Head of People, Talent, Experience and Operations
* Are you excited to join us on an innovative journey to shape our organisation's future?
* We are a human-centred and diverse organisation that cares for our clients.
Job Description
In this exciting role as Head of People, Talent, Experience and Operations at mecwacare you will collaborate closely with the Executive Director of People, Culture and Safety to achieve strategic goals and operational excellence. You will drive our employee experience, talent acquisition, onboarding and lead operational and workforce compliance excellence aligned to organisational strategy. A key focus of this role will be to establish and maintain a new workforce compliance, governance and operations function to ensure consistency, high quality, and future-proof our end-to-end people processes, practices and systems that align to legislative and business requirements and support our operating model and new ways of working.
You are a leader that is driven by our organisational values and to provide high quality person-centred care to our clients. As a trusted and credible P&C leader, you want to make a meaningful difference and strive for excellence and continuous improvement. You will have extensive experience and a strong background in shaping enterprise-wide talent acquisition, employee experience and reward and recognition practices. In addition, you will have extensive experience in P&C systems and payroll, and improving people compliance processes to reduce risk, with a strong focus on delivering exceptional service to both internal stakeholders and employees. If you are a strategic thinker that is passionate about driving P&C operational excellence across the entire people life-cycle, and can balance strategic insights with hands-on delivery, this is a rewarding role for you.
About the Opportunity
* Lead the People Talent, Experience, Operations and Compliance Team to enhance our employee experience through operational excellence and innovative engagement solutions.
* Drive improvements in our talent attraction, retention, and reward and recognition strategies by enhancing onboarding, job evaluation and remuneration framework design and policy, and management of relevant P&C systems and workforce compliance processes.
* Ensure we create a high-quality candidate and employee experience that is engaging.
* Set up and lead the execution, delivery and governance of a workforce compliance function and ensure end-to-end people practices and processes are effective and our people are educated on key requirements.
* Ensure workforce compliance with all relevant employment legislation, industrial instruments, policies and procedures across our people practices, process and systems and wider organisation.
* Utilise effective people systems to drive data-driven decisions, maintain and enhance our P&C systems, and ensure compliance with Aged Care regulations, including the Age Care Act and Age Care Quality Standards.
* Own and lead P&C operational systems (including HRIS and payroll), ensuring effective implementation, optimisation, reporting integrity, and education for managers and employees.
* Enhance and embed recruitment and compliance reporting and identify partnerships to support career development and mobility.
* Lead and oversee the end-to-end recruitment life cycle, ensuring high quality delivery, governance and support for leaders across screening, selection, offers, contracts and pre-employment checks.
* Strategically partner with the wider P&C team and wider organisation to build trust and confidence for streamlined P&C guidance, collaborating with our people and leaders to foster innovation and skill enhancement.
* Drive continuous improvement in people practices, governance, data systems and frameworks.
What you bring?
* Relevant qualification(s) including Organisational Psychology, Human Resource Management or other relevant tertiary or postgraduate qualification(s).
* Extensive experience in designing and executing end-to-end talent acquisition and recruitment, employee experience, reward, remuneration and recognition strategies.
* Ability to think strategically and understand how strategic workforce planning can integrate with end-to-end people practices, quality people reporting for improved prioritisation of work and workforce capacity and capability.
* Strong ability to set up, manage and ensure consistent high-quality and future-proofing workforce compliance processes and systems align with legislation, business and regulatory requirements
* Experience in enhancing payroll systems and processes that ensure alignment with workforce compliance and effective contract management
* Experience in development of EVP and talent management and employee experience strategies across entire workforce (permanent, casual, volunteer).
* Experience in remuneration strategy development, job banding, and job evaluation to ensure effective job analysis, position description, and position management and classification practices.
* Building trusted partnerships with our people and leaders (all levels) to ensure they have the confidence to effectively attract and retain talent and educate and utilise a range of P&C practices and systems in an effective way to enhance our people experience.
* Ensure compliance with all relevant employment legislation, industrial instruments, policies and procedures, including effective contract management and classification.
* Demonstrated success in HRIS and payroll system implementations, including system governance, reporting, data integrity, change management and education of leaders and managers.
* Up-to-date knowledge of P&C technology trends and emerging tools, including AI or other P&C tools
* Act as the trusted senior advisor for effective recruitment and talent management, management of people processes, systems and compliance.
Desirable Criteria
* Age Care Sector knowledge and Regulatory compliance – Deep understanding of the Australian Age Care landscape (e.g. Age Care Quality Standards, including roles of the Age Care Quality Safety Commission), and experience ensuring compliance.
* Experience in multi-site/geographically dispersed service delivery.
Position Description:For your review, please see the position description for this role here: **
Why work for us? Be part of work that truly makes a meaningful difference.
mecwacare is a leading not-for-profit organisation that has been supporting Victorians for more than 65+ years. We are a values-based, care-driven organisation that provides residential, community and in-home nursing, care and support services for the elderly and people living with a disability. mecwacare supports more than 20,000 people each week across greater Melbourne and regional Victoria. We are a rapidly growing organisation with a diverse workforce of more than 4000 employees and 500 volunteers, representing 89 nationalities and speaking 100 languages.
We strongly encourage applications from individuals of all ages, genders, abilities, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
What do we offer?**
* Work Life Balance and Hybrid Flexible Working.
* Not for profit Salary Packaging benefit up to $15,900 and Meals Card up to $2,700.
* Employee Assistance Program alongside awards and recognition
* Range of other benefits and discounts.
To apply: Please submit your application alongside a Cover letter addressing Position Description requirements. We do not accept applications via email.
All successful candidates must possess or be willing to undergo and pass a National Police Check and other relevant checks.
Apply early This role may close sooner than the listed closing date if we find the right candidate – so if interested, please apply early.
Applications close on the 26/02/2026.