collection, cleaned the data and prepared the report. Areas measured included funding; gross profit and revenue; workforce demographics, employment type and qualifications; total staffing costs; rates of pay for DONs, RNs, ENs, PCWs, home care and allied health employees; modern award or Enterprise Agreement; CEO remuneration; overtime; amount spent on agency fees; productivity margin; workers compensation; employee turnover; staffing vacancy rate; average time to recruit and start an employee; unfilled shifts; absenteeism; direct care hours; training costs; WHS recorded incidents; number of formal complaints against staff; and lost time injury frequency rate. Survey participants covered a vast area of Australia, with head offices or operations in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Ninety per cent were not-for-profit with the remainder privately owned. We also had good coverage based on the services offered, with 78 per cent of participating providers operating aged care
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facilities, 68 per cent providing home care services, and 68 per cent operating within the independent living environment. In the report, the participants are compared as a whole group and are also divided into four tiers based on gross revenue, total FTE and total headcount. This was done so that providers reading the report can compare themselves to other providers of similar size. Those participants who wanted a more in-depth comparison were able to purchase an additional individualised report (this offer was only available to survey participants). LASA CEO Sean Rooney says the timing of the survey and delivery of the report was set knowing that the age services industry would be moving into the post-Royal Commission and post-Budget environment. “Workforce was front and centre in both the Royal Commission’s final report, the Federal Government’s response to it, and in aspects of the Federal Budget,” he said. “It is crystal clear that workforce is one of the core elements that providers and the industry need to get right into the future. “We are indebted to the survey participants, who took time out of their already busy working weeks to contribute to the LASA Workforce Benchmarking Project.” Workforce planning is in the hands of individual providers and is a key area of development moving into a new environment, driven by changing regulations and consumer expectations. The LASA Workforce Benchmarking Report provides benchmarking on important aspects of the aged care workforce that can assist providers to undertake workforce planning. It does this by enabling them to: • Assess their performance in key areas against other providers in the sector • Set goals for the organisation’s performance in these key areas • Better understand the environment in which operate We believe the report will become an essential part of workforce planning for age services providers in Australia, and look forward to more providers being involved in the survey in 2022. Claire Bailey is Manager Employment Relations, Leading Age Services Australia.
Providers interested in purchasing the report, please email workforcebenchmark@lasa.asn.au
