The stability and sustainability of a professional workforce in rural places has been found to be strongly impacted by the quality of workplace relationships. This highlights the importance of needing a recruitment process that allows for ‘person-fit’ considerations in the selection of new staff.
In the human resources management field ‘person-environment-fit’ selection is defined as assessing applicants’ fit with the job, the organisation, the work team/group, as well as considering candidates’ qualifications, work experience, values and interpersonal attributes.
In addition, Dr Cosgrave’s Whole-of-Person Retention Improvement Framework extends person-fit considerations to community and place especially for candidates needing to relocate to take up the position.
TIPS: Here are some tips for using a person-environment-fit selection process:
- Include in the selection criteria and interview questions for evidence of having established and maintained ‘quality workplace’ relationships and demonstrating an understanding of its importance
- Include an additional, non-assessed, community/place interview question for candidates needing to relocate to take up the position. The purpose of the question is for the candidate to share their expectations and share, if they want, the needs/ aspirations of other family members. Dr Cosgrave suggests using the following question:
What opportunities and challenges do you think you will experience in the first 12 months of living and working in Greater Shepparton region? And what strategies will you use to address these identified challenges?
