Worldwide, organizations struggle to attract professionals in rural and remote (R&R) areas. Undertaking a placement in an R&R area as part of a program of study has been shown to increase the likelihood of graduates taking up positions in locations that are difficult to staff. We applied behavioral insights to develop low cost, scalable interventions to encourage pre-service teachers to undertake internships in R&R areas of Australia. We tested the effectiveness of removing behavioral barriers when researching R&R areas and adding social triggers to make the R&R opportunity relevant. Our first randomized controlled trial (RCT) tested the use of personalized communication from an influential messenger to highlight the benefits of an R&R internship. Our second RCT tested the offer of social support by allowing pre-service teachers to complete the R&R internship with a “buddy”, rather than alone. Our behavioral approaches trebled R&R internship applications in RCT 1. These findings provide insights for cost-effectively increasing R&R internships in teaching, healthcare or social work.

在全球范围内，组织努力吸引农村和偏远（R＆R）领域的专业人员。研究表明，在R＆R领域中进行实习是增加毕业生在难以工作的地方就职的可能性。我们运用行为洞察力开发低成本，可扩展的干预措施，以鼓励职前教师在澳大利亚的R＆R地区进行实习。我们在研究R＆R领域并添加社交触发因素以使R＆R机会相关时，测试了消除行为障碍的有效性。我们的第一项随机对照试验（RCT）测试了有影响力的使者使用个性化通讯的效果，以突出R＆R实习的好处。我们的第二个RCT通过允许职前教师以“伙伴”（而不是一个人）完成R＆R实习的方式来测试社会支持的提供。我们的行为方法使RCT 1中的R＆R实习应用程序增加了三倍。这些发现为经济有效地增加R＆R实习在教学，医疗保健或社会工作中的应用提供了见识。