Back to work – but does it fit? The impact of vocational disruption on person-job fit following spinal cord injury

Study design Observational study using self-reported life-course data. Objectives To examine whether and to what extent changing employer or job type after spinal cord injury (SCI) influences perceived person-job fit in the first post-injury employment position, and to evaluate support for a causal effect. Setting Community-based, Switzerland. Methods Data were collected through an online biographical survey of individuals with SCI living in Switzerland. Person-job fit was operationalised using five outcome variables reflecting three dimensions: interest congruence, needs-supplies fit, and demands-abilities fit. Ordered, binary, and multinomial logistic regression models were used to examine the impact of employer and job-type change on each outcome. Results The sample comprised 339 individuals who were employed at the time of SCI onset and had engaged in paid employment at least once since injury. Changing employer after SCI was associated with significantly lower odds of perceiving good interest congruence (OR 0.26; 95% CI, 0.13–0.51) and good general work needs-supplies fit (OR 0.32; 95% CI, 0.16–0.65) in fully adjusted models. By contrast, job-type change showed no effect after adjustment. No effects were found for demands-abilities fit. Conclusions Changing employer after SCI is associated with poorer perceived person-job fit in terms of interests and needs. These findings suggest that continuity of the employment relationship can play a meaningful role in the quality of post-injury work experiences and underscore the importance of considering person-job fit as a central goal of post-SCI vocational integration. Sponsorship Research funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, grant number 212355.