National Workforce Project

Outcomes | Overview | Pilot Sites

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Resources

The National Workforce Project has engaged a broad range of disability service providers across Australia to help collect data about the disability workforce. Services from each state and territory are currently piloting a range of recruitment and retention strategies. Results from these pilots will soon be made available online.

Project overview

A National Workforce Project flyer was made available during the National Workforce and OHS Conference in 2009. The flyer is now available for download (in PDF).

Project presentations

PowerPoint presentations from both the Project Manager and Technical Advisor were delivered during the National Workforce and OHS Conference in 2009. They are available for download along with presentations delivered during the National Workforce Project Pilot Debrief session in May 2009. Please select the presentations from the following list:

National Workforce Project: The pilot journeys so far, presented by Valmae Rose
National Workforce Project: What has been learned?, presented by Tony Shaddock
National Workforce Project: An overview, presented by Tony Shaddock
National Workforce Project: The Survey, presented by Tony Shaddock

Literature Review

An up-to-date review of literature relating to Australia's disability workforce is available for download (in PDF).

Awareness raising

An awareness raising workshop titled Disability Workforce: Exploring sustainability is now available for download (582KB). Alternatively, the awareness raising package is available for download in a train-the-trainer format (4.5MB).

The NDS National Workforce Project Team delivered Disability Workforce: Exploring sustainability around the country throughout 2008. During the workshops, participants were asked to list attraction and retention strategies that they had tried in their disability organisations.

A list of all of these strategies is available in PDF for your reference. For more information contact Valmae Rose in the Brisbane office (07) 3357 4188 (email valmae.rose@nds.org.au).

Recruitment and Retention Toolkit

Many organisations are finding it difficult to attract and retain the staff they need to deliver services. The following workforce strategies are a work in progress, designed to stimulate discussion in small to medium sized disability organisations about our current and future workforce needs. These strategies will be refined as the project progresses, but are offered here as a place to begin your workforce development journey. Please download the full Recruitment and Retention Toolkit or one of the selected strategies from the list below:

Recruitment and Retention Toolkit - Full
Strategy 1 - A targeted marketing campaign
Strategy 2 - Strengthening relationships with other stakeholders
Strategy 3 - Job redesign
Strategy 4 - Flexible working arrangements
Strategy 5 - Attraction strategies
Strategy 6 - Retention strategies
Strategy 7 - Skill development

Direct Support Worker Survey

As part of inital data gathering for the National Workforce Project, a Direct Support Worker Survey was made available to services throughout Australia (both in hardcopy and online). There were 1168 respondents to the survey (73% of whom were female). A full break-down of the results is now available for download in PDF, as are the interim results.

Project partners

Relevant information about the disability workforce is also available through our project partners:

The National Workforce Project has been funded under the National Skills Shortages Strategy on behalf of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.