Competing for workers? Invest in their digital confidence.
In most industries, the focus of competitive effort rests squarely on attracting customers, but in the controlled aged care market, that’s not necessarily the case. While the recent years have seen a burgeoning and much-needed shift toward consumer centricity in the sector, attracting and retaining a quality workforce remains the most compelling challenge for aged care providers.
And this challenge will only grow, fed by workforce shortages across the wider health and disability care landscape and the Federal Government’s proposed introduction of mandatory staffing ratios.
Differentiating your organisation to attract and retain the best staff – against a backdrop of low base pay rates, workforce shortages and perceptions of high-pressure work under tough conditions – requires real structural change. It’s not just about higher wages; we must also create genuine and attractive opportunities for growth, learning and development, and more vibrant, stimulating and connected workplaces. Building digital confidence and skills across your workforce is fundamental to this shift.
Digital transformation, accelerated by the pandemic, has moved traditionally paper-based processes such as rostering online, highlighting digital skills and training gaps in a workforce that is largely casual, transient and migrant-based.
Workers report a lack of career path and investment in their learning and growth. Many healthcare and social support services now require technology which means the staff and volunteers delivering these must be equipped with the digital literacy to support their clients.
Investing in building digital capability in your staff fosters an environment where people feel supported not just to meet the demands of their role but to thrive.
Off-the-shelf training solutions are designed with assumptions about the digital literacy of the attendees and struggle to achieve the uptake required for technology to have a transformative impact. Realising the digital literacy potential of every individual requires a tailored approach with codesign at its heart, so that the learning is tightly linked to the outcomes the organisation is striving for.
The best training programs take your people on a shared journey towards digital confidence, where they learn and share skills peer-to-peer and create a vibrant culture of accelerated learning together.
Building a digitally empowered workforce: Australian Red Cross
Earlier this year, YourLink rolled out a transformative partnership with Australian Red Cross to deliver its Tech Smart Seniors program. This added digital inclusion and social support to enhance their existing Commonwealth Home Support service for over-65s in the NSW Hunter and Central Coast regions.
Red Cross relies on a small team of paid staff and an extensive network of volunteers to enact its home support service, taking seniors out for weekly shopping trips and outings, running daily phone check-ins to confirm they are safe and well, and scheduling hour-long phone chats for social contact. As Covid brought digital to the fore, the organisation sought to bring the wellbeing and practical benefits of the online world to the seniors in its care.
“We’re seeing great outcomes and feedback from our clients; little things like being able to download photos, get emails from relatives, or borrow books through the library app – those simple things we take for granted but that go a long way towards a more enriching life,” says Michael Ryan, Red Cross’ Regional Operations Manager, Central Coast/Hunter NSW.
“One man with significant health issues was recently able to see his sister in New Zealand for the first time in 15 years via the iPad”.
It's also been a boon for Red Cross’s workforce, diversifying options for staff and volunteers to make a difference, gain satisfaction in their work and develop their skills and confidence – all crucial ingredients in attracting and retaining the paid and unpaid workforce Red Cross relies on to undertake its vital work.
“We’ve codesigned the program with YourLink to take our paid and volunteer staff on this journey with our clients. Investing in digital empowerment gives us relevance in the home care market and helps us prove our value as a provider and employer in new Ways.”
“YourLink has been an ideal specialist partner in this journey. It’s great to be on the front foot in this space, developing innovative partnerships that grow our impact in the community and take us in the direction the government wants providers to go into the future.”
Contact Richard Scenna, Director by email richard@yourlink.com.au or phone 0408 742 743.
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