Report delivers new insights into Victorian Homelessness Services workforce
A new report has found that annual staff turnover in the Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS) workforce has consistently remained around 20% since 2011 and reached as high as 26% in recent years.
The report, developed by The Council to Homeless Persons and RMIT’s Workforce Information and Development Institute (WIDI), estimates the cost of this workforce churn at over $20 million annually.
A new workforce planning platform to support Specialist Homelessness Services and the community and social services sector is the first to utilise a novel and innovative linked-data workforce planning and development approach designed for the social services workforce.
It makes extensive use of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA), a platform to link existing federal government agency data for public benefit.
WIDI Director David Clements said that while the report reinforced a well-known story – that of very high rates of turnover within this skilled and dedicated workforce – insights gained through this report will inform why and when people exit the sector, and the support needed to respond to these challenges.
"This report provides us with new insights that can inform the development of a long-term strategy that responds to the issues," Clements said.
"It will help us deliver reforms and solutions to support the workforce that assists many people in crisis seeking housing support.
"We need to respond in practical ways that can harness the goodwill and skills of people who work in this sector.
"The benefit of this platform is that through partnerships with the sector and governments we can add to and refine these workforce insights further over time and grow the body of evidence to inform public investment decisions within a tight labour market and growing service demand."
Clements said the challenges this report has revealed are common across social services and not unique to homelessness services.
"Many of the recommendations we have made in the report could be trialled and applied more broadly across other sectors," he said.
WIDI’s analysis was formulated by linking Victorian Government data with Census, tax, and business records. This new approach will enable tracking over time and facilitate easier comparisons with other workforces.
The approaches applied in this analysis demonstrates the value of PLIDA to the broader community and social services workforce – including an improved understanding of the SHS workforce.
Key facts
- Every year an average of 30% of the workforce were people recruited that year – a staggering 11,346 new workers in 2021 alone.
- Turnover ranged from 16%–20% per annum across all job roles, while turnover in key SHS occupations reached 26% in 2022.
- There has been a sustained worker retention problem across SHS and all other job roles with the cost of workforce churn for the SHS workforce alone estimated at over $20 million annually.
- The Victorian Government’s Fair Jobs Code and the soon to commence three-year pilot of a Community and Social Services Graduate Program through the Victorian Government Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) may help to address some staff turnover, however these are not solely SHS-specific initiatives.
- The workforce has much higher rates of people in their prime working age than the Victorian workforce with the majority of the workforce aged 30-49 years.
- Focused analysis of key occupations common to SHS frontline service delivery found the workforce was highly qualified, with 9 in 10 workers holding a Diploma/Advanced Diploma or above - twice the rate of the Victorian workforce. 7 in 10 held a Bachelor or above and 1 in 4 held postgraduate qualifications – 2.5 times the Victorian workforce average.
- However, strategies that aim to increase the diversity of the workforce are needed.
- The workforce is also highly feminised with women representing almost 90% of workers among the most common SHS occupations.
- The rate of male workforce participation was lowest in regional Victoria, with some regional areas employing 5 women for every man. Females also outnumbered males across all key SHS occupations, however a higher representation of males from vocational training pathways was found and may suggest one pathway to increasing the number of male SHS workers.
- The report highlights the importance of improving the health and wellbeing of the sector, with 20% of SHS workers reporting current anxiety and depression, twice the Victorian workforce average.
- Workers cared for a person with disability, health issues, or an elderly person at almost twice the rate of the Victorian workforce.
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Acknowledgement of Country
RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Sentient' by Hollie Johnson, Gunaikurnai and Monero Ngarigo.