Solving workforce challenges with digital credentialing

Australia’s aged care industry is facing mounting staff shortages, hampering the industry’s efforts to improve care outcomes following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

One of the key recommendations from the Royal Commission is that people should have certainty that they will receive timely high-quality support and care. Timeliness is a huge challenge in a sector that faces high staff turnover and absence, especially in the wake of the pandemic. Add to this the loss of skilled international migrants, and aged care businesses around the country are struggling to match the right qualifications to the right roles.

Aged care centres juggle a mix of full-time and casual workers, all requiring multiple certifications in order to be compliant across a complex range of roles. One role might be a frontline staff member, one a frontline staff member who is legally allowed to provide a certain level of drugs, one who holds a Certificate IV in Ageing, one a registered nurse, and one a supervisor.

Let’s say the worst happens: all five staff members succumb to a COVID-19 outbreak in your facility. As a manager, how can you replace your staff and find replacements who are able to provide the same level of care, and fast?

Digital verifiable credentials can help aged care centres hire quickly and accurately. They can be used by aged care facilities to instantly check important information, including critical certifications, skills such as First Aid, authorisations, qualifications, and police checks. Workers can also instantly prove their immunisation history, all from the same credential linked to a CRM system. 

The digital credential contains secure metadata about the potential hire and their activity or achievements, including the issuing organisation or authority, date issued, expiry date, and a description of the unique information behind the credential being issued. 

A good digital credential system is secure, verifiable, flexible and shareable, with encrypted data stored on secure local servers so that credentials cannot be copied or tampered with in any way.

Digital verifiable credentials allow staff to instantly prove their staff level, qualifications and experience. This is especially important for staff working across state borders, because requirements can vary wildly from state to state. In some cases, workers need to physically present certain qualifications on them in order to access a facility. Digital verifiable credentials provide a digital answer to a previously paper-based scenario.

When an applicant submits their credentials, the facility can review and verify in real time what a candidate claims they can do. If the facility wants to investigate further, they can see details of what the candidate had to do to receive that credential — for example, a list of competency standards – and the authority or organisation that issued the credential, such as a registered training organisation, former employer, registration body or professional association.

It allows management to quickly dismiss candidates who do not meet the minimum criteria and also compare credentials more easily for desired skills, knowledge or experience. This facilitates an easier process to put the right people with the right skills and knowledge in the right roles.

As digital credentials are machine-readable, the process eventually becomes completely automated, and the verification protocol will be part of the standard submission process when reviewing a candidate against the job application requirements, allowing you to create automatic shortlists based on the skills in the job listing.

Digital credentials provide certainty that interviewees have the qualifications and education they claim to have, giving complete confidence when hiring — especially when hiring fast. With aged care still playing catch-up in improving care outcomes, automation through digital credentials is an essential step in the right direction.

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