Work & Family

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Making family-friendly policies an asset in recruitment

Many nurses who have left the public hospital system because of difficulties in balancing family and other non-work responsibilities while working full-time under a rotating roster system see aged-care as a sector offering more flexibility in employment arrangements together with greater predictability of working hours ³.

Aged-care employers who adopt family-friendly policies and promote them as part of recruitment advertising may increase their pool of suitable recruits, and may find that flexible strategies that support employees in managing their family responsibilities will assist in increasing retention rates and building their status as an employer of choice in the sector.

Managers might consider advertising the times of specific shifts to be filled, in order to attract recruits who wish to work those hours because they fit in with established or possible caring arrangements.

Where nursing homes are located close to a TAFE college or university offering nursing courses, it may also be possible to attract students as part-time or casual workers.

Another option that may be explored is to offer assistance with transport for employees without their own transport who are starting or finishing work at 'unsocial' hours when public transport is infrequent or not available. Transport assistance could include having a staff member in a nursing home vehicle rostered to pick up or deliver early or late shift staff members to the railway station or bus interchange as appropriate, providing taxi vouchers or paying an allowance for an employee with a car to 'car pool' and collect or drop fellow workers without transport on 'unsocial' shifts to a railway station, bus interchange or home, if local.