For NDIS and aged care providers, agency labour is one of the largest controllable costs in the business. When a regular worker calls in sick, takes leave, or a new client package is awarded with short notice, many organisations default to calling their labour hire agency — paying a margin of 20-40% above the base rate to fill the shift. CareIQ's open shift marketplace is designed to exhaust every internal option before a provider reaches for the phone to an agency.
When a shift becomes available, managers can designate it as an "open shift" in CareIQ rather than immediately assigning it. Open shifts are published to the marketplace, where eligible workers in the organisation can view and apply for them. Eligibility filtering is automatic — CareIQ uses each worker's profession level to determine which open shifts they can see. A Level 2 worker sees both Level 1 and Level 2 shifts. Workers whose qualifications are blocked do not see the shift at all.
When multiple workers apply for the same open shift, CareIQ generates an applicant ranking. The base ranking score considers: the worker's current hours for the week (favouring under-utilised workers); their prior experience with the specific participant (favouring continuity of support); and their profession level match to the shift requirements. For shifts with three or more applicants, CareIQ's AI ranking enhancement adds a bonus score of up to 20 points based on client compatibility, fatigue risk assessment, and skill match. The AI reasoning is displayed alongside each applicant's score.
For organisations with high shift volumes, CareIQ supports auto-assign for open shifts — when auto-assign is enabled, the first eligible applicant to apply is automatically awarded the shift. Application deadlines can be set on open shifts, ensuring the award decision is made with enough lead time for the worker to prepare. Repeat weeks can also be configured — a shift pattern that is consistently open can be republished automatically each week without the manager recreating it.
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