Aged care staff retention starts with how managers lead

By Dr Tom Hitchcock, founder of Mr Purple (LinkedIn)

Aged care staff retention is often treated as a pay problem wearing a name badge. Pay matters, of course. Yet good people also leave well paid roles when every shift feels confusing, unheard or unnecessarily heavy. They stay where managers create clarity, trust and a sense that the work can be done well.

That puts retention closer to the daily leadership conversation than the annual remuneration review. The useful question is not only, “What are we paying?” It is also, “What does it feel like to work here on an ordinary Tuesday?”

Why aged care staff retention begins with managers

People experience an organisation through their immediate manager. Values on a wall may look splendid, but they cannot rescue a muddled handover, a silent supervisor or a roster change explained three days too late.

Managers shape the small moments that decide whether work feels sustainable. They set priorities, respond to concerns, notice effort, remove obstacles and explain decisions. None of this requires a motivational speech beside the kettle. It requires consistent habits.

Owners sometimes assume their managers already know how to lead because they were excellent carers, coordinators or clinicians. Technical capability deserves respect, but leadership is a different craft. Promoting a strong practitioner without helping them learn that craft is not development. It is a surprise exam with real people in the room.

Make clarity a daily habit

Uncertainty drains energy. When staff must guess what matters, who owns a decision or whether a concern has been heard, even simple work becomes heavier.

A practical manager creates clarity in small doses:

• State the three priorities for the shift or week.
• Explain what has changed and why it matters.
• Name who owns each action.
• Check understanding rather than asking, “Does that make sense?”
• Close the loop when somebody raises an issue.

Closing the loop is especially powerful. The answer does not always need to be yes. A clear no, with a sensible reason, is kinder than managerial fog. People can work with a decision. They struggle to work with silence.

Listen before the exit interview

An exit interview is useful, but it is rather late market research. By then, the employee has made the decision, updated the profile and mentally chosen a farewell cake.

Short, regular conversations give managers a better chance to spot friction while it is still fixable. Ask questions that invite a real answer:

• What is making your work harder than it needs to be?
• What should we stop doing?
• Where are you waiting on somebody else?
• What would help you do better work this week?
• What is one thing I could do differently as your manager?

The skill is not merely asking. It is resisting the urge to defend, explain or solve everything on the spot. Listen, confirm what you heard, agree what happens next, then follow through. Trust is built when words survive contact with Tuesday.

Give managers room to manage

A manager cannot lead well if every useful decision must climb three levels and return by carrier pigeon. Clear decision boundaries let managers respond faster and take genuine ownership.

Write down which decisions managers can make alone, which require consultation and which must be escalated. Keep the language plain. Review the boundaries when the same question keeps bouncing upwards.

This also helps owners step back without disappearing. Good delegation is not abdication. It gives the manager an outcome, sensible limits, access to support and a clear point for review.

If your leadership structure feels reactive, practical aged care business coaching can help you turn recurring people problems into clearer management rhythms.

Recognise contribution with precision

Generic praise can feel like wallpaper. Specific recognition tells a person that their judgement and effort were genuinely noticed.

Instead of saying, “Great job,” say what was valuable: “You kept the family informed, gave the team a clear handover and prevented confusion later. That helped everyone.”

Managers should notice the quiet work as well as the dramatic rescue. Reliable documentation, calm communication, thoughtful preparation and helping a colleague rarely create fireworks. They do create dependable services.

Recognition should be fair, timely and connected to the behaviour you want repeated. It need not become a ceremony. A sincere sentence delivered promptly often carries more weight than a quarterly trophy nobody remembers voting for.

Build a simple retention rhythm

Grand programmes are tempting because they look like progress. A smaller rhythm, repeated properly, is usually more useful.

Try this for the next six weeks:

1. Hold a brief weekly check with each direct report.
2. Ask one consistent question about friction or workload.
3. Record one action and one owner.
4. Review unresolved actions at the next conversation.
5. Discuss patterns with the leadership team each fortnight.

Look for repeated causes, not just repeated complaints. If several people mention confusing priorities, the answer may be a better management routine rather than another recruitment campaign.

Retention is not about persuading everybody to stay forever. Sometimes a role and a person no longer fit. The aim is to make sure good people are not leaving because ordinary leadership habits were missing.

Start with one useful change

Pay remains important, but it cannot compensate for every poor conversation, unclear decision or broken promise. Managers influence those moments every day. Help them lead with clarity, listen early, act consistently and recognise work that matters.

If you want to identify the first leadership habit that would make work lighter for your team, book a 15 minute call with Tom. One honest conversation may reveal more than another complicated retention strategy.

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