In conversations with Hannah Murphy

28 Mar 2024

This month, we delve into Hannah Murphy’s insights and experiences. With over two decades of experience in profit-for-purpose industries spanning disability, aged care, retirement, and technology services, Hannah brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. Join us as we explore her thoughts for a more inclusive and compassionate future.

Given your extensive experience across profit-for-purpose industries, particularly in aged care services, how do you perceive the landscape for emerging leaders in the healthcare sector?

The landscape for aged care and disability service which is the sector I work in, has for a long time, been one of uncertainty. It is a landscape of multiple productivity commission reports, royal commissions, industry reviews and media attention. The reforms are necessary, change is sometimes too fast and sometimes too slow, but it is constant. Depressingly it is a landscape that rarely delivers consistently or on the original vision of the reforms. Both aged care and disability struggle with financial sustainability, in FY23 the majority of providers in Disability were loss making and their position has worsened from FY22.

However it is also a landscape that measures value in human terms not just economical ones. It is a landscape that is part of building a better society and changing the way society views itself. It is landscape that provides opportunity to design reforms directly with people with lived experience, with government and with other service providers in a non-competitive way.

This landscape requires emerging leaders to be highly skilled and have a passion for social justice. Leaders need to be highly capable at building relationships, being advocates, develop workforce strategies and  digital strategies, and be on board with achieving financial sustainability. Emerging leaders must stay aware of reform changes and innovation opportunities.

Emerging leaders need to be good implementers, there is a sense of urgency for change in these sectors but the reform required will takes years to implement well so that we don’t continue to make the same mistakes of the past. There is an enormous amount of work to implement reforms, emerging leaders need to be in for the long haul, the social services sector is a career path that can start as a support worker and lead to being CEO. Simply put, emerging leaders need to have what the person next to them doesn’t – stamina, determination and willingness to work hard. These sectors understand and value employee experience as much as customer experience and many are willing to invest in their emerging leaders to become highly educated and highly skilled. Implementation is a major issue this sector needs to tackle and that means training of workforce, and addressing the culture of leadership and governance.

There is also finally an acceptance of the need for leaders with lived experience, not just a leader with a family member that has dementia or disability or a consultative committee, but leaders at all levels (Board, Executive and Senior Leadership) that are living and dealing with the current barriers to achieving a fulfilling life with security and connection to their community. I would question the suitability of any leader that does not believe this.

What challenges and opportunities do you foresee for individuals aspiring to lead in areas that blend social impact and aged care?

Limited funding and resources can pose significant challenges for leaders in the social services sector. Balancing financial sustainability with the delivery of high-quality care requires operational and cultural change. This can be a significant challenge in a sector that has tiny or non existent margins to reinvest into technology and innovation. These sectors can’t wait or rely on reforms to achieve financial sustainability, emerging leaders must maintain their closeness to the detail as they develop skills in strategy.

Recruiting and retaining skilled professionals is a known challenge across the sector but less so for those organisations that value and invest in their people. Leaders must address workforce shortages, promote professional development and create a supportive and flexible work environment to attract and retain talent. Support workers in some countries go to University for three years to get a qualification, in Australia good progress is being made slowly, but our workers are still amongst the lowest paid.

Innovation and Technology is both a challenge and an opportunity, ideas are cheap but execution can be expensive if you get it wrong. Leaders in the social services sectors are surrounding themselves with futurists, digital strategists, start-ups, researchers etc, because they recognise the speed technology advancement. It is well accepted by leaders that the integration of technology and innovation presents opportunities for driving efficiencies and improving outcomes. Emerging leaders can bridge the time-warp gap in this sector that has resulted from outdated governance and operating models. It would be good to have more peers in the industry that can demonstrate the lower risk-profile and higher likelihood of success of newer models.

Advocacy can come in many forms and at all levels of leadership We need emerging leaders that rage against the injustice their organisations are in battle with. Understand that once you become acutely aware of it, it can wear you out, don’t give up or become desensitised. Emerging leaders need to be values aligned but also vision and mission aligned and have operational implementation plans that provide direct line of sight to that vision – what value can emerging leaders offer when it comes to changing society’s views? Enabling the development and opportunities for emerging leaders with lived experience and believing that they can be trusted to design systems may be the biggest shift we need to make in a human rights approach.

As we celebrated International Women’s Day on March 8, reflecting on the theme of a gender-equal world, what actions do you believe can contribute to fostering a more inclusive and gender-equal healthcare environment, aligning with the goal of #InspireInclusion?

These sectors are well equipped with lots of amazing leaders of all genders. It’s a sector that naturally attracts women, not just because of the human service element but because it is a sector that attracts smart driven minds that aren’t afraid of hard work, or debate, or emotion, losses and wins. Women are not afraid or strangers to hard work and knock backs. These sectors attract minds that want to be challenged and stretched and pressed as well as being able to talk with pride to their children, friends and family about what they do. Our sector is led by women at all levels from Directors, Senior Managers, Policy Makers etc.

I think because our sector is really driven by inclusivity for the customers we serve women in leadership roles forget or perhaps feel less inclined to challenge gender stereotypes and call out gender based discrimination.

Actions we can take to foster a more inclusive and gender-equal environment include: