Work & Family

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About these Guidelines

These Guidelines have been developed as a result of a research project on good practice in rostering in residential aged-care conducted by the then NSW Department of Industrial Relations (from April 2003, the Office of Industrial Relations, NSW Department of Commerce) and the NSW Department for Women. The project also involved key industry stakeholders:

• the Australian Nursing Homes and Extended Care Association
• the Aged and Community Services Association of NSW and the ACT Inc.
• the NSW Nurses Association
• the Health and Research Employees Association.

The research identified a strong view amongst nursing home management and employees that a fixed roster with regular predictable shifts made a major difference to employees' ability to satisfactorily balance work and family responsibilities, by enabling them to organise regular care arrangements. This supports other current research ¹ that indicates that many nurses leave the public hospital system because the rotating rosters make it impossible to achieve a satisfactory work and family balance.

The project identified key problem areas in rostering work in residential aged-care and recorded existing practices that increase flexibility which help employees achieve a satisfactory work life balance. As most participating nursing homes indicated difficulties attracting staff, a significant focus of the project was to position family-friendly work arrangements as an incentive to assist in recruiting and retaining nursing staff.

These Guidelines offer information on family-friendly employment practices to help promote an effective work/life balance in residential aged-care, based on good practice identified in the nursing homes visited as part of the research project and strategies drawn from other workforce sectors. Where appropriate, the Guidelines refer to legislative requirements and other useful sources of information on flexible work practices.

These Guidelines have been developed to:

• help residential aged-care facilities to provide a better balance between work and caring responsibilities for their employees
• help create a more stable aged-care workforce through attracting and retaining a suitably qualified and skilled staff, and thus create a better environment for and deliver better care to residents of aged-care facilities
• help proprietors of residential aged-care facilities to meet their legislative obligations under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW), Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) and the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 (NSW)
• help proprietors of residential aged-care facilities and nursing home proprietors to meet Commonwealth accreditation standards, in particular Standard 1 (Management systems) and Standard 3 (Resident lifestyle).

The Office of Industrial Relations and the Department for Women acknowledge the contribution to the project of the major industry stakeholders and, in particular, the Directors of Nursing, Roster Managers and staff of the participating nursing homes.