Speed & Safety: Balancing Hiring Timelines with Compliance

In sectors like aged care, disability services, childcare and community work, the pressure to fill roles quickly is only growing. Increasing demand for services, staff shortages, and high turnover rates create an urgent need to onboard workers without delay.

However, the responsibility to protect vulnerable individuals means compliance cannot take a back seat.

Balancing speed and safety in hiring is no small feat, but it’s critical for organisations that want to maintain both operation efficiency, quality of care, and public trust.

The Need for Speed

The urgency to fill vacancies often stems from the critical nature of care work. When roles remain unfilled, organisations risk service disruptions, increased workloads for existing staff, and ultimately, a decline in quality care.

Adding to the pressure is the high turnover rate in care and community sectors, which significantly outpaces that of other industries. Lower retention rates mean organisations are often in a constant cycle of recruitment, further emphasising the need to hire quickly to maintain service delivery.

This urgency can sometimes lead to shortcuts in the hiring process. Relying on incomplete credential checks or assuming candidates meet requirements might save time in the short term but can create significant risks down the road.

Why Compliance Can’t Be Compromised

Compliance safeguards are not just regulatory hurdles – they’re critical to ensuring the safety of vulnerable individuals and the reputation of the organisation. Thorough background checks, up-to-date registrations, and valid work entitlements are all non-negotiable.
Non-compliance can result in:

• Fines and legal action for failing to meet industry regulations
• Reputational damage which can deter clients and prospective employees
• Gaps in safety and reduced quality of care

Strategies to Balance Both

Striking the right balance between fast hiring and robust compliance processes is possible with careful planning and the right tool.

1. Review your processes
   Review your hiring workflows to identify bottlenecks, issues and gaps. Are there tasks that can be automated or consolidated with tools? With innovation and technology, there a lot of systems that streamline components of your hiring process and many that integrate with one another.
2. Create a compliance-first culture
   Educate hiring teams on the important of culture. Consult your integrity and compliance policies to ensure process aligns with company obligations. While everyone understand safeguarding is essential, there is often a question around what that actually looks like when implemented into the hiring process. When everyone is aligned, cutting corners becomes less likely.
3. Use technology thoughtfully
   Investing in technology that centralises and automates credential checks can significantly reduce the time it takes to verify candidates without compromising accuracy. Technology tools can lead to improved efficiency when deployed and managed well but can be burdensome if not integrated effectively into a workflow.
4. Prioritise proactive hiring
   Build a talent pipeline by keeping an ongoing pool of pre-vetted candidates. This ensures you can fill roles quickly without needing to rush the vetting process. Hiring employees in line with compliance obligations is crucial to meeting workforce standards.
5. Regularly audit your processes
   Stay ahead of compliance risks by routinely reviewing your hiring practices against regulatory requirements. This proactive approach ensures that your processes remain both efficient and compliant. Legislation is ever-changing with an increased onus on organisations and providers to improved quality and safety of service. Stay ahead of the curve by regularly reviewing and updating your process.

The Bigger Picture

Balancing speed and compliance is not just about operational efficiency; it’s about delivering quality care, protecting your vulnerable individuals, and fostering trust with your workforce and broader community.

By embracing a culture of accountability and leveraging the right strategies, organisations can navigate the tension between hiring timelines and safeguarding requirements effectively.

What’s Oho and how can it help?

Oho supports care and community organisations to safeguard their vulnerable individuals with a workforce first approach. Oho’s automated technology automates the manual verification and right-to-work credentials such as working with children checks, visa entitlements, NDIS worker checks and more.

Oho provides peace of mind by ensuring that compliance obligations are met, so organisations can focus on delivering the services that matter most.

Learn more here.