Navigating the New Aged Care Act: 5 ways HCM tech can guide a smooth transition

Change is coming to the aged care sector. On the 1st November, 2025, the Australian Aged Care sector will operate under a revised and updated legislative framework: the new Aged Care Act. With  strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and a revised Regulatory Model, a fundamental shift  towards a rights-based, person-centred care model has begun. 

For HR leaders, this transition poses both a challenge and an opportunity in building skilled, engaged, and compliant workforces. A human capital management (HCM) suite like Humanforce can be the game-changer in helping providers navigate the new landscape effectively.

What’s changing?

The new Act introduces several major changes to the Quality Standards that govern Aged Care provision. A consolidation is occurring, from 8 Standards to 7. The strengthened Standards can be found here.

Of particular note is Standard 2: The Organisation: This focuses on the governance, leadership and culture of Aged Care providers. This is to ensure providers have the systems and processes in place to deliver high-quality care consistently.

To reliably meet the new Quality Standards and ensure compliance with the Act, many providers are investing in technology solutions. 

What role can a HCM suite play?

HCM systems can make compliance and operational excellence the reliable norm. 

01. Create compliant, cost-effective rosters

Commencing October 2024, delivering 215 care minutes per resident per day came into mandatory effect, including 44 minutes by a Registered Nurse (RN). Aggregately, an RN must also be on-site 24/7. Compliance remains strictly monitored for these measures, with reporting expected to continue under the new Act. 

Humanforce’s Rostering & Scheduling solution provides real-time cost visibility when building rosters. It ensures smart shift-filling based on budget and other criteria like worker availability, hours already worked, and qualifications. Automatic alerts for compliance risks relating to overtime and qualifications add another layer of risk mitigation, providing clarity without further data management for HR.

Even better, the AN-ACC Real-Time Dashboard within the Workforce Analytics tool helps providers meet their legislated care minutes based on time rostered and worked and can factor in leave time and training hours. Users can nominate which roles count toward care minutes and adjust contribution percentages. They can also view resident care minutes and RN care minutes against a schedule in a single report to maintain high star rating for facilities.

02. Adjust wages and implement award changes

Award-based wage increases began in January 2025 and continue to roll out until October. These increases reflect new role classifications, expanding upon the 15% pay rise from 2023. Upcoming changes can be found here. Humanforce’s Awards & Compliance solution automates complex pay calculations, including overtime and entitlements, based on relevant awards. Award templates and libraries are regularly updated per Fair Work changes, with wage calculations and interpretations appearing directly on rosters for cost transparency.

03. Enhance staff wellbeing and retention

Stress, pay concerns and excessive admin all play a role in high staff turnover. Alongside ensuring the implementation of fairer remuneration, workplace cultures will benefit from strengthened whistleblower protections and screening processes (e.g. National Criminal History and AHPRA checks). 

Throughout all HR management worker wellbeing remains a key priority. The duties undertaken by Aged Care workers are frequently tiring, requiring significant physical, mental and emotional energy. Employers should consistently assess and focus on workplace culture to prevent burnout.

With our Employee Engagement solution, users can create customisable surveys to assess sentiment and mood, gathering valuable data to guide improving engagement across their business. Humanforce’s Benefits suite offers a range of perks and benefits to enhance wellbeing, including access to earned wages before payday, cashback discounts on everyday items, tools for saving and budgeting, and financial education.

04. Upskill staff and manage qualifications

Industry-wide reforms require new training initiatives and resources. Staff must understand their responsibilities under the Act, what people-centred care looks like, and what it means for their role. Management and leadership teams will also need to be aware of their reporting, compliance and governance obligations under the new changes.

For direct care workers, ongoing education and training will be required to cover various areas within the Quality Standards, especially around areas like dementia care, infection control, and medication management.

Several Humanforce solutions can assist to meet this challenge. For example, Compliance Management tracks continuous professional development (CPD) hours. Audit-ready data exports can also be done so that senior leaders and HR can track training completions with ease. 

In addition, the Onboarding solution enables workers to upload qualifications during onboarding. Expiry dates are tracked and automated notifications sent to employees and managers. Just as crucially, Humanforce Rostering & Scheduling will not allow staff with expired or incorrect qualifications to be rostered — another important compliance feature preventing scheduling with serious consequences.

05. Attract and recruit the best talent

To help achieve a smooth running operation , Aged Care providers need to attract and recruit skilled workers. This is a highly competitive sector and there is an ongoing shortage of talent industry-wide.

Humanforce Talent leverages the power of unique candidate sourcing with the engagement and tracking capabilities found in traditional Applicant Tracking Systems. The solution pools pre-qualified candidates, contractors, internal staff, and alumni into a Talent Community. A simple four-step process is followed:

1. The employer builds a Talent Community — this can strengthen the employer brand by highlighting company culture
2. Candidates create a Talent Profile with skills, experience, and credentials
3. Segmented Talent Pools maintain a steady stream of candidates, with AI-driven matching based on roles, locations and departments (with human supervision)
4. All communication is done via SMS/email, activating a multi-pronged approach and providing a more human-centred candidate experience

The time for action is now

With data-driven operations becoming central to compliance and adhere to the Act, HR teams must prioritise technology investments that support person-centred care, secure data handling and reporting, and offer a superior employee experience. Download our more detailed guide to navigating the new Aged Care Act here.

* The information in this article is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Always consult a qualified legal professional for advice.