Evaluating Performance and Training Needs - Essay Example

Evaluating Performance and Training Needs Evaluating Performance and Training Needs The HPI Model The ATD Human PerformanceImprovement (HPI) Model is a strategic approach and systematic process of identifying and analyzing the fundamental cause of performance issues, as well as implementing big picture solutions across the organization (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). The HPI Model is both a structured and strategic approach that involves the use of business goals to drive performance. First, the organization determines desired performance and aims to maximize its systems, processes and people to achieve extraordinary results. The business analysis section of the Model determines business goals and articulates relationship to human performance (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). On the other hand, the Model contains performance analysis, which basically focuses on desired performance state. Cause-Analysis encompasses the knowledge/skills, motives, physical resources, structure/process, information, and wellness. Solution selection, on the other hand, includes type of root cause, match solutions, and recommendations. Since HPI Model is both an art and science, it plays an integral part to helping the organization becoming faster and better at accomplishing its goals and purpose (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). In general, HPI aims to make a direct, positive impact on various business outcomes. The ATP Human Performance Improvement (HPI) Certificate provides a detailed analysis on HPI elements, often presented in an interactive, engaging way. The principle of HPI in an organizational setting is an established or proven way for obtaining results. The three vital components of HPI include linking the organization goals to human performance, outlining a strategy finding and addressing performance gaps, and describing a process for assessing and evaluating the impact of HPI solutions. The American National Red Cross Performance Evaluation Using HPI Model Worker’s Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… Job/Classification/Title: …………………………………………………………………………… Department: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. Supervisor/Manager Name and Title: ……………………………………………………..……………………………………………. Review Period: ………………………………………………………………………………….. Review Type and Date: From………………………………To………………………………… Purpose: The purpose of evaluation plan is to provide a summary of feedback to workers/volunteers of American National Red Cross (American Red Cross) on their performance for the year. The plan also provides clear goals and development strategies for the coming year. Founded in 1881, the American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency education and assistance, and disaster relief inside the US. Gail J. McGovern is the current CEO while Clara Barton is the founder. Instructions Please complete each section of the form below Section 1: Evaluation of Past Year Section 2: Plan for Coming Year Section 1A: Job Responsibilities Section 2A: Goals for Coming Year Section 1B: Individual Goals Section 2B: Development Plan Section 1C: Behaviors Section 1D: Manager’s Overall Evaluation Business Analysis Organizational Analysis Goals Relationship to Human performance Performance Analysis Desired Performance GAP Actual Performance Summative Evaluation Formative Evaluation Cause Analysis Knowledge/Skills Motives Physical Resources Structure/Process Information Solution Selection Type of root cause Match solutions recommendations Solution Implementation Manage the Project/Initiative Helping the organization adapt to changes Gather formative evaluation data The Evaluation plan for the Training Initiative (ADDIE Model) The ADDIE Model refers to a list of generic processes mainly used by training developers and instructional designers. It is also a guideline for building efficient performance and training support tools. The five phases of ADDIE Model include analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. Analysis Assess Needs Determine Goals Review –“As-Is” Define “To-Be” Define Gaps Identify Audiences Define Content Define Delivery Design Identify Objectives Learning Maps Outline Content Define Storyboards Create Strategies Identify Interactions Development Assessments Development Author Content Create Tools Create Assets Create Tests Feedback Process Implementation Deliver Materials Provide Access Conduct Training Learner Support Plan Evaluation Goals Achieved Conduct Assessment Review Effectiveness Defining Improvements Lessons learned Performance evaluation Modern organizations need to evaluate the performance of their employees to determine their productivity, competency, and efficiency in line with the vision, objectives and goals of the organization. Many organizations reward highly competent, productive employees and retrench or even sack unproductive, inept staff (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). Employee rewards at the organization settings may include job promotions and monetary compensation. Performance or an employee’s ability to perform his duties effectively and efficiently also forms the basis or foundation of recruitment. For instance, an interview panel for new staff recruitment initiative vastly considers candidate’s past job experiences in addition to their academic and professional qualifications. Candidates with extensive work experience in relevant field are more likely to secure employment with the organization as opposed to those with little or no experience at all. Although experience is vital to a potential employee’s ultimate consideration for the job, he/she should also demonstrate in action and explanation about their said experience in the field (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). In circumstances where candidates lack the necessary expertise, the organization might consider recruiting suitors with relevant academic and professional qualifications and have successfully demonstrated their understanding of the impending duties and responsibilities. Meanwhile, contemporary organizations have taken employee recruitment and performance evaluation to a whole new level (Van Tiem, Moseley & Dessinger, 2012). Today, employers consider even potential employee’s conduct or participation in social media to determine employability and ability to adapt and respect the rules/policies that govern or determine their conduct at the organization. For instance, a job applicant with positive social media reputation would stand a better chance to secure employment at an organization. On the other hand, workers with negative repute on social networks may miss out in the ultimate list or even lose his job altogether – to those already employed by the organization. Generally, both the employer and employee play an integral role to ensure that the staff and potential employees meet the goals and expectations of the organization (Jarche, 2009). For instance, an employee must observe the laid down procedures in the workplace and carry out the assigned tasks to the expectation of the employer. On the other hand, the employer must spell out the duties, responsibilities and specify both academic and professional qualifications – for staff joining the organization. Also, the management should assert explicitly the rules/organizations – as well as state work ethics, performance standards, and expectations required of new employees joining the entity (Jarche, 2009). Many organizations have fallen short of meeting their goals and expectations primarily because they failed to share performance goals and objectives – both in the short-term and long-term. Additionally, modern organizations are looking forward to evaluating the performance of individual employees based on the overall performance of the enterprise during a given trading period. In essence, a substantial growth in revenues and expansion of the organization would be considered to have resulted from diligence and commitment of all employees toward meeting the set goals. Some agencies may consider significant drop in revenues and growth prospects as an outcome of laxity of individual workers in achieving the objectives and targets set out by the organization. Nevertheless, virtually all organizations have invented techniques or mechanisms to help them evaluate performance of individual employees. Ordinarily, it becomes easy to determine hard workers and lazy staff, as well as to estimate employability of particular employees in future (Jarche, 2009). The organization might also consider employee certain performance indicators and evaluation techniques to reward diligent staff and chastise underperforming employees. In general, an organization may evaluate individual performance based on the initial requirement, expectation, improvement, and satisfaction levels. For instance, an employee could be lacking in requirements or exceeding in relation to the initial or standard requirements. Similarly, an employee meet, fall short or exceed the expectations. Employees who meet or exceed what the entity expects of them normally earn promotions and other types of rewards (Jarche, 2009). On the other hand, those who fail to meet the expectations risk losing their jobs to new competent, hardworking staff. The organization may also consider the needs for improvement as the basis for performance evaluation. Although each worker has duties and responsibilities clearly spelt out for them, the organization might still consider assessing his/her performance in every single duty assigned. If the employee does not properly execute certain duties/responsibilities, the organization will provide them a chance to improve in the said areas (Pershing, 2006). Finally, the group may consider satisfaction level as the basis of performance evaluation. As a result, the performance of a typical employee might be satisfactory, slightly satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Employees whose performance is unsatisfactory or slightly satisfactory may lose out in the future plans of the organization because their contribution add little to the overall output levels. It is important that organizations evaluate their staff regularly to avoid massive losses in the long-run mainly resulting from unproductive and incompetent personnel (Pershing, 2006). The organization should convey the feedback of the evaluation process to respective employees. The feedbacks will enable individual employees to assess and analyze performance evaluation criteria used and embark on improving in areas they performed dismally. Overall, performance evaluation system comprises five fundamental steps, which include developing an evaluation form, identifying performance measures, setting guidelines for feedback, creating disciplinary and termination procedures, and setting an evaluation schedule. Typically, an organization should conduct performance evaluation objectively, fairly and consistently to protect interests of employees and to protect the criteria from legal liability (Pershing, 2006). Accordingly, a standard evaluation form would be vital to conducting each evaluation. The form should basically focus on the primary job performance areas. Incidentally, limited areas of focus would make the assessment more relevant and meaningful, as well as allow the employer to address key issues without necessarily covering every detail of individual employee’s performance. The organization should employ standard performance measures as they will foster more objective assessment and evaluation of employee’s job performance (Pershing, 2006). Besides, the standard performance measures will cut down on the stress involved and amount of time needed to fill out the evaluation form. Nevertheless, standard criteria for measuring performance may not work for particular subjective areas. The organization should then set guidelines for feedback – the goal/purpose of performance evaluations (Chicago, 2012). The entity should give a fairly balanced feedback, outline expectations for improvement, encourage feedback from the employee, and create disciplinary and termination procedures. Verbal warning, written warning, and termination are the most common procedures/tools to deal with underperforming employees. Lastly, the organization should set an evaluation schedule in the already built performance evaluation system. However, the organization should consider appropriate timing to conduct the performance evaluations (Chicago, 2012). Performance evaluation is a key component of practice structure of virtually all modern organizations. It ensures accountability and fairness, promotes growth and development, and encourages in each employee’s contribution to the practice. Training initiative Training is part of the organization’s long-term initiatives to advance capacity building. It is also essential for success of an organization. Most employees, today, need training primarily to improve their interpersonal skills, foster communication skills, manage change, enhance teamwork and customer service, and promote leadership development (Chicago, 2012). According to a survey of 200 organizations conducted Manchester Inc. (a career management-consulting firm), most employees today need training in leadership development. Apparently, many contemporary organizations are seeking to improve or advance their recruitment and retention of executives and key managers. Besides, these organizations are more interested in improving leadership skills and abilities of employees they already have, as well as providing them with training needs on the additional responsibilities (Chicago, 2012). In particular, the organizations are keen to train the existing executives and senior employees in communication skills, interpersonal skills, teamwork, and change management. Training is vital since it educates employees about effective use of technology, ensures a competitive edge in the market, and promotes health and safety among employees. It also creates fresh opportunities for personal growth and career development, helps employers comply with regulations and laws and improves profitability and productivity (Gary, 2010). Meanwhile, training of employees is recommended for several federal laws, including Occupational Safety and Health Act. In addition, federal laws recommend training on ethics and sexual harassment (Gary, 2010). An organization must demonstrate that it has successfully implemented compliance and ethics program by offering employees with compliance and ethics training. The Federal Sentencing Commission maintains that an organization/company that has put in place effective compliance and ethics program can reduce fines for a criminal conviction by more than 90 percent. Employers with nonexistent or thin training programs normally experience the negative aspects of compliance and ethics program in addition to greater legal exposure (Jones, 2013). In particular, employers with high employee turnover spend less on training and train less compared to other organizations. Ordinarily, the training subjects include diversity, business ethics, sexual harassment, workplace safety, customer service skills, and managing challenging employees (Jones, 2013). Any training initiative must take into consideration the growing need to improve employee performance in the workplace and enhance compliance with federal laws. However, an organization must initiate the most effective training and performance improvement approach to maximize workplace performance, especially by reducing performance gaps and keeping it aware of the gender and cultural differences (Jones, 2013). A change plan and model for the initiative will particularly assist to improve individual employee’s performance. Recommendations Performance appraisal/evaluation plan is vital for any business organization. The plan is crucial for evaluating the ultimate achievements of individual employees in relation to set goals and objectives. Employees need to show creativity, teamwork, initiative and innovation in the attempt to positively impact the organization. A rating scale would also help to overall performance of employees and the organization in entirety. Workers who meet or exceed what the organization expected of them usually earn promotions and other rewards. On the other hand, those who fail to meet expectations risk losing their jobs to new competent, hardworking staff. The organization should also consider the needs for improvement as the basis for performance evaluation. Although each worker has duties and responsibilities clearly spelt out, the organization should still consider assessing performance of the employee in all assigned duties. If the employee does not execute certain duties/responsibilities appropriately, the organization will provide them a chance to improve in the said areas. Lastly, the organization may consider satisfaction level as the basis of performance evaluation. As a result, the performance of a typical employee might be satisfactory, slightly satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Employees whose performance is unsatisfactory or slightly satisfactory may lose out in the future plans of the organization because their contribution add little to the overall output levels. It is important that organizations assess and evaluate their staff regularly to avoid massive losses in the long-run mainly resulting from unproductive and incompetent personnel. In summary, the definitions and approaches utilized to evaluate organizational performance have evolved over the years. The evaluation plan and training initiative provide a comprehensive summary of feedback to employees/volunteers of American National Red Cross (or American Red Cross) on their performance for the year. The plan also provides clear goals and development strategies for the coming year (Jones, 2013). The American Red Cross not only prevents but also alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies. The principles of this humanitarian organization include humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. The evaluation plan for the training initiative, on the other hand, provides detailed analysis of the training approaches, the benefits and challenges of American Red Cross and other contemporary organizations (Jones, 2013). Apart from the primary purpose of improving employee performance in the organization, training is vital for employees’ personal gains. References Binder, C. (1998). The Six Boxes: A descendent of Gilberts Behavior Engineering Model. Performance Review, 48-52. http://www.binder-riha.com/sixboxes.pdf Chicago, ISPI. (2012, April 16). Judy Hale on Chicago ISPI and Human Performance Technology Video File. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiBsWkPARA Gary, Platt. (2010, June 24). From Performance Gap to Needs Analysis Video File. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJKowt50a0Y Genesis webmaster. (2010, June 22). Training and Performance Improvement Video File. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3SfLpuzz0Q Jarche, H. (2009). The future of the training department. Life in Perpetual Beta. http://www.jarche.com/2009/10/the-future-of-the-training-department-2/ Jones, M. M. (2013). The American Red Cross from Clara Barton to the New Deal. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Magyar, C. I. (2011). Developing and evaluating educational programs for students with autism. New York, NY: Springer. Pershing, J. A. (Ed.). (2006). Handbook of human performance technology. San Francisco, CA http://learningnewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/handbook_of_hpt_third_edition.pdf Van Tiem, D., Moseley, J. L., & Dessinger, J. C. (2012). Fundamentals of performance improvement: A guide to improving people, process, and performance. 3rd ed. Pfeiffer. ISBN: 978-1-1180-2524-6 Read More