The aged care sector is predominantly shaped by women, who not only represent the majority of residents but also form the backbone of the workforce. Within this vital and rapidly expanding field, women play a central role.
For Linda Mellors, Managing Director and CEO of Regis Aged Care, this state of play comes with a profound sense of responsibility. Since taking the helm at Regis Aged Care in 2019, she has seen firsthand how this dynamic plays out.
The organization’s workforce is 80 percent female, along with 50 percent of the executive leadership team and 57 percent of the board. While Mellors takes pride in these figures, she is also keenly aware that more work remains to be done across the industry to truly support and empower women in this space. It’s a challenge she is taking on with strength, experience and unwavering commitment.
“In recent years, I have felt a really strong obligation to advocate for all of the women in care or working in the sector, because aged care hadn’t received the priority it deserved and care workers were not properly recognized by the community,” she tells The CEO Magazine.
A key milestone
Integral to this mission was her strong advocacy for the Work Value Case, which has led to significant improvements in minimum wages for aged care nurses and carers.
“That process led the Fair Work Commission to determine that aged care work had been undervalued and that new higher pay rates were warranted,” Mellors says. “This has been a fantastic step forward for our industry.”
It represents an extension of the work that is already well underway at Regis Aged Care, where steps have already been and continue to be taken to address gender pay equity.
“At an organizational level, we have eliminated the gender pay gap, as measured by the Workplace Gender Equity Agency, through targeted review and action over recent years,” she reveals.
“At an organizational level, we have eliminated the gender pay gap.”
Measures impact all areas of the business, from its recruitment process to salary benchmarking and annual pay equity reviews. It’s an ongoing focus that aligns with the 2025 International Women’s Day theme of ‘Accelerate Action’.
“This call to action is not just about gender pay parity but also gender parity more broadly,” Mellors explains. “At Regis, our commitment to gender equity is intrinsically linked to our commitment to fairness and inclusion, and we continue to support gender equity in all its forms.
“Services that are dominated by women clients and workers are at risk of being undervalued, and there is always work to do to uplift the profile of the industry and its workforce.”
A necessary shift
It’s not just women who stand to benefit from such a stance, however, particularly with a fast-ageing population. According to the World Health Organization, one in six people in the world will be aged 60 years or over by 2030, rising from one billion in 2020 to 1.4 billion. By 2050, the world’s population of people aged 60 years and older is expected to be 2.1 billion.
“Investing in aged care is better for everyone,” Mellors stresses. “Older people can access care that is appropriate to their needs and preferences, and avoid services in hospitals that are more costly and come with risks for older people.
“Not investing in aged care puts extraordinary pressure on our hospital and primary care systems and families of older people. More expensive care settings place a burden on the taxpayer and are inefficient from an economic perspective.”
“Not investing in aged care puts extraordinary pressure on our hospital and primary care systems and families of older people.”
Mellors is well placed to comment, having built up expertise over six years in strategy and governance roles before her move into aged care. The steepest learning curve, however, came when she joined Regis Aged Care.
“I think I gained about 10 years of experience in my first 12 months at Regis as we navigated the Royal Commission, a global pandemic, floods and fires, increased regulation and regulatory change, margin compression due to inadequate funding, a cyberattack and workforce distress,” she points out.
Indeed, she admits that the first three years were difficult, with sector-wide workforce shortages coinciding with the ever-increasing expectations of providers and workers.
“Workers were fatigued from the pandemic and the Royal Commission, and the salaries and wages provided to workers were uncompetitive and did not reflect the value of the work being done,” she says.
Caring culture
Mellors navigated that tough period with support from the board of directors as well as the Regis Aged Care team. Empowered to make the changes required to build an environment that delivered great outcomes for its residents and its workers, she placed the organization firmly on a path for business success.
“The 11,500-strong Regis workforce is highly motivated and committed to continuous improvement across all areas of our company,” she says.
“This has flowed through to improved quality and safety, consumer experience, employee engagement, financial and shareholder outcomes.”
The organization’s safety performance leads the industry in every state it operates in, with a highly engaged team. In fact, its employee engagement scores sit at 86 percent. For Mellors too, the organization has proved to be the perfect fit.
“The Regis values of optimism, passion, integrity and respect resonate with my own. I want the best care and experience for our residents and clients – from their physical and personal care through to their mental health and social connectedness,” she says.
Now, five years in, Mellors finds herself amid a more stable operating environment, even as reform continues at an intense pace. The past year has seen Regis acquire seven residential aged care homes, commit to buying a home care business, open a new state-of-the-art home and commence another three greenfield developments. It is also rebuilding its land bank for future developments.
“I want the best care and experience for our residents and clients – from their physical and personal care through to their mental health and social connectedness.”
It’s an impressive lineup. But perhaps the company’s greatest success story is the quality of care and service it provides to its residents and clients.
“When our residents and clients are happy, they recommend us to others,” Mellors says. “This builds our occupancy of residents and clients in our care, and improves our employee engagement. In turn, this flows through to our profit, cash flow, balance sheet and earnings per share growth.
“We are now in a period of growth following the extraordinarily hard work of the past few years. I’m incredibly excited about what we can achieve at Regis and how the industry will transform over the years ahead.”
