Can you tell us about your professional background?
I joined the Navy when I was 16 years old and spent 20 years in logistics while earning a Bachelor of Commerce and a Master of Science in logistics. I retired as a Commander in 1999 and my first civilian role was as chief financial officer then deputy chief executive officer of Churches of Christ Homes in Western Australia, now called Bethanie. I was recalled to the Navy for 18 months in 2009 as director of strategic reform before retiring (again) as a Captain and returning to Bethanie as CEO. In 2014, I became CEO at a tech start-up Pulse Australasia before co-founding Apollo Care Alliance in 2020.
As CEO, what would you most like to achieve in the year ahead?
In 2024, we’ll continue our successful mission of saving regional community-based and faith-based aged care communities. When we save an aged care community, we save everything – residents stay in their hometown, locals keep their jobs, and communities maintain their purpose and legacy. The multifaceted innovations we apply to smaller, regional aged care communities to deliver high-quality services were recognised in July with Ageing Asia’s 2023 Innovation of the Year – Productivity award. We do this while ensuring aged care communities remain viable, sustainable and connected to their core ethos.
What reforms are most important for your organisation and the sector?
The Department of Health’s June 2023 Roadmap of Upcoming Activities for Aged Care Reform made it very clear the sector is experiencing significant structural reform.
We are primarily focused on regional Australia, and our number one reform priority is worker attraction and retention. We must encourage people to move to the regions and commit to a rewarding career in aged care. Internally, our second priority is the continued development of our bespoke SaaS-based technology platform. This delivers our culture program and quality management system, which bind our organisation together and enable rapid and sustainable scalability. A priority for sector reform is the partial deregulation of price currently being looked at by the Aged Care Taskforce.
What reforms do you consider the most challenging or concerning?
Compliance, workforce and financial sustainability are a priority for the independent, regional aged care communities that have joined us. However, recent governance reforms have become a major focus. Filling an optimised roster with permanent staff is the most challenging concern. The federal government funds care, but it does not cover the additional costs associated with agency staff.
What workforce issues is your organisation facing and how are you responding to them?
It’s all about attraction and retention. We run a tightly networked organisation model where we outsource our human resources and culture functions to best-of-breed service providers.
To attract workers from the acute and primary health sector plus other industries, our employee value proposition must be contemporary and compelling. Although not ideal, we are considering innovative ways to fill the gaps by employing overseas workers. For example, in addition to funding foreign workers’ relocation and salary, we’re now finding ways to provide and fund their housing.
Once we attract our workers, we need to retain them. We’ve rolled out a SaaS-based culture program that monitors, influences and manages the wellbeing of all staff. It’s working – our last engagement rate was an outstanding 77 per cent across the alliance.
How are you leading your organisation through Covid normal?
Our approach is consistent with best available evidence. Covid-19 is one of several respiratory illnesses that can impact residents and we aim to protect them without impinging on their freedom.
We have well-rehearsed systems and processes
The organisation has a risk-based approach to precautions such as mask wearing and rapid antigen testing. For example, if levels of Covid-19 in the local community are low, masks are no longer worn.
We actively support staff and residents to maintain vaccination in accordance with recommendations and provide access to vaccination clinics and tracking. Every person entering our communities is screened, but if a Covid-19 outbreak were to occur, we have well-rehearsed systems and processes to quickly contain and resolve it.
What do you do to keep physically and mentally healthy and support the same for your leadership team?
In my younger days I played soccer to keep active. Now, I focus on walking. I average 13,705 steps a day and I feel as healthy as a mallee bull. I’m fortunate to live by the beach south of Perth so I also enjoy the destressing bonus of magnificent water views.
Apollo Care Alliance runs a SaaS-based, psychologically-focused leadership program called Lead-Rite that I religiously adhere to. In addition to assisting me and our leadership team to lead wisely, it improves the quality of life and wellbeing of everyone who participate in the program.
It’s okay to make mistakes as you can learn from them and grow
What advice have you received you’d like to pass on to new and emerging leaders?
The wisdom I received is that it’s better to make a wrong decision than no decision at all. There’s no right or wrong, only a continuum. It’s okay to make mistakes as you can learn from them and grow. As a leader, listen to all viewpoints through a structured communication system and then make the decision you believe to be for the greater good of the organisation you serve. Great leaders make decisions, learn from them, and then make more decisions.
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