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Author: Annalise Wright

Leadership Insights from HILCA360: Health Leader Capabilities

Written by Annalise Wright on . Posted in Articles, Practitioner, Subscriber.

What was involved?

Our research suggests that the retention of staff is a significant issue in the Health sector and that the effectiveness of a leader’s managerial and leadership behaviours directly impact this. Between 2020 and 2024, 166 leaders across the Western Australian health industry took part in the HILCA tool, including the perspectives of approximately 3000 health care workers.

The HILCA reflects Health LEADS framework and include leadership of the NSQHS Standards. Upon completion, leaders received their results in a confidential debrief session, identifying key opportunities for growth to create a more psychologically safe workplace and ultimately lead to less staff turnover.

Health Leader Results

The top three strengths indicated in the assessments were:

  • Consistently follows legislation;
  • Actively cares about the safety and wellbeing of others; and
  • Follows policies and procedure to achieve organizational goals.

Alternatively, the top three capability gaps were:

  • Manages team conflict effectively;
  • Turns creative ideas into reality; and
  • Effectively dals with unacceptable behaviour.

The largest area of opportunity for growth for health leaders was their ability to Engage Others more effectively. The gaps between desired and actual capability suggest that the sector is weaker in areas that have large impacts on employee engagement and retention.

What Next?

The purpose of the HILCA project was to identify key priority areas for leadership development to inform strategies that consider workload and budget constraints but allow each participant to have a targeted approach to their leadership growth.

Additionally, we recommend that organisations use the results to target areas that matter most, focus on known industry gaps and ensure leadership training is executed with a strategically targeted approach.

Using the HILCA tool, organisations can track this development over time to ensure that the developmental strategies are effective and if employees are less likely to look for alternative employment.

You can learn about our recommendations and the full report at the ACHSM Congress from October 23-25 where our Head of Research, Sasha Burnham will be presenting.

Leadership in the Care Industry: Strengths and Opportunities

Written by Annalise Wright on . Posted in Articles, Practitioner, Subscriber. No Comments on Leadership in the Care Industry: Strengths and Opportunities

Who Was Involved?

In 2021, Data Drives Insight (DDI) and Human Services Skills Organisation (HSSO) embarked on a partnership to collect data across the care industry by using DDI’s CILCA360 tool. With investments from both organisation, the shared purpose was to understand current leadership capability across the Care and Disability industries in order to create targeted development strategies and improve future outcomes.

The data collected includes 11 590 surveys from the assessment of 1394 leaders in the care industry. Leaders were represented in all states:

Care Industry Strengths

The surveys measured leadership capability by using the average ‘current performance,’ scores for each survey item for each individual leader. These are measured on a five-point scale. The top five highest performing items across the whole assessment were:

  • Actively cares about the safety and wellbeing of others
  • Consistently follows legislation
  • Is sincere
  • Treats all others with respect
  • Follows policies and procedures to achieve organisational goals

The highest performing domain was Leading Business. This domain focuses on legislation, policy and procedures which suggests that leaders on average were compliant to a high degree. Additionally, the data suggests that leaders had a genuine care for the safety and wellbeing of others.

Care Industry Opportunities

Leadership capability surveys measured opportunities by the average gap size between current performance and desired performance. These were both measured on a five point scale. The top five items that had the biggest gap were:

  • Manages team conflict effectively
  • Practices self-care
  • Effectively deals with unacceptable behaviour
  • Shares responsibility effectively
  • Addresses challenging situations effectively

The results indicated that the area needing the most development was the Leading Others domain, specifically with managing team conflicts, working through challenging situations and dealing with unacceptable behaviour. These results reflect a need for leaders to improve staff skill development strategies and conduct more effective appraisals.

What Next?

There are many areas of opportunities for development for leaders in the care sector. The CILCA360 tool provides insight into leader-specific opportunities to focus developmental strategies. Our findings suggest that development in the sector needs to move from a compliance focus to a person centred focus to create more psychologically safe teams that deliver quality services for older persons and sustainable businesses.

The full report will provide extensive research into the outcomes of the survey, analysing comparisons by state, gender equity, across sectors, as well as providing insights into recommendations, challenges and the importance of improving psychological safety. This report will be available at the ACCPA conference from October 23rd-26th.