A great workplace for women is a great workplace for everyone
Jo Stammers reflects on the connection between workforce design, long-term careers in support work and the stability that helps deliver better outcomes for clients.
In disability support, strong outcomes begin with strong teams.
This International Women’s Day, InLife has been recognised as one of Australia’s Best Workplaces™ for Women 2026, following last year’s inclusion in the Top 10 Best Places to Work in the Large Business category and recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare & Social Assistance.
That recognition has prompted me to reflect on what makes outcomes like this possible.
When InLife set out to improve the lived experience of disability support, one intention was clear: if we wanted better outcomes for clients, support work needed to be something where people felt valued for the work they did, and that they could build a long term career in.
That meant recognising support workers as skilled practitioners, building structured career pathways, and creating an organisation where people could see a long-term future grounded in purpose.
Disability support operates within a workforce that is strongly female represented. Jobs and Skills Australia reports that 76 percent of workers in Health Care and Social Assistance are women, and that workforce reality should influence how leadership, flexibility and career development are structured.
At InLife, we have deliberately designed around that reality.
We pay above industry average. We create multiple internal progression opportunities each year, allowing support workers to move into coordination and leadership roles. We invest in mentoring and professional development, and we design flexibility that supports both family life and long-term careers.
Over time, this approach has shaped leadership across the organisation, with many of our leaders beginning as support workers and progressing into coordination, management and executive roles as they built experience and capability.
Today, 19 of our 26 leaders across the Board, Executive and Client Service management teams are women, reflecting careers built through growth and demonstrated expertise.
Our most recent engagement survey reinforces this foundation, with strong engagement scores that reflect high levels of job satisfaction, pride and commitment across our teams.
This translates through to our client experience. In our 2025 Client Survey, 9 in 10 respondents said they would recommend our services.
International Women’s Day is a reminder for us that organisational design is not abstract. When you create a workplace that genuinely works for women, you create a workplace that works well for everyone, and when people feel settled and supported at work, clients experience the difference.
