Victoria’s health and aged care sectors are being asked to do more with increasingly complex workforces.

Demand for care continues to grow, while providers manage vacancies, employee leave, changing occupancy, regional workforce shortages and the ongoing challenge of protecting workforce wellbeing.

In that environment, workforce flexibility is no longer simply a contingency measure. It is becoming part of the workforce infrastructure required to keep services operating safely and sustainably.

Professional labour hire is one component of that workforce ecosystem.

Labour hire provides workforce flexibility when providers need it most

Healthcare and aged care don’t operate on a predictable 9-to-5 workforce model.

People become unwell. Employees take leave. Staff resign. Demand changes. Occupancy fluctuates. New services open. Existing employees need flexibility.

And, critically, care cannot simply stop because a position is vacant.

A professional labour hire partner provides access to a pool of appropriately qualified and screened workers who can step into these gaps quickly.

That flexibility can be the difference between a provider being able to safely operate a service and having to reduce capacity, cancel services or place additional pressure on an already stretched permanent workforce.

Labour hire supports — not replaces — the permanent workforce

There is sometimes a perception that labour hire competes with permanent employment. It shouldn’t.

The best labour hire models complement permanent recruitment.

Permanent employees should remain the foundation of a sustainable workforce. Labour hire provides flexibility around that foundation.

A provider might have 95% of its workforce permanently employed but still need labour hire to manage the remaining 5% when vacancies, leave or unexpected demand arise.

The objective shouldn’t be to replace permanent employees with labour hire. It should be to make sure providers have the workforce capacity they need, when they need it.

Labour hire can help protect workforce wellbeing

One of the less discussed benefits of labour hire is its potential impact on permanent employees.

When a vacancy remains unfilled, the workload doesn’t disappear. It is often absorbed by existing staff through additional shifts, overtime, changed rosters and increased workloads.

Over time, this can contribute to fatigue, burnout and retention problems.

Used appropriately, labour hire can provide breathing space. It allows permanent employees to take annual leave, provides additional capacity when demand increases and helps prevent teams from continually operating below establishment.

The value isn’t simply in supplying a person

A professional labour hire organisation should provide much more than a database of available workers. The real value sits behind the placement.

That includes candidate attraction and sourcing; qualification and credential verification; reference checking; police and other required checks; right-to-work verification; compliance with industrial instruments; appropriate onboarding; understanding provider requirements; workforce availability and rostering; performance management; ongoing worker engagement; and rapid response when circumstances change.

In other words, a professional labour hire provider becomes an extension of the provider’s workforce capability.

Compliance must be at the centre of labour hire

There is another reason professional labour hire organisations matter: compliance.

Victoria has a comprehensive labour hire regulatory framework, making it particularly important that providers understand who they are partnering with and the systems that sit behind the workers being supplied.

Recent regulatory action within the aged care staffing sector has reinforced the importance of qualification verification, correct worker payment, appropriate health and safety processes and effective compliance systems.

It is an important reminder for providers that not all labour hire is created equal.

The cheapest hourly rate isn’t necessarily the cheapest workforce solution. The real cost of poor labour hire can include compliance exposure, reputational damage, worker exploitation, safety risks and — most importantly — potential impacts on the people receiving care.

Providers should be asking their labour hire partners:

• Are you appropriately licensed?
• How do you verify qualifications and credentials?
• How do you manage workforce compliance?
• How do you ensure workers are paid correctly?
• What checks are undertaken before a worker enters our facility or service?
• How do you manage performance and worker wellbeing?

Labour hire can also help regional Victoria

Workforce shortages aren’t confined to Melbourne.

Regional and rural communities can face some of the greatest challenges in attracting and retaining health and care workers.

Labour hire organisations can help broaden the available workforce by connecting providers with workers who are prepared to work flexibly across locations and employment models.

That can be particularly valuable for regional providers, where a single vacancy can have a much greater operational impact.

The future will require a workforce ecosystem

The health and aged care workforce challenge isn’t going to be solved by one part of the sector alone.

Government has a role. Education providers have a role. Healthcare and aged care providers have a role. Workers have a role. And workforce organisations have a role.

The direction should be towards a workforce ecosystem where permanent recruitment, casual employment, labour hire, international recruitment, workforce development and flexible employment models work together.

Labour hire is part of the solution

The health and aged care sectors are entering a period where workforce flexibility will be just as important as workforce growth.

We need more people entering the sector. We need to retain the people already working in it. We need to support workforce wellbeing. We need to improve regional workforce capacity. And we need to make sure providers can respond when demand changes unexpectedly.

Professional labour hire organisations cannot solve workforce shortages on their own. But they can provide something health and aged care providers increasingly need: access to a flexible, compliant and responsive workforce when it matters most.

An Ardent People perspective

At Ardent People, we believe labour hire should be more than filling a vacancy or covering a shift.

Used appropriately, it should form part of a broader workforce strategy — supporting permanent teams, providing flexibility when circumstances change and helping organisations maintain continuity of care.

The future of health and aged care will require workforce growth, but it will also require flexibility. Professional labour hire has an important role to play in delivering both.