Key Figures
The Scale of the Challenge
Australia's aged care sector needs to attract an estimated 35,000 additional workers by 2025 to meet growing demand from an ageing population. This comes at a time when the sector is already struggling with chronic understaffing, high turnover rates, and increasing competition from other industries.
The aged care workforce has historically been characterised by lower wages than comparable healthcare roles, challenging working conditions, and limited career progression pathways. These factors make recruitment difficult and retention even harder.
Competition from Healthcare
Registered nurses and enrolled nurses trained in aged care settings are increasingly attracted to hospital roles that offer higher pay, more structured career pathways, and greater clinical variety. The gap between hospital and aged care nursing wages, while narrowing, remains significant enough to drive migration between sectors.
Personal care workers also face attractive alternatives in disability services, home care, and other support sectors. The National Disability Insurance Scheme has created thousands of support worker positions that compete directly with aged care for the same talent pool.
Retention as the Primary Strategy
In a tight labour market, retention is more cost-effective than recruitment. It costs significantly less to retain an experienced carer than to recruit and train a replacement. Yet many providers focus their energy on recruitment campaigns while overlooking the preventable departures occurring within their existing workforce.
Predictive analytics can identify carers at risk of leaving based on patterns in their workforce data. Early identification enables targeted retention interventions — from workload adjustments and roster improvements to development opportunities and recognition — before the departure decision is finalised.
Creating an Employer of Choice
Providers who succeed in the talent war typically differentiate through culture, flexibility, and investment in their people. Offering meaningful roster input, supporting professional development, recognising contributions, and creating a genuinely supportive work environment are all factors that influence retention.
Workforce intelligence platforms support these efforts by identifying what matters most to staff, highlighting where workload imbalances exist, and measuring the impact of retention initiatives. Data-driven workforce management does not replace good leadership — it enables it.