Nestled in Canberra’s bush landscape, Capability Support isn’t your run-of-the-mill care provider. Founded by Mark Marlor, Carsten Shaw and Alex Madge this outfit has muscled its way from a small four-person team to a powerhouse of 200 staff in just 18 months—serving over 250 clients across the Australian Capital Territory and even parts of New South Wales.
We Can Do Better
Mark’s epiphany came from years of frustration with traditional care organisations. “Most large outfits are a bit archaic,” he candidly shares. “They’re full of paperwork and aren’t responsive to individual needs.” Frustrated by inefficient support models, Mark and his team decided to build something different. Their mission? Doing better for the community, through providing personalised, flexible, professional and easy-to-access supports. “More support, less admin” is their point of difference.
Capability Support have built a support model that tackles the trickiest cases head-on. Working with children, young people, and adults the services they provide is impressively broad: disability, residential care and behaviour support, specialised transport, contact and early-intervention services. Each service is tailored, personal, and laser-focused on what the client needs, and wants.
Lean and Mean: Zero Admin Staff
Here’s the kicker: Capability Support manages 200 staff and a substantial turnover without a single dedicated admin person. Their mantra? “More support, less admin.”
ShiftCare’s features—from rostering to compliance tracking—have been instrumental in this lean approach. Push notifications, instant acknowledgements, smooth payroll integration: it’s operational efficiency that saves countless hours and money.
Beyond tech, they’ve crafted an organisational culture that’s both professional and refreshingly genuine. While many providers struggle with staff retention, Capability has cracked the code through intensive professional development. Their support workers aren’t treated as interchangeable resources—they’re viewed as skilled professionals on a growth trajectory. Regular specialised training, particularly in trauma-informed care and complex support needs, ensures their team stays ahead of industry standards. It’s a strategy that’s paying off, with staff retention rates remaining high.
Tech-Smart from Day One
Capability Support’s didn’t just get lucky with their scaling success, it was bolstered by strategic tech adoption from the get-go. While many providers try to retrofit technology into existing processes, Capability built their operations around ShiftCare’s capabilities from day one. This early adoption meant no legacy systems to untangle, no staff to retrain, and no messy migration periods.
The ShiftCare platform perfectly matched their “more support, less admin” philosophy. Instead of building a traditional scheduling team, they leveraged ShiftCare’s automated notifications and job board to create a self-managing workforce. Support workers could claim shifts that matched their skills and availability with Job Board, while real-time updates kept everyone in the loop about last-minute changes or emerging client needs.
While other organisations might have buckled under the pressure of scaling from 4 to 200 staff, Capability’s tech-first approach meant their operations could expand without proportional increases in administrative overhead. Staff onboarding, compliance tracking, and payroll integration were streamlined from the start, eliminating the usual growing pains of rapid expansion.
Mark recalls the early decision to invest in ShiftCare: “Some providers have entire teams dedicated to roster management—we wanted those resources going directly into client support instead.” The gamble paid off. While competitors struggle with staff coordination and communication bottlenecks, Capability’s workforce essentially manages itself through the platform, allowing leadership to focus on service quality and strategic growth.
The Road Ahead
Their 2024-2027 strategy is all about refinement, quality, and strategic diversification. They’re not chasing growth for growth’s sake—they’re building a sustainable, impactful model.
Capability Support represents the future: tech-savvy, compassionate, and relentlessly client-focused. They’re not just providing a service, but reimagining what support can look like. As they continue evolving, one principle remains rock-solid: helping people live life entirely on their own terms.
