Effective workforce management is a critical component to the ongoing success of any aged car organisation. Workforce management includes the recruitment and onboarding of staff as well as the coordination of staff, ongoing training and professional development.

Staff shortages have presented an ongoing challenge to the aged care industry. There are a number of factors behind these shortages such as an ageing population in Australia increasing demand for services, high staff turnover rates within the industry, and caps on migration which limit the number of potential incoming care workers.

Understaffing, combined with a lack of adequately qualified staff, as a negative effect on the capacity of care providers to deliver care while high turnover rates also create familiarity and expertise issues for service users. Ultimately both impact continuity of care and the degree to which care can be truly person-centred. Given these challenges, it is imperative that aged care providers can recruit, onboard and manage their workforce in the most optimal manner to help with retention and upskill new staff quickly.

The Aged Care Reforms coming into effect throughout 2025 are aimed at improving care quality and delivery, and as such, include ways to improve workforce management.

In this blog, we will look at the upcoming workforce related reforms, as well as the ways in which a comprehensive care management system can help to streamline and enhance workforce management.

What workforce related changes are planned for 2025?

Wage increases

Under the Aged Cart Award, care staff are due to receive phased wage increases throughout 2025 and 2026. This has already commenced, with a 3% increase being applied to general care workers in January 2025.

New staffing requirements

To maintain compliance, providers must now ensure that a registered nurse is on site at residential aged care facilities 24/7. A minimum number of care minutes must also be met each day for each resident.

New training and qualification standards

Compliance with the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards will require staff to possess a wider range of clinical and care skills, including infection control and dementia care. This is where ongoing/additional training and record-keeping of training and certifications will become more important for aged care providers.

Regulatory changes

A new Aged Care Act comes into effect on the 1st of July 2025. This will introduce revised provider obligations, a new regulatory model, and enhanced worker screening requirements to safeguard older Australians. This Act also introduces a Statement of Rights that must be adhered to.

Proactive compliance investigations

The Fair Work Ombudsman will have authority to investigate employee wages, entitlements, record-keeping practices and other items that fall under the Fair Work Act in 2025. This will make it more important than ever for aged care providers to have good record-keeping practices in place, allowing them to demonstrate compliance with ease.

As we can see, workforce management will play a key role in the reforms planned for this year. These reforms aim to improve the quality of care being delivered by ensuring that aged care organisations are adequately staffed and maintaining regulatory compliance.

How does a care management system help?

As with many new regulatory requirements, the additional administrative burden will fall to aged care providers. As is often the case, the bulk of the record-keeping is also placed on care staff who are already pressed for time to spend on face-to-face interaction with their clients.

This is where a comprehensive care management system can make all the difference; by streamlining workforce management tasks and eliminating duplication and risk of transcribing errors by automating as much of the record-keeping process as possible.

Not only does a good care system reduce the administrative burden, but it can also improve staff wellbeing and retention by providing them with connectivity, instant access to information and a more streamlined user experience.

Here are some of the ways in which OneTouch can help.

Staff onboarding

OneTouch streamlines onboarding for both the provider and new employee using checklists, HR Files and automated alerts. This will be a tremendous time saver with the introduction of stronger worker screening requirements under the new Aged Care Act.

Use OneTouch to create checklists of the items new staff must complete before commencing employment, including uploading Police Clearances and bank details, reading staff handbooks and completing Health and Safety and Data Protection training.

Any documents that are uploaded are stored in the staff members own unique HR File. Set expiration dates to enable the system to alert staff when certifications need to be renewed. If certification lapses, the system can prevent staff from being scheduled onto a visit until this is resolved. Not only does this safeguard clients, but it also ensures the aged care provider does not breach compliance requirements.

Staff training and professional development

OneTouch allows providers to assign required training to staff based on their job role, whilst allowing staff to complete unique training courses including videos, slides, documents and quizzes. All certification of completion is logged against staff profiles to verify that training has been completed, with the ability to set training reminders and view progress.

This ensures that aged care providers are confident that their staff possess the correct qualifications, with the ability to run reports to verify this information in minutes.

Skills matching

Optimising staff schedules not only involves finding the fastest routes and matching clients with care staff in their vicinity but also matching staff skills and qualifications with client needs.

OneTouch uses a tag-based system to ensure that clients are matched with care staff that have the necessary skills and qualifications e.g. Manual Handling certification, CPR training, Mental Health training, Ventilator training or even the ability to speak a clients first language. This ensures that compliance is maintained and that clients are receiving high quality care that is aligned with their care needs and desired outcomes.

Payroll and reports

OneTouch streamlines payroll for both back-office and care staff. Care staff utilise the clock in and clock out feature to fill in their timesheets, where payrates are automatically calculated based on predefined pay rates. Once finalised, all payroll data is automatically collated and exported to the providers payroll system of choice.

Automated payroll calculations and exports remove the potential for human error and save hours of time for back-office staff every week. The ability to add and update pay rates ensures that providers are maintaining compliance with employee wages and other entitlements.

OneTouch also contains a comprehensive library of pre-built reports on areas such as Scheduled Vs Actual Work Time, Staff Member Pay, Total Monthly Approved and HR Files. This allows providers to perform an in-depth analysis on their workforce to ensure that compliance is maintained, and to identify areas in which costs can be reduced and efficiencies can be gained.

Future proofing your organisation

2025 will be  big year for reform and evolving regulatory requirements. With the new Aged Care Act on the horizon, now is the time for aged care providers to be assessing their systems and asking whether they are fit for purpose.

Here at OneTouch, we have our finger on the pulse and are ready to respond swiftly to new developments. Our cloud-based system also allows us to respond to change faster than other legacy systems on the market.

If you would like to see how OneTouch can streamline your workforce management, book a demo with us now. You can also check out our Support at Home Readiness checklist for further information on preparing for reform.