This free program helps aged care service providers recruit and retain the right people

Like many businesses operating in the aged care sector, Jeanne Motteram was struggling to find the right people for her growing relocation, home clearance, and cleaning business, Colomba^®.

“Attracting staff became my number one issue to solve,” Ms Motteram said.

After trying unsuccessfully to recruit for 15 months, she signed up to Business Chamber Queensland’s free Workforce Evolve program and hasn’t looked back.

Since participating in the program in 2024, Ms Motteram has hired 17 new people and built up a potential talent pipeline for when she is ready to employ again.

Funded by the Queensland government, Workforce Evolve started in September 2023. Since then it has helped more than 500 businesses in Queensland improve their recruitment and retention practices through free training, tools and templates that help them build the workforce they need.

For Ms Motteram, Workforce Evolve changed the way she recruited.

“I joined Workforce Evolve because I was finding it very difficult to recruit staff – not just the quantity of people applying for roles, but the quality of applicants just wasn’t there.

“And we had a fairly high turnover – we weren't able to hang on to some staff because it wasn't suitable for them or they weren't suitable for us,” she said.

“Having to continuously try and recruit people was costing me time and money – not just to keep advertising, but onboarding and training too.

“Workforce Evolve helped me improve the quality and quantity of new hires which ultimately allowed us to continue to grow our business.

“Without it, I wouldn't be where I am today,” Ms Motteram said.

Finding the right people

Colomba helps people downsize from an existing family home in preparation for moving into aged care and provides domestic cleaning services for seniors living in their own homes. Ms Motteram attributes much of her business’ reputation and success to her staff. For her, finding employees who were the right cultural fit for her business was essential.

“We look for people who are empathetic and caring and have good communication skills because many of our clients have health issues,” she said.

“It’s often a very stressful time for seniors who are moving into care homes or downsizing; they have to declutter, there’s an emotional attachment to items, and then there’s the physical aspect of moving that’s difficult too.

“And our cleaning team often form a bond with their regular clients, they become close friends.”

To help Colomba find the right people to grow its workforce, Ms Motteram’s Workforce Evolve coach recommended some simple and effective changes, which included helping her rewrite and improve her job advertisements to attract the right people.

“We changed our ads to make sure it was clear that we were interested in hearing from people who needed some job flexibility, those who had been out of the workforce for a long time, or those who didn’t have cleaning experience,” Ms Motteram said.

Today, she’s proud to have a team made up of people from all walks of life including university students, parents with carer duties, and grandmothers.

And while Ms Motteram had small business experience and a business degree behind her, she found Workforce Evolve gave her a refresher on HR topics, prompted her to rethink her recruitment approach, and helped her successfully tap into new talent pools.

The program gives a comprehensive overview of general workforce and human resources information, with access to a wide library of practical resources that are easy to implement.

One of the highlights of her learning experience came with ‘Module 2: Creating your employee value proposition’, which is helpful in a competitive labour market like the aged-care sector, Ms Motteram said.

She also found huge value in the two hours of one-on-one mentoring with an expert coach.

“The mentoring session helped because it was tailored specifically to what my business needed.”

A year on from her Workforce Evolve experience, Ms Motteram says she’d recommend the program to other businesses.

“Workforce Evolve made a big difference. I had the knowledge, but it allowed me to improve the way I was doing things.

“It gave me time and information to reflect on what I was doing in my business, and it gave me practical information and recommendations which led to positive results.”

Workforce Evolve is a free program run by Business Chamber Queensland and funded by the Queensland Government, available to Queensland businesses.

To find out more, visit our website.