Why did they leave and what can they tell us? Allied health professionals leaving rural settings

The aim of this paper is to explore the lack of retention of allied health professionals in rural areas in Victoria, Australia. A structured telephone interview was used to elicit responses from 32 allied health professionals from south-west, central-west and north-east Victoria about their working experiences and reasons for resignation. The data revealed that work experiences in rural areas can be summarised within three domains: organisational, professional and personal/community. Under the organisational domain the participants were mainly focussed on the way in which their work arrangements require them to be both more generalist in their approach to day-to-day work, and more expansive in shouldering management style functions in the workplace. Under the professional domain there were three major issues; clinical, career and education/training. The personal/community domain focussed on issues to do with their affinity for their workplace as well as their location in a rural place. The attempts by government to address some of the leading factors for retention of allied health professionals are perhaps too narrowly focussed on the public sector and could encompass a wider approach.

What is known about the topic? Although recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas is widely discussed, the professionals have not been interviewed about their experiences once they have left rural employment.

What does this paper add? This paper provides detailed insights into the reasons why allied health professionals leave their positions in rural areas and the positive and negative aspects of living and working in a rural area. The results of this study contribute to the development of better policy models for recruitment and retention of allied health professionals in rural areas.

What are the implications for practitioners? The factors that influence whether allied health professionals stay or leave rural areas is of concern for health policy makers at state and federal levels. This paper provides information for the extension and development of programs to attenuate rural leakage of professionals.

Factors influencing the planning undertaken by women during pregnancy for their return to work after maternity leave

The planning women (N = 199) do during pregnancy for their return to work post birth and the factors that influence employment planning during late pregnancy were investigated in this study. The findings revealed three components of planning: Planning for Childcare, Planning with Partner, and Planning with Employer. Several factors emerged as consistent cross-sectional predictors of these components (work satisfaction, hours worked before commencing maternity leave, anticipated weeks of maternity leave and anticipated hours per week on the return to work). Anticipated support from family and friends, and from the workplace also predicted Planning with Partner and Planning with Employer, respectively. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Determinants of maternity leave duration in Australia : evidence from the HILDA survey

We use the first five waves of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey to examine what determines the maternity leave taken by pre-birth employed mothers of newborn children in Australia. We find that the difficulties faced by mothers in finding appropriate child care in terms of both cost and quality hinder them from returning to the labour market following childbirth. Maternity leave entitlements lead to an earlier return to the labour market following the birth of a child, relative to those who have no leave rights at all. Mothers with higher wages in their pre-birth employment and mothers with higher education levels tend to return to the labour market earlier than their lower wage and less educated counterparts. More flexible pre-birth jobs are associated with an increase in the likelihood of mothers returning to the workforce earlier than the average. Household wealth, however, seems to play a facilitating role in mothers taking a longer period of maternity leave to look after the newborn child. That is, mothers who have higher wealth levels can ‘afford’ to stay on maternity leave longer, to look after their children better during their primary developmental months. We believe that this article provides useful insights into the employment transitions of Australian mothers after having a baby.

An examination of psychological contracts, careerism and intention to leave

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationships between elements of the psychological contract (i.e., type and fulfilment) and an employee’s intention to leave (ITL) their current organisation. The role of careerism as a potential mediating and moderating variable is also explored.

Design/methodology/approach - Allied Health Professionals (N=202) completed a questionnaire containing measures of the psychological contract, careerism and ITL.

Findings - As predicted, path analyses conducted via structural equation modelling demonstrated that careerism partially mediates the relationship between contract types and ITL. These findings suggest that employees with transactional contracts are more careerist, resulting in higher ITL, while employees with relational contracts are less careerist, resulting in lower ITL. Contrary to expectation, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that careerism failed to moderate the relationship between perceived contract fulfillment and ITL. However, a strong positive association between contract fulfillment and ITL was found.

Research limitations/implications - The data were collected cross-sectionally, which limits the ability to make causal inferences.

Practical implications - Results were consistent with the proposition that contract type and fulfillment predict employee ITL. It appears that employees with relational contracts are more likely to remain with their organization on a longer-term basis, compared to employees with transactional contracts, due to differences in career motives. Organizational awareness and understanding of employee psychological contracts and career motives is needed.

Originality/value - This paper provides new theoretical and practical insights on how psychological contracts and careerism can influence Intention to leave among Allied Health Professionals.