NoosaCare has welcomed five overseas workers from Fiji to assist with delivering care and support to residents at both the Carramar and Kabara sites.
Acting chief executive officer Jamie Oakley said, “We’re thrilled to welcome the Fijian personal carers to our team and we see their engagement as one element of our strategy to address the critical staffing shortages in our region.”
“Like all aged care facilities, our ability to recruit and retain staff been affected by Covid, government directives, wages and the high cost of living. To make sure we can continue to deliver outstanding services, we have had to be creative in our thinking and explore options that have previously never been considered.
“Fiji has a culture of caring for family and the elderly so we are very confident that our new recruits will fit into our organisation and broader community easily. But there will undoubtedly be new experiences for them and different ways of doing things, so we are very focused on ensuring a proper welcome, induction and onboarding process,” Mr Oakley said.
“We encourage our local community members to embrace our new team members and help to make them feel welcome.”
NoosaCare will facilitate the provision of accommodation for the workers.
The recruitment of the personal carers has been made possible through NoosaCare’s participation in the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme – an Australian government sponsored program to assist organisations facing workforce shortages.
The workers have been selected by private firm Health X and are likely to be in Australia for at least two years.
