Appointment of HR Director, Australian Healthcare Provider

At a Glance

• Sector – Healthcare
• Location – Melbourne, VIC
• Workforce – 1,600 employees
• Service – HR Executive Search
• Engagement – Retained Search

The Challenge

An Australian healthcare provider with 1,600 employees across multiple facilities needed an HR Director who could operate credibly in a highly regulated, workforce-scarce sector, where clinical and non-clinical award coverage, enterprise agreements and industrial relations complexity sit on top of standard HR leadership demands.

An earlier search run without a healthcare-specialist recruiter had returned strong generalist HR Director candidates who, on closer assessment, lacked genuine exposure to clinical workforce and award complexity.

Our Approach

Civitas prioritised candidates with direct healthcare or highly-regulated sector HR experience, benchmarking the brief against comparable healthcare organisations’ HR Director appointments before the search began to keep expectations realistic.

The Solution

The appointed HR Director brought over 12 years of healthcare and highly-regulated sector HR leadership, with direct prior experience managing enterprise agreement negotiations.

Measured Impact

• Search completed within an estimated 9 weeks against a specialist healthcare brief
• Supported successful renegotiation of a key enterprise agreement within the first year
• Reduced reliance on external IR consultants for day-to-day workforce matters
• Strengthened HR leadership continuity across facilities

Client Reflection

Healthcare HR isn’t generalist HR, Civitas understood that from the first conversation. 

Why This Matters

Healthcare employers searching for HR Directors without sector-specific recruitment support routinely under-assess award and IR complexity until it surfaces mid-tenure, this appointment shows why a functionally specialist search matters as much as seniority when the sector itself carries specific regulatory weight.

Related Civitas Service

HR Executive Search