Is the NDIS Workforce crisis focusing on the wrong workforce problem?
Discover why workforce retention, leadership and workforce stability are the real keys to improving participant outcomes, reducing turnover and building a sustainable organisation.
Should it be about keeping workers rather than recruiting new ones
When I speak with NDIS providers, the conversations often start in the same way… recruitment.
Actually, that’s not entirely true… it started with stress and recruitment just happened to be the thing they thought was causing it.
They tell me how much time is being spent trying to find good support workers and how difficult it is… this is not an unusual conversation starter.
Every provider I speak with seems to be grappling with some version of the same challenge. The facts that turnover across the sector remains high and workforce shortages are well documented. Depending on the research, turnover is often reported somewhere between 17% and 25% annually, with thousands of workers leaving the sector each year.
As the our conversation progress, I’m thinking, ‘This sounds familiar.’
Not because recruitment isn’t a problem… it absolutely is.
Something interesting over the past few years is the conversation almost always starts with recruitment but rarely ends there.
So I’ve started asking ‘If I could magically fill every one of your vacancies tomorrow, would that stop you worrying?’ and, without hesitation they said, ‘No.’
And that’s where the conversation became much more interesting when we start discussing why that wouldn’t stop them worrying.
And that generally leads to a conversation about someone who had resigned in the last few months. The person who left wasn’t a senior leader or a manager… that person was an experienced support worker.
So what is important about losing an experienced support worker… the list is almost endless. It’s the support for the participants in the program; it’s the relationships with their families; the confidence the organisation had in them; the trust that had been built and the little things about people that never seem to make their way into a care plan or a file note.
From that comes the realisation that it’s not replacing a support worker; it’s replacing everything that support worker knew and that walked out the door when they resigned.
So, while recruitment is certainly a challenge, I’ve come to believe the real issue facing many NDIS providers is not attracting people. It’s retaining them.
And that’s a much bigger organisational risk than many leaders realise.
Across Australia, the NDIS continues to support hundreds of thousands of participants and represents one of the nation’s largest and most complex service sectors. Yet beneath the growth, there is a workforce challenge quietly threatening service continuity, compliance and organisational sustainability.
The providers that thrive over the next five years will not necessarily be those with the biggest recruitment budgets. They will be the organisations that build stable, engaged and resilient workforces.
The hidden workforce problem
Many NDIS providers were founded by passionate people who are clinicians, support professionals, service experts and advocates and who wanted to make a difference.
What they often haven’t been trained to do is lead people. That is not a criticism as it’s the reality of growth.
As organisations expand, managing people becomes increasingly complex. Leaders suddenly find themselves navigating performance challenges, workforce planning, difficult conversations, burnout risks, compliance obligations and team culture issues.
Without strong people systems and leadership frameworks, cracks begin to appear which initially seem manageable and then:
- A key team member leaves
- A manager is overwhelmed
- A few engagement issues arise
- Sick leave increases
- Recruitment takes longer
- Then the impact accelerates.
What started as isolated workforce issues begins affecting service delivery, participant experience, compliance obligations and operational performance.
Why workforce stability matters more than ever
Workforce capability is no longer simply an HR function and for NDIS service providers, it has become a business continuity issue.
Every experienced support worker, team leader and coordinator hold valuable organisational knowledge. They understand participants’ preferences, care requirements, family relationships, communication styles and support plans.
When those workers leave, they take more than skills with them and the disruption created by workforce turnover extends well beyond the recruitment process.
It impacts service consistency; participant outcomes; team morale; training costs; productivity; compliance confidence and leadership capacity.
In an environment where providers are already managing significant administrative and regulatory obligations, workforce instability can quickly become an operational risk.
Burnout is becoming normalised
One of the most concerning trends we’ve observed is the normalisation of burnout as a way to do business.
Many NDIS teams are operating under sustained pressure; support workers are managing increasingly complex participant needs; team leaders are balancing service delivery with administrative requirements and managers are juggling compliance, rostering, recruitment and workforce management responsibilities.
Over time, these pressures accumulate because, what begins as dedication, quickly escalates into exhaustion.
Often times, many organisations only recognise burnout once someone resigns, takes extended leave or disengages completely. By then, the damage has often already occurred.
The challenge is not that people don’t care… the challenge is that caring professions often attract people who continue giving long after their own capacity has been exceeded.
Without intentional workforce strategies, burnout becomes a predictable outcome rather than an exception.
The leadership gap few people talk about
As organisations grow, managers are frequently promoted because they are excellent practitioners.
- A great support coordinator becomes a team leader
- A strong frontline worker becomes a supervisor
- A capable operations worker becomes a manager.
Yet technical competence does not automatically translate into people leadership capability.
Leading people requires a very different skill set to delivering services, encompassing everything from performance management, coaching and effective communication through to conflict resolution, workforce planning, creating psychologically safe workplaces and fostering worker engagement.
When leaders are not equipped with these skills, staff often experience inconsistent management, unclear expectations and reduced support.
And then, over time, retention suffers.
The irony is that many workforce problems blamed on recruitment actually originate within leadership systems.
Recruitment alone will not solve the problem
Many providers respond to workforce challenges by doubling down on recruitment efforts by advertising more roles, engaging recruitment agencies and investing significant time and resources into finding new workers.
However, when the underlying causes of turnover remain unaddressed, organisations can find themselves trapped in a costly and exhausting cycle of continually replacing staff rather than building a stable workforce.
True workforce stability requires a shift in thinking. Instead of asking, ‘How do we find more people?’ leaders should be asking, ‘Why are our best people leaving?’
The answer often reveals opportunities for far more sustainable and valuable long-term improvements.
What workforce stability can look like
At AKYRA, we work with NDIS providers to strengthen the foundations that support workforce retention and organisational performance.
Workforce stability is rarely the result of luck.
It is built robust strategies through deliberate leadership practices, clear workforce strategies, effective onboarding and performance frameworks, practical HR systems and a workplace culture that supports both accountability and engagement.
While organisations who have developed these strategies are not immune to workforce challenges, they are far better equipped to identify and address issues before they escalate into significant operational, compliance and/or service delivery risks.
And the most important point of all – why this matters for participants
The most compelling reason workforce stability matters isn’t found in HR metrics or turnover reports.
It’s reflected in the experience of participants.
Consistent, high-quality support relies on skilled, engaged workers who understand the people they support and have built trusted relationships over time.
In our view, this is why workforce stability is far more than a staffing concern because it directly influences participant outcomes, service quality and the long-term sustainability of an organisation.
AKYRA Can Help!
Discover how AKYRA helps NDIS providers improve workforce stability, strengthen compliance and reduce organisational risk.
AKYRA Strategy & Development
The HR Department When You Don’t Have One
Disclaimer – Reliance on Content
The material distributed is general information only. The information supplied is not intended to be legal or other professional advice, nor should it be relied upon as such. You should seek legal or professional advice concerning your specific situation.
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