REFRAME by Attract Connect Stay
Evidence-led. People-centred. Place-aware. Outcome-focused.
Regional Workforce Shortages are Rarely just Recruitment Problems.
Regional workforce sustainability is about creating the conditions in which the right people choose to come, are enabled to contribute and have compelling reasons to stay.
Regional workforce sustainability is a designed outcome.
The REFRAME Workforce Challenge Check helps the Reframe team (Dr Cath Cosgrave, Dr Cindy Dennis and Margot Davis) understand what your organisation is experiencing, what you are trying to achieve and where the barriers may lie.
Your responses will help us identify the most relevant next step – whether that is an existing Attract Connect Stay training program, a conversation with our team, or potential involvement in the first implementation phase of REFRAME Insights.
Tell us about your workforce challenge.
Completing the check does not commit your organisation to participate. It helps the Reframe team understand your workforce challenge and identify the most relevant next step.
Reframe
the challenge
Redesign the
conditions
Change
the outcome
Recruitment is Often Where a Workforce Problem Becomes Visible, but it is Rarely Where the Problem Begins.
Persistent workforce shortages can reflect much wider conditions – workforce planning, role and career design, leadership, supervision, employee experience, professional support, housing, family needs, services, community connection and regional liveability.
In remote, rural and regional Australia, these conditions interact.
A successful appointment does not necessarily create a sustainable workforce outcome.
Sustainable workforce outcomes are shaped by the interaction between the individual, their role and career, the workplace and organisation, and the community and place in which they live.
When these elements are aligned, people are more likely to succeed, connect and stay. When they are not, recruitment alone is unlikely to create a lasting solution.
This whole-of-system view sits at the heart of the Attract Connect Stay Framework.
Recruit people into a system that has been designed to retain them.
Built on More Than a Decade of Rural Workforce Research and Practice
REFRAME builds on the pioneering work of Dr Cath Cosgrave, creator of the Attract Connect Stay Framework, whose research and expertise have helped shape rural workforce policy and practice in Australia, the USA and the World Health Organisation.
Cath’s work has demonstrated that workforce outcomes are shaped by the interaction between:
- the individual;
- the role and career;
- the workplace and organisation; and
- the community and place.
REFRAME brings this evidence-based foundation together with workforce planning, data and insights, organisational capability, liveability and implementation support.
“Recruitment is often where the workforce problem becomes visible, but it is rarely where the problem begins.”
The Attract Connect Stay Framework
A Whole-of-System View of Workforce Sustainability
The Attract Connect Stay Framework recognises that sustainable workforce outcomes depend on the interaction between:
- Workplace | Organisation
- Role | Career
- Community | Place
- the Individual at the centre.
When these elements are aligned, people are more likely to succeed, connect and stay. When they are not, recruitment alone is unlikely to create a lasting solution.
This whole-of-system view sits at the heart of the Attract Connect Stay Framework.
REFRAME builds on this evidence to help organisations understand, redesign and monitor the conditions influencing workforce sustainability.
Build on What Works. Transform What is Holding You Back.
The established ACS approach supports organisations and communities across the workforce journey:
ATTRACT → RECRUIT → SETTLE & CONNECT → STAY
REFRAME extends this approach:
Transform
Use evidence, assessment, planning and capability building to change the systems and conditions producing recurring workforce challenges.
Sustain
Embed the governance, capability, evidence, monitoring and accountability required to maintain improvement.
ATTRACT → CONNECT → STAY → TRANSFORM → SUSTAIN
Turn workforce data into insight and action
REFRAME Insights is a data- and insight-driven tool that helps organisations and regional partnerships identify, understand and measure the place-based, organisational and workforce conditions that are shaping attraction, recruitment, connection, satisfaction, intention to stay and retention.
It draws on your existing workforce data, the results of our ACS professional and personal experience surveys, and key place-based evidence – much of which you likely already have on hand.
REFRAME Insights is the data and insight engine within REFRAME
As one component within the broader REFRAME by ACS offer, REFRAME Insights is not a recruitment dashboard, a passive reporting tool or a universal benchmarking system. It is not off-the-shelf software, and it is not a substitute for strategy or implementation.
What REFRAME Insights is designed to do
REFRAME Insights helps organisations:
Establish a workforce baseline – Build a clearer picture of your current workforce position and identify where challenges are occurring.
Distinguish symptoms from underlying causes – Understand how place, organisation and workforce conditions interact and where the real drivers of your workforce challenges may sit.
Identify priorities – Use evidence to inform workforce sustainability planning, investment and action.
Monitor whether change is working – Track workforce signals over time and understand whether interventions are improving outcomes and whether those improvements are being sustained.
What REFRAME Insights Brings Together
Place
Can employees and families settle, connect and belong?
Potential areas of insight include: Housing, schooling & childcare, partner employment & family needs, health & local services, transport, social connection & belonging, recreation and lifestyle.
Organisation
Can employees succeed, contribute and develop?
Potential areas of insight include: Leadership & supervision, role clarity, workplace culture, onboarding & employee experience, recruitment practice, workforce capability, governance & accountability, readiness & capacity to implement change.
Workforce
Does the organisation understand its workforce demand, experience and risk?
Potential areas of insight include: Workforce demand & gaps, candidate fit & recruitment outcomes, professional satisfaction, personal satisfaction, connection to the organisation, connection to the community, intention to stay, progress against workforce priorities.
From Insight to Action
REFRAME Insights is designed to support the broader REFRAME approach by providing the evidence needed to inform assessment, planning, capability building, implementation and ongoing monitoring.
It helps organisations move beyond simply knowing what is happening to better understand why it is happening and where action is most needed.
What could REFRAME Insights reveal about your workforce?
Tell us about your workforce challenge.
REFRAME Insights is currently being shaped for its first implementation phase.
ACS is inviting organisations and regional partnerships experiencing persistent workforce challenges to tell us about their workforce priorities and explore whether REFRAME Insights, or an existing ACS training program or another ACS service may be relevant.
For some organisations, this may lead to consideration for participation in the first implementation phase of REFRAME Insights. For others, the most useful next step may be an ACS training program: Launchpad or Kickstart your Community Connector, or a workforce assessment, planning or another ACS service engagement.
Your responses will help the Reframe team understand your workforce challenge, identify the most relevant next step and assess whether your organisation may be suited to the first implementation phase of REFRAME Insights.
How REFRAME Works
Insight must lead to action
Establish the workforce baseline using available data, ACS measures, surveys and relevant place-based evidence.
Identify the place-based, organisational, role and career, community and workforce factors shaping outcomes.
Turn evidence into priorities, governance, measures and an actionable workforce sustainability roadmap.
Support implementation through tailored advice, undertaking ACS training programs and capability development.
Track workforce signals, implementation and whether improvements are being sustained.
REFRAME is designed to build workforce sustainability capability within organisations and regions – not permanent dependence on consultants.
Help Shape the First REFRAME Implementation Phase
ACS is seeking to understand where organisations and regional partnerships are experiencing persistent workforce challenges and where better workforce intelligence could create the greatest value.
The REFRAME Workforce Challenge Check provides the entry point.
By completing it, organisations can:
tell the Reframe team about their most significant workforce challenges;
identify the workforce outcomes they are seeking;
explore where barriers may sit;
identify areas where existing ACS training programs and services may help;
express interest in REFRAME Insights;
be considered for a briefing or Discovery Session; and
potentially be considered for the first REFRAME Insights implementation phase.
The first implementation phase will be limited and organisations will be considered based on workforce need, strategic fit, organisational readiness, leadership commitment, capacity to contribute relevant data, willingness to implement change and ACS delivery capacity.
Tell us about your workforce challenge.
Completing the check does not commit your organisation to participate or guarantee selection for the first REFRAME Insights implementation phase.
Evidence-led
Insight and data drive better decisions
People-centred
Designed with and for people and communities
Place-aware
Solutions shaped by local context and assets
Outcome-focused
Better conditions.Stonger places.Sustainable futures
Ready to strengthen workforce capability now?
Attract Connect Stay Launchpad helps organisations strengthen how they attract, recruit, settle, connect and retain their workforce.
Community Connector helps employees and families settle successfully, build local connections and develop a genuine sense of belonging.
Unlock your rural communities potential to attract and retain skilled workers with our training programs bespoke to your needs.
Regional workforce sustainability is a designed outcome.
ATTRACT → CONNECT → STAY → TRANSFORM → SUSTAIN
If your organisation is experiencing persistent workforce challenges, start by telling us what you are experiencing and what you are trying to achieve.