Retaining Young Leaders in Aged Care

Dear Aged Care Provider,

This toolkit has been designed by five participants of the inaugural Young Leaders in Aged Care Program 2013 to complement your existing strategies to retain younger workers in your organisation.

What is the Young Leaders in Aged Care Program?
The Young Leaders in Aged Care Program is part of an innovative project, Engaging Young Leaders on Aged Care Boards, funded by a Social Innovation Grant from the State Government. The project is being led by Southcare Inc in partnership with Mercycare and Baptistcare, and aims to promote and foster the involvement of young leaders within the aged care not-for-profit sector. The program will facilitate fresh, new thinking in dealing with the challenges that exist in the sector by encouraging young people to connect with aged care providers and become involved with the boards and committees.

Why was this toolkit created?
Young people have much to offer the aged care industry, particularly fresh ideas, new perspectives, current knowledge, creativity, passion, energy and enthusiasm. As a group they are often technologically savvy, and bring a range of intergenerational benefits to our older adults, and complement the skills of the other generations in the workplace. During the program, it was mentioned that it was at times difficult to connect with and engage younger workers and that the turnover of this group was relatively high. Retention of these workers thus became our focus due to the benefits that this group can offer.

How was the toolkit developed?
The toolkit was developed in response to the research completed by participants of Young Leaders Program. The aim of the project was to investigate the challenges that prevent young workers from pursuing long term employment in residential aged care facilities and to identify potential means of improving retention rates for young workers aged 18 – 35 years.

What materials are contained in the toolkit?

• The toolkit contains several useful and informative resources, namely:
• A report outlining the background, methods and findings of the research completed on the retention of young workers in the aged care sector.
• A one page summary of top tips for retaining younger workers, designed for use of aged care sector managers.
• A PowerPoint presentation outlining current and creative reward and recognition strategies
• A letter for new staff to highlight some of the opportunities available within the organisation (e.g. professional development, buddying, mentoring, etc) to communicate the retention message
• Marketing materials including an infographic poster containing information about retention of younger workers and a bookmark displaying retention strategies as a “retain train”.

We encourage you to tailor these resources to our organisation.

Many thanks for your interest in the Young Leaders in Aged Care Retention Strategies Toolkit. We trust that you will find the information useful.

Toolkit:

1. Covering letter for toolkit (word and pdf)
2. Top tips for management (word and pdf)
3. Report (word and pdf)
4. Letter for new employees (word and pdf)
5. Retain Train – bookmark for employers (word and pdf)
6. Values of generations – calendar for employers (word and pdf)
7. Info graphic (pdf)
8. Presentation on rewards and recognition (below)

Elizabeth Oliver, Emerging Leaders Governance Program Graduate (2013) talks about her team’s project on retaining Young Leaders in aged care.