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Queensland workforce activities

Workforce capacity is a very important issue for our sector and NDS Queensland has engaged in a number of activities to address workforce capacity. These activities include:

  • engaging the sector in dialogue about workforce capacity challenges;
  • participating in the National Workforce Project;
  • representing the sector and the Disability Work website at five career expos around the state;
  • contracting the services of a Workforce Development Officer to explore strategies that address the workforce facing the sector; and
  • the NDS/Rimfire benchmarking pilot (which involved Queensland members across all service types).

Engaging the sector in workforce issues
During the past two years, NDS Queensland has worked tirelessly to engage stakeholders in dialogue about addressing the workforce challenges currently facing the sector. This engagement has included:

  • conference presentations;
  • meetings with state and federal governments;
  • meetings with private sector stakeholders; and
  • a suite of awareness raising workshops and meetings within the non-government sector.

The position that NDS Queensland has taken throughout all of these representations is that if we are to collectively sustain the disability workforce, there are a number of important cultural issues to address, as well as a range of policy and practice issues that also need attention.

For more information please download our A Sustainable Disability Workforce flowchart or contact our State Manager, Valmae Rose, in the Brisbane office.A Sustainable Disability Workforce flowchart A sustainable disability workforce flowchart

 

Disability Work online jobs board
NDS Queensland members are invited to post their current job vacancies on our new online jobs board – Disability Work.
Disability Work ...work with people.

 

Outcomes from the NDS/Rimfire benchmarking pilot 2007
During 2007, NDS Queensland commissioned an independent review of workforce capacity by Rimfire Resources. The review included data from forty Queensland disability services (employing more than 2,000 Queenslanders in total) and examined:

  • workforce demographics;
  • salary reviews;
  • human resource management practices;
  • benefi t/salary packaging information;
  • recruitment practices; and
  • retirement impacts.

A further twenty nine of the respondents provided data on:

  • salary benchmark ranges;
  • the numbers of employees; and
  • their location and region.

Across both components of the review, respondents reflected on the full range of direct support service types (as per Commonwealth State and Territory Disability Agreement definitions) in both metropolitan and regional locations.
The review found that the majority of direct support staff were employed on a part-time or casual basis. This was driven primarily by client need and the fact that access to agency staff is limited, particularly in regional areas.
More than 67% of participating services indicated they would be increasing the size of their workforce. It is unclear whether the intent to employ more staff is a response to the increased demand for direct support, the need to find alternate income streams to supplement funding, or to build capacity to respond to the compliance and reporting obligations imposed by funding bodies.
The average turnover rate for participating services was 21%, with the majority of turnover being voluntary (83.4%). The average timeframe to replace staff is four to six weeks. However, this varies depending on the role and geographical location. For example, two organisations were unable to fill direct professional roles at all and a further seven organisations took more than eight weeks to fill these roles. 72% of organisations "often" or "always" have difficulty recruiting appropriately trained staff.
The skill level required for disability support is high with respondents reporting:

  • 50.5% of their staff hold a Certificate III level qualification;
  • 15.1% hold a Certificate level IV level qualification;
  • 6.4% hold a Diploma level qualification;
  • 15.5% hold a Degree level qualification; and
  • 2.3% hold a post graduate qualification.

There was significant variance in budget allocated to training from respondents, with over 30% of organisations allocating less than 1% of revenue or income to staff training.
The base salaries in disability support reported from participant services averaged:

  • $37,200 for general support staff;
  • $42,231 for senior support staff;
  • $46,971 for support service coordinators;
  • $58,172 for service managers;
  • $42,127 for job placement consultants;
  • $45,527 for team leader job placement consultants; and
  • $36,797 for administration officers.

NDS Queensland has since recommended that Queensland Government address workforce capacity issues by:

  1. implementing funding arrangements that support the attraction and retention of appropriately skilled staff, with training and development, remuneration and working conditions that reflect relevant industry benchmarks and work value
  2. initiate a joint task force on the removal of red tape and micro-management of funding arrangements

The full remuneration survey results, including a breakdown by industry group, metropolitan versus regional locations, revenue and number of employees are included in the NDS and Rimfire Workforce Capacity Review Report 2007.

More information is available to NDS Members. Contact the NDS Queensland State Manager, Valmae Rose via email (valmae.rose@nds.org.au) or phone (07) 3357 4188 for more information.

Last updated: 22 October 2009