1. Executive Summary

This insights report provides Human Resources (HR) and Talent Acquisition (TA) leaders with a strategic analysis of the significant hiring challenges confronting Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), support worker, and broader healthcare sectors in 2025. The analysis draws primarily upon Australian government data and insights from major employment platforms.

The sector faces a confluence of critical pressures: unprecedented demand driven by the NDIS expansion and an ageing population, resulting in persistent, widespread skills shortages across key roles. Compounding this are exceptionally high rates of workforce turnover and burnout, fueled by demanding work conditions, wage pressures relative to other industries, and significant operational strains including complex regulatory requirements. These factors combine to create an intensely competitive and challenging recruitment landscape.

In this environment, merely increasing recruitment volume is insufficient. Organisations must adopt a strategic approach focused on both attracting and, crucially, retaining talent. This report argues that developing and leveraging a strong, authentic employer brand is no longer a peripheral activity but a core strategic imperative. A compelling employer brand, effectively communicating an organisation’s purpose, values, supportive culture, and development opportunities, serves as a vital differentiator, enabling providers to attract mission-aligned candidates and mitigate the pervasive challenges of churn and burnout. This report outlines the current landscape, quantifies the key hiring difficulties with supporting 2025 data, explains the strategic role of employer branding, and offers actionable strategies for HR and TA leaders to navigate this complex market successfully.

2. The 2025 Australian NDIS & Healthcare Labour Market Landscape

Understanding the specific hiring challenges within the NDIS and healthcare sectors requires contextualizing them within the broader Australian labour market and the sector’s unique growth trajectory.

Sector Dominance and Unprecedented Growth

The Health Care and Social Assistance industry stands as Australia’s largest employer, a position solidified by decades of substantial growth. As of February 2025, the sector employed approximately 2.297 million people, representing 15.8% of the total Australian workforce.¹ This figure marks a dramatic increase from 976,400 workers in February 2005, illustrating the sector’s long-term expansion.¹ Recent data further underscores this momentum, showing a remarkable 136.2% increase in workforce size over the 20 years leading up to 2024, including a 4% growth between 2023 and 2024 alone.²

This rapid expansion is projected to continue. Jobs and Skills Australia estimates the industry will grow by a further 16% over the five years from 2025.³ Key drivers underpinning this sustained demand include Australia’s ageing population, which increases the need for aged care and health services, and the ongoing expansion and maturation of the NDIS.² The NDIS supported 661,267 active participants with approved plans as of June 2024 ⁶, fueling significant demand for disability support workers, allied health professionals, and related roles. The scale of NDIS-related employment growth is profound; research indicated that almost one in three new jobs created in the Australian economy during the year leading up to February 2024 were in NDIS-related sub-industries such as allied health and non-childcare social assistance.⁷ This concentrated growth highlights the scheme’s substantial impact on the national labour market.

Current Labour Market Dynamics (Early 2025)

The broader Australian labour market in early 2025 presents a complex picture. The national unemployment rate hovered around 4.0% to 4.1% in February and March 2025.⁸ While this remains low by historical standards, it represents a slight increase from the lows experienced previously. Concurrently, the workforce participation rate reached near-record highs, standing at 66.8% to 67.0%.⁸ This high participation suggests more Australians are actively seeking work, potentially driven by cost-of-living pressures.¹²

Job vacancy data indicates a market cooling from its post-pandemic peak. Total job vacancies decreased by 4.5% in the three months to February 2025, sitting 30.7% below the May 2022 peak.¹³ However, vacancies remained significantly elevated, 44.5% higher than pre-pandemic levels (February 2020).¹³ Job advertising platforms like SEEK reflected this trend, with national job ads slowing year-on-year (-7.5% in February 2025 compared to February 2024), although this represented a period of relative stability compared to prior volatility.¹¹ A sharper decline was noted in December 2024.¹⁵ Despite slowing ad volumes, applications per job ad increased slightly ¹¹ or fell only marginally ¹⁵, indicating continued strong competition among job seekers for available roles.

Crucially, the Health Care and Social Assistance sector diverges from these broader trends. It recorded the largest absolute increase in employment of any industry over the 12 months to November 2024, adding 70,200 workers, while other major sectors like Manufacturing experienced declines.¹⁶ This demonstrates the sector’s unique and persistent growth pressure, even as parts of the wider economy show signs of softening.

Table 1: Key Labour Market Indicators (Australia vs. Health Care & Social Assistance) – Q1 2025 Snapshot

The juxtaposition of a slightly easing overall labour market with intense, sustained demand within Health Care and Social Assistance creates a significant structural challenge. Employers in this sector are not only competing fiercely amongst themselves but are also vying for talent against other industries that might offer different working conditions or compensation structures, all while facing uniquely high-volume recruitment needs.¹ While the high national participation rate suggests a larger pool of potential workers ⁸, the specific demands, qualifications, and pressures of roles within NDIS and healthcare make attracting sufficient suitable candidates exceptionally difficult.

Furthermore, the sheer scale of job creation directly linked to the NDIS ⁷ points towards potential market distortions. Such concentrated demand can exert upward pressure on wages and influence resource allocation, as suggested by anecdotal reports of rising costs for related services like cleaning.⁷ This presents a particular challenge for providers operating under different, potentially less flexible funding models, such as aged care or non-NDIS disability services, who must compete for the same pool of nurses, support workers, and allied health professionals. Success in this environment necessitates a stronger emphasis on the non-remunerative aspects of the employment offer.

3. Quantifying the Hiring Challenge: Key Issues in 2025 & Beyond

Recruiting and retaining staff in the NDIS, support worker, and healthcare space in 2025 is hampered by a complex interplay of persistent shortages, high workforce mobility, demanding conditions, regulatory hurdles, and geographical imbalances.

Persistent Workforce & Skills Shortages

The fundamental challenge is a quantitative and qualitative gap between demand for workers and available supply. The NDIS National Workforce Plan (2021-2025) highlighted the scale of the issue, projecting a need for an additional 83,000 NDIS workers by 2024, on top of thousands of existing unfilled vacancies.¹⁷ The plan starkly noted, “The workforce is not big enough to cover demand”.¹⁷ This shortfall has persisted into 2025.

Government data confirms the severity. In 2024, Jobs and Skills Australia identified aged care and disability workers as experiencing the highest shortages among all professions surveyed across Australia.⁴ In 2023, a staggering 82% of occupations within the broader Health Care and Social Assistance sector were assessed as being in shortage.² This scarcity affects numerous critical roles, including:

• Aged and Disability Carers/Support Workers ⁴
• Mental Health Practitioners (identified as having the highest number of online job ads among emerging roles) ⁴
• Allied Health Assistants ⁴
• Registered Nurses and Midwives ²
• Allied Health Professionals (e.g., Sonographers, Pharmacists, Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists) ⁴
• General Practitioners ⁵

The reliance on skilled migration pathways to fill these gaps further underscores the inadequacy of the domestic supply pipeline.⁵ Initiatives are underway to streamline processes for overseas health professionals, such as reducing processing times for nurses, expected from March 2025.⁵

Recruitment & Retention Hurdles

Beyond simple shortages, retaining existing staff is a major battleground. The NDIS workforce experiences exceptionally high churn, estimated at between 14% and 25% annually.¹⁹ This translates to at least 45,900 workers leaving the NDIS workforce each year ¹⁹, a rate roughly three times higher than the overall Australian workforce average.¹⁹ Turnover is particularly acute in remote healthcare services, reaching 148% for nurses in some areas.²

Multiple factors drive this exodus. Key reasons cited include the prevalence of casual or non-permanent positions, the availability of better working conditions in other sectors, low pay relative to demands, and unclear career progression pathways.¹⁹ Critically, staff burnout is rampant. Research indicates 43% of disability workers feel burnt out at least half the time.¹⁹ Mental stress claims within Health Care and Social Assistance have been nearly double the rate of other industries over the past decade ², with the workforce still recovering from the immense pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.² Burnout is directly linked to intentions to quit.²⁰ The inherently demanding nature of the work, involving stressful responsibilities, long hours, and potential exposure to harassment, contributes significantly to these pressures.²

Wage levels also play a role. While variable, with advertised NDIS support worker roles in Sydney ranging from $32 to $74 per hour depending on complexity and provider ²¹, the overall median earnings for the Health Care and Social Assistance industry ($1,620 per week) lag behind the all-industries median ($1,700 per week) according to Jobs and Skills Australia data.¹ While low pay is a cited reason for leaving ¹⁹, demand remains high even for lower-paid healthcare roles, suggesting non-monetary factors are also critical.²²

The combination of high churn and significant projected growth creates a particularly challenging dynamic. Organisations are caught in a ‘leaky bucket’ scenario: immense effort is required simply to replace the tens of thousands of workers leaving each year, before even addressing the need to expand the workforce to meet growing demand.¹⁷ This means the gross hiring task – the total number of hires needed – is substantially larger than the net growth figures suggest, placing enormous strain on TA resources and budgets. Consequently, improving retention is not just beneficial but arguably more critical than attraction alone for achieving sustainable staffing levels.

Regulatory & Compliance Burden

Navigating the regulatory landscape adds another layer of complexity to recruitment. Mandatory NDIS Worker Screening checks, while essential for participant safety, introduce an administrative step and potential delays in the onboarding process.¹⁷ Providers must also adhere to stringent quality and safeguarding standards set by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and, for aged care, the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.²³ These standards mandate robust workforce strategies, including processes for verifying skills, qualifications, and competencies through pre-employment checks (background checks, qualification confirmation, reference checks, competency tests).²³

The NDIS Commission has increased its compliance activities, including refusing or revoking provider registrations ²⁵, highlighting the imperative to hire and maintain a compliant workforce. While necessary, these compliance activities carry a cost ²⁴ and demand significant administrative effort. This emphasis on thorough vetting and compliance potentially increases time-to-hire, creating tension with the urgent need to fill vacancies rapidly in a shortage-driven market. Organisations face a constant balancing act between the imperative for speed in recruitment and the necessity of rigorous compliance, giving an advantage to those with efficient, streamlined onboarding and compliance systems.

Geographical Disparities

Hiring challenges are significantly amplified in regional, rural, and remote Australia.² These areas often suffer from “thin markets,” where a lack of available service providers means NDIS participants cannot access the supports funded in their plans.²⁶ This manifests as long waiting lists and difficulties finding culturally appropriate services, particularly impacting First Nations communities.²⁶ The extreme turnover rates observed in remote areas exacerbate these issues.² Addressing these geographical imbalances requires targeted strategies, potentially including specific attraction initiatives and government support.²

Table 2: Summary of Key Hiring Challenges & Supporting Data Points (2025 Context)

The identification of specific ’emerging roles’ like Mental Health Practitioners ⁴ and the ongoing need for specialized skills in allied health and nursing ¹⁷ suggest that generic, broad-based recruitment approaches may prove inadequate. Talent acquisition must become increasingly targeted, potentially involving investment in upskilling or reskilling initiatives, developing micro-credentials, supporting traineeships, and fostering stronger partnerships with educational institutions to build future talent pipelines.¹⁷

4. The Strategic Imperative of Employer Branding in NDIS/Healthcare

In the face of the profound and multifaceted hiring challenges outlined, traditional recruitment tactics alone are insufficient. For organisations operating in Australia’s NDIS and healthcare sectors, developing and actively managing a strong employer brand has transitioned from a desirable marketing activity to a critical strategic necessity for survival and success.

Defining Employer Branding in the Care Sector

Employer branding in this context transcends generic corporate imaging. It involves the deliberate articulation and consistent communication of an organisation’s unique value proposition (EVP) to current and potential employees, specifically within the demanding yet intrinsically rewarding environment of care work. This encompasses clearly defining and showcasing the organisation’s core mission and values, the prevailing workplace culture, the robustness of its support systems for staff, opportunities for growth and development, and, crucially, the tangible impact employees make on the lives of NDIS participants and patients.

Why it Matters Now: The Competitive Edge

In a labour market defined by acute skills shortages ² and alarmingly high turnover ¹⁹, a compelling employer brand functions as a powerful magnet. It helps attract talent, particularly individuals motivated by purpose, values, and the desire to make a difference – attributes often prevalent among those drawn to the care sector.¹⁹ When wage differentiation is constrained by NDIS pricing or other funding models ¹, a strong brand focused on non-monetary rewards becomes a key competitive differentiator.

This aligns directly with national workforce strategies; the NDIS National Workforce Plan identifies improving community understanding of the benefits of working in the sector as a top priority.¹⁷ Effective employer branding is the organisational-level execution of this goal. Evidence supports its impact: healthcare organisations certified by Great Place To Work (GPTW) demonstrate significantly higher levels of employee trust and satisfaction compared to typical Australian workplaces.² Furthermore, strategic use of certification and branding has proven successful in attracting talent to challenging regional areas and reducing vacancy periods.² Recruitment platforms also emphasize the importance of becoming an ’employer of choice’ through strong branding.²²

Addressing Key Challenges Through Branding

A well-defined and authentically delivered employer brand can directly address the sector’s most pressing challenges:

• Countering High Turnover and Burnout: By promising – and demonstrably delivering – a supportive culture, manageable workloads (where feasible), robust supervision, employee recognition, accessible wellbeing resources ²⁰, and clear pathways for career progression ¹⁹, an organisation can tackle the primary drivers of staff attrition identified in research.¹⁹
• Mitigating Wage Sensitivity: While compensation remains important ¹⁹, a powerful brand emphasizing the non-monetary aspects of the EVP – such as the profound impact of the work, a positive and collaborative culture, flexibility options, and investment in professional development – can attract and retain candidates who might otherwise prioritize slightly higher pay offered elsewhere, particularly given the sector’s overall wage constraints.¹
• Attracting the ‘Right’ Fit: Effective branding helps attract candidates whose personal values resonate with the organisation’s mission and culture. This values alignment can lead to a better organisational fit, higher levels of employee engagement, increased job satisfaction, and ultimately, longer tenure. It facilitates a degree of self-selection, attracting individuals genuinely suited to the demands and rewards of the work.¹⁷

Insights from the Workforce: What Matters Most

Understanding what current and potential employees value is crucial for shaping an effective employer brand. Data reveals key areas of concern and importance:

• Leadership and Communication: Employee surveys indicate that shortcomings in clear communication, leadership responsiveness to concerns, and trust in management are significant pain points in some healthcare workplaces.² Conversely, high-performing, certified organisations excel in these areas.²
• Culture and Support: Employee reviews on platforms like Glassdoor frequently centre on organisational culture, the quality of management support, opportunities for work-life balance, and career development prospects. These elements must form the core of the EVP.
• Retention Drivers: Research by National Disability Services (NDS) explicitly identifies organisational culture, quality of supervision, workload management, job security, and opportunities for career progression as the four key areas influencing workforce retention in the disability sector.¹⁹ These must be central pillars of any employer branding strategy.
• Valued Attributes: The National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) own internal focus on enhancing staff capability, providing better support, and actively seeking to employ people with lived disability experience signals that these are increasingly recognised as valuable attributes within the sector.²⁹

Employer branding within the NDIS and healthcare sector is fundamentally about building and demonstrating trustworthiness, competence, and unwavering support. Given the vulnerability of the individuals receiving care and the inherent stresses of the work ², prospective employees are primarily evaluating whether a potential employer offers a reliable, ethical environment where they will receive the necessary support to perform their challenging roles effectively and safely. Trust in leadership, clear processes, and adequate resources become paramount considerations.² Branding efforts must focus on establishing and reinforcing this trust.

However, a critical consideration is the potential gap between external branding messages and the internal, lived reality for employees. The persistence of high turnover ¹⁹ and burnout ² across the sector suggests that even organisations attempting positive branding may struggle if the underlying workplace experience does not align with the promises made. Inauthentic branding, where marketing claims of support and positive culture clash with experiences of excessive workload, lack of resources, or poor management, can breed cynicism and exacerbate retention problems. Therefore, authenticity is non-negotiable; effective employer branding must be underpinned by, or at least concurrent with, genuine, tangible improvements in organisational culture, workload management strategies, and robust employee support systems.

5. Actionable Strategies: Building a Compelling Employer Brand

Translating the strategic imperative of employer branding into tangible results requires a deliberate and multi-faceted approach. HR and TA leaders can implement the following actionable strategies:

Articulating Purpose and Values

• Define and Communicate Mission: Clearly articulate the organisation’s core purpose and consistently link employees’ daily tasks to the positive impact they have on the lives of participants or patients. Reinforce this connection in internal communications, onboarding, and performance discussions.
• Showcase Values in Action: Move beyond listing values on a website. Use employee testimonials, case studies (anonymized where necessary), and recruitment materials to illustrate how organisational values (e.g., respect, empowerment, quality, safety) are lived out in practice. Ensure these values align with the core principles of the NDIS, such as participant choice and control.

Showcasing the Employee Experience (EVP)

• Highlight Support Systems: Actively promote the structures in place to support staff. This includes detailing supervision models ¹⁹, mentoring opportunities, the availability and accessibility of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) ²⁸, and specific mental health and wellbeing resources.²⁰ Reference any initiatives mirroring the NDIS Commission’s focus on staff wellbeing.²⁴
• Promote Development & Career Pathways: Clearly outline opportunities for professional growth. This involves showcasing internal and external training programs, support for obtaining micro-credentials ¹⁷, the use of competency frameworks like the NDIS Workforce Capability Framework ¹⁹, and tangible examples of internal promotions.¹⁹ Detail any available study assistance or professional development budgets.²⁸ Directly address the known retention issue of unclear career pathways.¹⁹
• Emphasize Work Environment & Culture: Use specific examples to illustrate positive team dynamics, commitment to diversity and inclusion ³¹, employee recognition programs ³⁰, and concrete efforts being made to manage workload and prevent burnout.¹⁹ Highlight flexible working arrangements where applicable and feasible.²⁸
• Transparent Compensation & Benefits: Be clear and upfront about salary ranges in job advertisements and discussions.²¹ Communicate the full value of the benefits package beyond base salary, including superannuation contributions (e.g., the 15.4% offered by APS agencies like the NDIS Commission ²⁸), generous leave entitlements (annual, personal, parental, cultural) ²⁸, and any other relevant perks or allowances.

Leveraging Digital Channels

• Optimise Job Board Postings (e.g., Seek): Craft job advertisements that go beyond a simple list of duties. Use compelling language that reflects the organisation’s mission and values. Explicitly highlight key elements of the EVP (support, development, culture). Include specific salary ranges to attract relevant candidates and manage expectations.²¹ Ensure role descriptions are accurate to avoid attracting mismatched applicants, a common issue reported by recruiters.³³
• Engage on Professional Networks (e.g., LinkedIn): Maintain an active and informative company page. Share employee stories, showcase workplace culture through photos or videos, and post relevant industry insights. Utilise LinkedIn’s features for job matching and skills-based targeting ³³ to reach candidates with specific, in-demand qualifications identified in workforce reports.⁴
• Manage Online Reputation (e.g., Glassdoor): Actively monitor employee reviews on relevant platforms. Respond professionally and constructively to both positive and negative feedback. Encourage current, satisfied employees to share their authentic experiences. Use the qualitative feedback gathered from these sites to identify recurring themes and areas needing internal improvement.
• Enhance Company Careers Page: Ensure the careers section of the organisation’s website is engaging, easy to navigate (especially on mobile devices), and clearly communicates the EVP. Provide realistic insights into different roles, showcase employee testimonials, and streamline the application process.

Ensuring Authenticity and Transparency

• Align Messaging with Reality: Critically evaluate all external employer branding messages to ensure they accurately reflect the genuine day-to-day experience of working within the organisation. Avoid hyperbole or making promises that cannot be consistently delivered.
• Acknowledge Challenges: Be transparent about the demanding nature of roles in the sector, while balancing this by highlighting the rewards, the impact made, and the support systems available to help employees succeed and cope.
• Utilise Real Voices: Feature authentic stories and testimonials from a diverse range of current employees (with their consent) across various roles and levels.
• Foster Open Communication: Cultivate a culture where internal communication is open and honest, and ensure external communications reflect this transparency. Address the communication gaps highlighted as detrimental to employee satisfaction.²

Implementing Targeted Attraction Strategies

• Focus on Hard-to-Fill Roles: Develop specific recruitment marketing campaigns tailored to attract candidates for roles facing the most acute shortages, such as Allied Health professionals, Mental Health practitioners, and staff for regional or remote positions.²
• Build Talent Pipelines: Forge strong partnerships with universities, TAFEs, and registered training organisations that offer relevant qualifications. Collaborate on curriculum development, offer student placements and traineeships ¹⁷, and engage early with potential graduates. Engage with professional bodies relevant to key roles.
• Leverage Government Programs: Effectively utilise government-funded employment programs and initiatives designed to connect job seekers with opportunities in the care and support sector.¹⁷
• Prioritise Diversity: Implement targeted strategies to attract candidates from diverse backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and importantly, people with lived experience of disability, whose insights are invaluable.³¹

Given the potential for candidate skepticism arising from widespread awareness of sector challenges like burnout and high turnover ², a ‘show, don’t just tell’ approach is paramount for employer branding credibility. Tangible evidence of support, development opportunities, and a positive workplace culture will resonate more strongly than generic claims. This means providing specific details: describing the structure and frequency of supervision, quoting internal promotion rates, showcasing specific wellbeing initiatives ²⁰, or sharing measurable improvements in staff satisfaction or retention. Concrete examples build the trust that is essential [Insight 6].

Furthermore, demonstrating the return on investment (ROI) for employer branding initiatives is vital for securing ongoing leadership support. While challenging to measure precisely, HR and TA leaders should track metrics that reflect the quality and impact of branding efforts. Beyond simply counting applications ¹¹ – which can be misleading if quality is low ³³ – focus should be placed on metrics such as the quality of candidates attracted (e.g., qualification match, values alignment), time-to-fill for critical or hard-to-staff roles, offer acceptance rates, early-stage turnover (e.g., within the first 90 or 180 days), and, over the longer term, correlations between branding campaigns and improvements in employee engagement scores and overall retention rates. Tracking these indicators provides a more accurate assessment of whether branding efforts are attracting better-fit candidates who stay longer and contribute effectively.

6. Conclusion & Strategic Recommendations

The Australian NDIS, support worker, and broader healthcare sectors in 2025 are navigating a period of intense and complex hiring challenges. Structural factors, including the unprecedented demand generated by the NDIS and demographic shifts, combine with significant operational pressures – persistent skills shortages, high workforce turnover, widespread burnout, and evolving regulatory demands – to create an exceptionally difficult environment for attracting and retaining talent.

The analysis presented in this report underscores that conventional recruitment strategies, focused solely on filling immediate vacancies, are no longer adequate to ensure workforce sustainability and quality service delivery. The sheer scale of the ‘leaky bucket’ dynamic, where high attrition constantly undermines recruitment efforts aimed at both replacement and growth, necessitates a fundamental shift towards a more strategic, integrated approach encompassing both attraction and retention.

In this context, the development and promotion of a strong, authentic employer brand emerges as a non-negotiable strategic imperative. It is a critical tool for differentiating an organisation in a crowded market, particularly when financial incentives are constrained. A compelling brand, authentically reflecting a supportive culture, meaningful work, opportunities for development, and genuine commitment to employee wellbeing, can attract values-aligned candidates, mitigate the drivers of burnout and turnover, and ultimately contribute to building a more stable, engaged, and capable workforce.

Looking ahead, the landscape will continue to evolve. Ongoing NDIS reforms ²⁹, the integration of new technologies like AI and telehealth ²⁰, and shifts in the skills required by the workforce ³⁴ will necessitate ongoing agility and adaptation from HR and TA leaders. Employer branding itself must evolve, continuously reflecting changes in the work environment and employee expectations.

Strategic Recommendations for HR & TA Leaders:

1. Prioritise Employer Branding as a Core Strategy: Elevate employer branding from a marketing function to a central pillar of the organisation’s overall business and workforce strategy. Secure leadership buy-in and allocate dedicated resources.
2. Invest in the Employee Experience: Recognise that authentic branding must be built on a foundation of genuine internal improvements. Focus on enhancing organisational culture, strengthening supervision and support structures, implementing effective workload management strategies, providing clear career pathways, and investing in employee wellbeing programs.
3. Define and Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition: Clearly articulate what makes your organisation a desirable place to work within the care sector. Focus on purpose, impact, values, support, and development, tailoring messages for different target candidate groups (e.g., support workers, allied health professionals, nurses).
4. Embrace Authenticity and Transparency: Ensure all external communications accurately reflect the internal reality. Be honest about challenges while highlighting the rewards and support available. Leverage real employee stories and actively manage online reputation.
5. Adopt Targeted and Data-Driven Attraction: Move beyond generic recruitment. Utilise data to understand where shortages are most acute and tailor attraction strategies accordingly. Leverage digital channels effectively and build pipelines through partnerships with educational institutions. Actively seek diverse candidates, including those with lived experience.
6. Focus on Retention Metrics: Shift focus beyond just time-to-fill and cost-per-hire. Track metrics related to quality of hire, offer acceptance rates, early-stage turnover, employee engagement, and overall retention rates to measure the true effectiveness of branding and workforce strategies.

By strategically investing in building and nurturing a compelling and truthful employer brand, underpinned by a genuine commitment to improving the employee experience, organisations in the Australian NDIS and healthcare sectors can better navigate the formidable hiring challenges of 2025 and beyond, securing the dedicated workforce essential for delivering high-quality care and support.