Recruiting and Keeping a Values Aligned Workforce

Skills can be taught, but the way a person treats others is much harder to change. This lesson explains why we recruit for values as well as skills, and what values alignment looks like in disability and aged care support. Key points: the people we support rely on workers who respect their rights, dignity and choices; poor hiring decisions can lead to harm, complaints and turnover; our organisational values should be clear, written down and used at every step of recruitment; and values alignment is shown through behaviour, not just what a candidate says.

Values based recruitment builds our values into every step: the advertisement, the position description, shortlisting, interviews and reference checks. This lesson shows how to design behavioural and scenario questions, how to score answers consistently, and how to involve people with lived experience in the process. Key points: ask candidates to describe what they actually did in past situations, use realistic scenarios from our services, score against agreed criteria rather than gut feel, use a panel where possible, and ask referees about behaviour, not just dates of employment.

Safe hiring is part of our safeguarding duty. This lesson covers the NDIS Code of Conduct, which applies to every NDIS provider and worker, and the NDIS Worker Screening Check for people in risk assessed roles. Key points: talk about the Code at interview and induction, identify which roles are risk assessed, make sure a worker has a valid clearance before they start in a risk assessed role, verify worker screening applications through the NDIS Commission portal, keep an up to date record of workers in those roles, and remember that screening is one safeguard, not the only one.

Recruitment must be fair and lawful as well as values based. This lesson gives a general overview of the obligations that apply when we hire, drawn from the Fair Work Act and anti discrimination laws. Key points: select people on merit and the inherent requirements of the role, avoid questions about protected attributes such as age, disability, pregnancy or religion unless genuinely relevant, pay correctly under the relevant award or agreement, give new employees the Fair Work Information Statement, be careful with unpaid trials, and ask our HR team when you are unsure.

People with lived experience of disability bring insight, credibility and skill to our work, and our workforce should reflect the community we serve. This lesson covers how to make recruitment and employment genuinely inclusive. Key points: write accessible advertisements and offer different ways to apply, ask every candidate whether they need adjustments, focus on what the role requires rather than how it has always been done, provide reasonable adjustments once someone starts, respect privacy about disability, and involve people with lived experience in designing and running recruitment where we can.

The first weeks in a new role shape whether someone stays. This lesson covers what good induction, supervision and development look like in our services. Key points: induction should cover our values, the Code of Conduct, policies, mandatory training and each participant's plans, and new workers should shadow experienced staff before working alone; regular supervision gives workers a safe space to reflect, raise concerns and get feedback; and clear development pathways, such as skills training, higher intensity supports or team leader roles, show people they have a future with us.

Support work is meaningful but demanding, and burnout is a common reason people leave. This lesson helps managers recognise early signs of burnout and understand what drives turnover. Key points: signs include exhaustion, cynicism, withdrawal, more sick leave and more mistakes; common drivers include unpredictable rosters, isolation, poor communication, feeling unheard or unrecognised and exposure to distressing events; and practical responses include regular check ins, fair rostering, recognition, debriefing and linking people to our Employee Assistance Program or other support.

Under work health and safety laws, employers must manage risks to psychological health just as they manage physical risks. This lesson explains psychosocial hazards and how to manage them. Key points: psychosocial hazards come from how work is designed and managed, the work environment and behaviours such as bullying, harassment and aggression; employers must eliminate these risks or, if that is not reasonably practicable, minimise them so far as is reasonably practicable; managers should identify hazards, consult workers, put controls in place and review them; Safe Work Australia's model Code of Practice gives practical guidance.

This case study follows a hiring panel filling an urgent support worker role in a busy team. One candidate is charming and confident at interview, but their answers to the scenario questions are weak and one referee is hesitant. The lesson looks at how structured scoring, careful reference checks and worker screening work together, and how to resist pressure to hire quickly. Key points: agree criteria first, score answers not impressions, follow up concerns from referees, and remember that screening is one safeguard, not the only one. This is general information, not legal advice.

This case study follows Mariam, an experienced and highly valued support worker who begins to show signs of burnout after a difficult few months that included an assault on shift and repeated short notice roster changes. When she mentions she is thinking of leaving, her manager has a chance to respond. The lesson shows how to check in with care, debrief, fix the work design problems behind the strain, and meet our work health and safety duty on psychosocial hazards. It finishes by bringing together the key messages of the whole course.