Ramsay Australia Leadership Academy
Founded in 1964, Ramsay Health Care is Australia’s largest private hospital provider, with more than 70 facilities and 35,000 people delivering care to over one million patients each year.
Operating in a highly complex, people‑intensive healthcare environment, leaders at all levels are required to navigate constant change while remaining true to the “Ramsay Way” ethos of People Caring for People.
In response, and as part of its long-term investment in people and culture, Ramsay built a unified, enterprise-wide Leadership Academy at scale and pace. Anchored in Ramsay’s CARE Leadership Foundations, the Academy provides a suite of distinct yet interconnected programmes, supporting leaders wherever they are on their leadership journey to build confidence, strengthen capability and navigate transformation with clarity and consistency.
The organisation needed leaders who could operate with greater agility, enterprise thinking, collaboration and adaptability – capable of navigating ambiguity and transformation.
Ramsay wanted leadership development to directly support organisational performance during times of ongoing change. After consulting key stakeholders, they defined clear goals for the Leadership Academy that would support approximately 3,000 leaders across Australia.
It was clear a scalable, enterprise solution was needed to deliver the following outcomes:
- Immediate uplift in leadership capability and confidence, including people management, performance conversations and wellbeing.
- Consistent behaviours and shared leadership language, grounded in self-awareness, coaching and courageous conversations.
- Build a future ready leadership pipeline, to ensure succession readiness for future leaders.
- Stronger decision making and performance, aligned to Ramsay’s care-centred identity.
Ramsay partnered with Impact to design and deliver the Ramsay Australia Leadership Academy - a multi-level, integrated suite of distinct yet connected leadership programmes. Aligned to Ramsay’s purpose, strategic direction and future capability needs the Academy is grounded in the CARE Leadership Foundations and focused on practical, business-focused learning experiences that leaders could apply immediately in the workplace.
Impact and Ramsay worked at pace, using structured discovery - including stakeholder interviews, site-visits and co design workshops - to map the business needs and translate them into 10 core enterprise learning themes. A bold decision was made to launch all levels of the Academy simultaneously, creating momentum and engagement across the organisation. The Leadership Academy is made up of:
- Ignite: A virtual 4-6 week program on leadership fundamentals for new leaders.
- Empower: A virtual 6-8 week program helping experienced people leaders progress from competence to mastery.
- Amplify: A blended 8-10 week program for new leaders of leaders, to help them navigate increased complexity and leading through others.
- Inspire: A blended 10-12 week program for experienced leaders of leaders, integrating advanced diagnostics and strategic capability development.
- Transform: A blended 12-14 week program enabling executive leaders to courageously lead and deliver organisational strategy.
Participant results
- Participants report a 20% increase in their overall confidence as a leader.
- With significant gains in coaching conversations (+32%), challenging conversations (+33%), self-awareness (+24%) and leading others through change (+20%).
- 86% of participants report meaningful progress against their professional development goals, demonstrating sustained workplace application of learning.
Organisational results
These outcomes are reinforced by managers, with 74% reporting positive behavioural shifts in their leaders. Across the organisation, leaders are increasingly demonstrating the behaviours embedded in Ramsay’s CARE Leadership Foundations, creating greater consistency in how leadership is understood and practised.
The Academy is also strengthening organisational culture. Participants attribute an NPS of 51, while Ramsay’s employee engagement survey recorded a +6 point increase in confidence in senior leadership, indicating stronger trust, visibility and leadership effectiveness across the business.
At the executive level, participants in the Transform programme are applying their learning to real business challenges, leading cross-functional projects in areas such as innovation, operational improvement, workforce experience and strategic growth. By working on priorities that matter to the business, leaders are strengthening their ability to influence, collaborate across boundaries and turn strategic thinking into tangible organisational outcomes.
More than a leadership programme
The Academy has established a shared leadership language, strengthened enterprise-wide networks and created a scalable leadership pipeline to support Ramsay’s future growth and success.
“The Ramsay Leadership Academy has been fantastic. The CARE leadership foundations are a beneficial resource with clear prompts to help any level of leader. I have already shared learnings with my team and I would highly recommend the Academy to others.”
Nerida Russell‑Green, Director of Clinical Services, St George Private Hospital, NSW
The results of the review confirmed that the number of managers who present strategic and developing styles increased by over 20%. Moreover, the programme had a very positive impact on the inter-departmental / cross-functional cooperation, which is very important in such a large and diverse company as Polpharma."