Onnis, Leigh-Ann, and Oorschot, Jane (2025) HR in the Tropics: HR leading workforce strategies for Northern Australia. In: [Developing Northern Australia Conference]. From: Developing Northern Australia Conference, 22-24 Jul 2025, Cairns, Australia.

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Abstract

The HR in the Tropics project seeks to identify factors that influence HR practices in tropical northern Australia to better understand how to contextualise human resource management (HRM) to meet workforce needs in the region. The context in which HRM is practiced is a salient topic because it seems unlikely that the same HR practices will work equally well in different contexts. Yet, this has not been explored in a within country regional context, despite a broad understanding that it is the case for multi-country contexts. Therefore, the first phase of this research project tested the perception of context with HR practitioners in northern Australia, revealing that more than two thirds (69%) of survey respondents said that ‘HR is different up here!’ The second research phase used an explanatory research design to understand more about if, and how, place shapes HR practices in northern Queensland. The findings suggest that place is integral to how HR practices are implemented. That is, while HR practices appear to be generic; how HR practitioners localised the implementation of HR practices is influenced by place. Through narrative interviews the work experiences that HR practitioners perceived as being unique to northern Queensland were examined. Using the self-others-environment theoretical framework sixteen themes that captured the aspects of place associated with shaping how HR is practiced in northern Queensland were identified. Further, the findings suggest that transformational HR practices were often focused on strategies to implement operational HR activities rather than forward focused HR strategy and workforce transformation. Therefore, given the increasing evidence that context is an essential element of HR practices, consideration for the northern Australian context is essential to build a HR workforce with the skills and expertise to inform policy decisions, build capability and lead workforce development strategies to advance Australia’s north.

1. Workforce strategies need to be contextualised to the northern Australian environment. 2. Place-based factors impact how human resource practices are implemented. 3. Skilled and experienced human resource practitioners with ties to the north can lead workforce development strategies to advance Australia’s north.

Item ID:	86377
Item Type:	Conference Item (Poster)
Copyright Information:	© 2025 The Developing Northern Australia Conference.
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2025 04:02
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