Guideline 5:

Workforce Wellbeing

Addresses the inextricable link between staff wellbeing and the quality of relational and spiritual care that individuals receive. The aged care workforce comprises people who bring genuine dedication, compassion, and resilience to their work, often under considerable pressure. Many providers have invested substantially in staff wellbeing, developing programs, creating supportive cultures, and recognising the emotional demands of this work. These efforts matter and deserve recognition.

OVERVIEW

This section identifies the structural and systemic factors that research shows can undermine workforce wellbeing even in organisations with strong intentions, due to workload pressures, inadequate support for grief and loss, moral distress, and the particular vulnerabilities of a diverse workforce. These are not presented as universal failures but as areas where targeted organisational action can make a material difference to both staff wellbeing and the quality of spiritual care individuals receive.

This Guideline fundamentally shapes how all other Guidelines enhance wellbeing. Knowing and Being Known (Guideline 1) cannot succeed without understanding each individual’s cultural identity and who and what may have shaped their story. Meaning and Purpose (Guideline 2) requires honouring diverse cultural, spiritual, and personal frameworks to support individuals to find meaning and purpose. Connectedness and Belonging (Guideline 3) demands creating emotionally, psychologically and culturally safe environments. Providing compassionate Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care (Guideline 4) requires culturally appropriate approaches to death, dying, and grief. Diversity and Inclusion (Guideline 6) requires acknowledging staff’s own cultural and diverse needs whilst building their capability to deliver culturally responsive care with confidence and cultural humility.

This Guideline provides practical strategies for reducing moral distress, implementing peer-led reflective practice, improving work design, acknowledging staff grief, and providing trauma-aware and culturally responsive support. This delivers measurable organisational benefits, including improved retention, reduced intention-to-leave rates, enhanced team cohesion, and sustained capacity for quality, compassionate care.

Who will benefit?

Individuals

receive higher-quality, more compassionate person-centred care from staff who feel supported and valued in their work, and staff turnover is likely to be reduced.

Staff

experience reduced burnout, improved wellbeing, resilience and job satisfaction when they work in environments that value and support their wellbeing and provide them with adequate resources, time, and autonomy to deliver quality care.

Supporters

gain confidence that staff are equipped and supported to provide quality, compassionate care to the people they love.

Organisations

benefit through improved staff retention, higher-quality care, declining intention-to-leave rates, and reduced costs associated with staff turnover, work-related absenteeism, occupational sick leave rates, and recruitment.

What strategies will be used?

Strategy A

Establish workforce wellbeing programs

Strategy B

Redesign work using the SMART Work Design Model & P.A.R.R.T.H. methodology

Strategy C

Establish Peer Support and Reflective Practice Programs

Strategy D

Ensure adequate staffing levels and reduce moral distress

Strategy E

Foster trauma-aware, healing-informed and culturally responsive workplace practices

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The related appendix

Guideline 5 – Workforce Wellbeing Strategies	Relevant Standards	Outcomes & Key Actions Referenced	Demonstrated Alignment
Strategy A – Establish Workforce Wellbeing Programs	Standard 2; Standard 1; Standard 5	S2: 2.2a (2.2.1–2.2.2); 2.8 (2.8.1–2.8.2); 2.9 (2.9.3–2.9.6) S1: 1.2 (Dignity and safety culture) S5: 5.1 (Clinical governance)	Establishes comprehensive workforce wellbeing programs recognising grief and moral injury as occupational realities; supports psychological safety, burnout monitoring, and safe delivery of person-centred care.
Strategy B – Redesign Work (SMART Work Design & P.A.R.R.T.H.)	Standard 2; Standard 3	S2: 2.2a; 2.8; 2.9 S3: 3.2.5 (Recognising and escalating risks); 3.4	Systematically redesigns work to ensure tolerable demands, role clarity, relational capacity and agency; reduces moral distress and strengthens workforce capability to deliver quality care.
Strategy C – Peer Support and Reflective Practice Programs	Standard 2; Standard 5	S2: 2.2a; 2.6a (Complaints & feedback – workforce); 2.9.4–2.9.6 S5: 5.1; 5.4	Embeds structured reflective practice and peer support within paid time; supports emotional processing, ethical reflection and continuous improvement in clinical and non-clinical practice.
Strategy D – Adequate Staffing Levels and Reduce Moral Distress	Standard 2; Standard 3; Standard 5	S2: 2.8 (Workforce planning); 2.9 (Human resource management) S3: 3.2.2; 3.2.5 S5: 5.4 (Comprehensive care)	Ensures staffing levels reflect complexity of care; supports relational time, reduces moral distress and enables safe, high-quality person-centred and clinical care.
Strategy E – Trauma-Aware and Culturally Responsive Workplace Practices	Standard 2; Standard 1; Standard 5	S2: 2.2a; 2.9.4–2.9.6 S1: 1.1.2(e–g) S5: 5.1	Creates culturally safe, trauma-aware workplace cultures; supports diverse staff wellbeing, psychological safety and workforce sustainability consistent with quality governance.

Guideline 5 – Workforce Wellbeing Strategies	NGSCAC Domain	NGSCAC Statement No.	Alignment Explanation
Strategy A – Establish Workforce Wellbeing Programs	Domain I – Organisational leadership and alignment; Domain IV – Ethical context	1.3; 1.6; 1.9; 1.10; 4.3; 4.8	Aligns leadership responsibility for workforce capability and sustainability (1.3, 1.6, 1.9, 1.10) and supports reflective, ethically grounded practice that recognises emotional and spiritual impact of care work (4.3, 4.8).
Strategy B – SMART Work Design & P.A.R.R.T.H.	Domain I; Domain II – Relationships and connectedness	1.2; 1.4; 1.7; 2.2; 2.6	Strengthens governance systems that enable relational care (1.2, 1.4, 1.7) and ensures staff have capacity to sustain meaningful, trusting relationships with individuals (2.2, 2.6).
Strategy C – Peer Support and Reflective Practice Programs	Domain I; Domain IV	1.8; 1.9; 4.3; 4.5; 4.8	Operationalises organisational commitment to supervision, mentoring and reflection (1.8, 1.9) and supports ethical discernment, boundaries and shared meaning-making in spiritually complex care (4.3, 4.5, 4.8).
Strategy D – Adequate Staffing Levels and Reduce Moral Distress	Domain I – Organisational leadership and alignment	1.2; 1.4; 1.6; 1.9	Ensures governance structures and workforce planning support sustainable spiritual care delivery (1.2, 1.4, 1.6) and reduce systemic barriers that compromise dignity-centred practice (1.9).
Strategy E – Trauma-Aware and Culturally Responsive Workplace Practices	Domain IV – Ethical context; Domain I	4.1; 4.3; 4.6; 4.9; 1.6	Embeds trauma-aware and culturally safe practice consistent with ethical spiritual care principles (4.1, 4.3, 4.6, 4.9) and positions leadership as responsible for psychologically safe and inclusive workplace culture (1.6).

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