Melinda Leth is a leading advisor to governments and care providers on the design and delivery of major reforms across aged care, disability, health and veterans’ services. Over the past two decades, she has helped organisations respond to changing policy, funding and consumer expectations through strategy, transformation and service redesign.
Melinda has led nationally significant work in aged care, including development of the Commonwealth’s Aged Care Market Strategy, provider sustainability programs, market stewardship initiatives, digital transformation projects and operating model reviews. Her work focuses on helping organisations improve performance, build resilience and position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly complex care environment.
Drawing on extensive experience across government, providers and the broader care economy, Melinda brings a practical perspective on how organisations can unlock capacity, embrace innovation and deliver better outcomes for older Australians.
The Workforce We Can’t Afford to Waste: Unlocking Capacity Without Recruiting a Single New Worker
Aged care providers across Australia are facing an increasingly difficult workforce challenge. Demand for services continues to grow while many providers struggle to attract and retain the staff they need. Yet despite significant focus on recruitment, vacancies and workforce supply, many organisations are overlooking a substantial opportunity: unlocking capacity from the workforce they already have.
Drawing on practical examples from aged care providers across metropolitan, regional and remote Australia, this presentation explores how organisations can increase workforce capacity, improve service delivery and strengthen sustainability without relying solely on recruiting additional staff.
Many workforce challenges are not solely driven by workforce supply. Capacity is often lost through the way work is organised, coordinated and delivered.
Rather than asking “How do we find more workers?”, this session asks a different question: “How do we get more value, flexibility and capacity from the workforce we already have?”
The presentation will focus on three practical levers that providers can implement today.
First, operating model redesign. Many workforce constraints stem from the way services are organised rather than the number of workers available. Examples include regional service hubs, centralised care coordination, shared support functions, multidisciplinary teams and designing roles so staff can work at the top of their capability.
Second, technology and workforce planning. Providers are increasingly using data, digital tools and workforce analytics to reduce administrative burden, improve rostering efficiency, better match workforce supply with consumer demand and free up staff time for care delivery. When implemented effectively, technology can improve both workforce experience and productivity.
Third, partnerships and shared workforce models. In regional and remote communities, workforce challenges are rarely solved by individual providers acting alone. The presentation will share examples of providers partnering with each other, local health services and education providers to create shared workforce solutions, build capability and improve workforce resilience.
The session will provide practical lessons, implementation considerations and examples of what has worked in practice. Attendees will leave with a simple framework to identify where workforce capacity is being lost within their organisations and how operating models, technology and partnerships can be used to create a more sustainable workforce.
At a time when every provider is competing for the same limited pool of workers, the organisations that succeed may not be those that recruit the most staff, but those that make the most effective use of the workforce they already have.