It can be challenging to find the right support worker for people living with a disability. A roles-based recruitment approach can make the process easier.
Much of the work we do at Imagine More follows Social Role Valorisation (SRV) theory. We want people with disability to experience the good things of life. To achieve this, SRV tells us that we need to pay close attention to the roles the person occupies. Both the person with disability and their support worker must have positive roles that society values. To recruit support workers, the family needs:
- An excellent understanding of the person’s interests and goals
- To use this information to define the role that the support worker will occupy
- A process for recruitment to identify people who share the person’s interests and are a good match in other important areas
- A process for induction
We call this approach “roles-based recruitment”. On this page, you’ll find:
- A video about the Roles-based recruitment approach
- Sample documents used in roles-based recruitment
- Word documents that you can customise and use for your own recruiting.
Roles-based Recruitment
It can be challenging to find the right support worker for people living with a disability. There are many reasons for this.
- Not enough workers are entering the sector
- Disability support workers are typically female, older and of Anglo-Australian background. This demographic is not as diverse as the clients they support.
- Many support workers don’t receive adequate training to fulfil their role. Many support workers leave the sector because they experience low job satisfaction.
Taking a roles-based approach to recruitment achieves the following outcomes:
- Greater choice and control in the recruitment process for the person with disability
- Superior quality of relationship between the person and their support worker
- A much greater likelihood that the person will achieve their goals
- Greater job satisfaction for the support worker (and higher job retention)
Roles-based recruitment in action
This video features the process that Bryan took to recruit a drum technician.
Downloadable documents
You are welcome to download these documents from our site and to use them for your own roles-based recruitment. We’ve included examples as well as customisable Word documents that you can adapt to suit your recruitment needs.
Examples of roles-based recruitment documents
- Roles-based Recruitment – Application Form Example 250KB PDF
- Roles-based Recruitment – Induction Development Guide Example 236KB PDF
- Roles-based Recruitment – Information Package Example (Female) – Coming Soon
- Roles-based Recruitment – Information Package Example (Male) 415KB PDF
- Roles-based Recruitment – Job Ad Example (Sports Coach) 256KB PDF
- Roles-based Recruitment – Where to Advertise 209KB PDF
Customisable roles-based recruitment documents
- Roles-based Recruitment – Customisable Application Form 113KB Word Doc
- Roles-based Recruitment – Customisable Information Package (Female) 44KB Word Doc
- Roles-based Recruitment – Customisable Information Page (Male) 50KB Word Doc
- Roles-based Recruitment – Customisable Induction Development Guide 32KB Word Doc
- Roles-based Recruitment – Customisable Job Ad 27KB Word Doc