Head of HR

A disability provider that needed senior HR leadership — on a tight budget

Primacy Care Australia is a Melbourne-based disability service provider delivering in-home care and community support under the NDIS. The organisation was at a critical growth point: workforce turnover was high, HR processes were manual and inconsistent, and compliance across Fair Work, SCHADS, and the NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission needed strengthening.

They needed a Head of HR — or, more accurately, a Head of People & Culture — who could lead strategy, governance, and workforce planning. Someone who could build systems, reduce turnover, and modernise HR operations from the ground up. And they needed to find this person within the realities of a community services budget.

It was a senior appointment with executive-level expectations, but the brief required a candidate motivated by purpose, not package.

Searching across sectors to find the right leader

Gab’s approach was to look beyond the obvious talent pool. The best candidates for this role weren’t necessarily already working in disability services — they were experienced HR leaders in NFP, healthcare, and education who understood mission-driven work and had the practical chops to build systems in a growing organisation.

Gab ran a targeted search across these adjacent sectors, engaging candidates who were specifically motivated by the opportunity to make a difference in disability services. Four strong candidates were shortlisted — each with proven capability in HR strategy, industrial and employee relations, and the kind of compliance knowledge that NDIS and SCHADS demand.

The assessment focused on what matters most in this kind of appointment: policy framework design, workforce planning, HRIS optimisation, and — critically — the ability to lead cultural change in an organisation where staff retention is directly linked to the quality of care delivered.

A placement was made within four weeks.

A People & Culture roadmap in six months

Within six months of starting, the new Head of HR delivered:

• 12% reduction in staff turnover — through targeted retention initiatives, improved onboarding, and leadership development programmes
• Strengthened compliance posture — improved audit readiness across Fair Work, SCHADS, and NDIS Quality & Safeguards
• A practical People & Culture strategy — aligned to organisational values, with clear priorities and measurable milestones

The organisation now has a stable workforce foundation, stronger risk management, and a clear HR roadmap that supports both quality care delivery and sustainable growth.