SWORTC News

                                    SWORTC HOME | SWORTC NEWS | SWORTC Contact | SWORTC Schedule | SWORTC Links  | What's Up?

Southwest RTC Spotlight

Welcome - Ladonna Johnson

ITNA vs. Performance Evaluation

Developmental Timeline

The SWORTC welcomes Ladonna Johnson to the regional training center.  Ladonna comes to us from Hamilton County Children's Services.  She served there as the Foster Parent Training Coordinator.  She has come through the ranks of HCJFS, starting out as a case aide, then to an ongoing caseworker.  She began her role as Foster Parent Training Coordinator two years ago.  She also serves as an instructor for the University of Cincinnati, Clermont College.  She is the proud mother of two children.   

Her primary responsibilities will revolve around all aspects of foster parent training as the OCWTP takes on that responsibility beginning January 1, 2004.   She will work with all eight southwestern counties, coordinating both pre-service and ongoing training.  We are extremely pleased to have her on board.

The OCWTP Statewide Assessment is complete.  The child welfare staff in this state responded very well to the focus groups and key informant sessions that were held statewide.   The Assessment Report is near completion and will be disseminated very soon along with an Executive Summary.  The next step in this developmental process is to take the information that was gathered and apply it to the Universe of Competencies which will more accurately reflect the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by caseworkers and supervisors.  Once the Universe of Competencies is complete, they will then be applied to a revision to both Supervisor and Caseworker Core.  It is expected that both Core programs will be much more hands-on and easily applied to the job. 

Developmental Timeline

ITNA vs. Performance Evaluation
COMPETENCY-BASED INDIVIDUAL TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT VS.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION   (Posted with permission from the Institute for Human Services, 01/01)
By Patti Beekman, Institute for Human Services

Why is it so important to make a clear distinction between Individual Training Needs Assessment and Employee Performance Evaluation?

The Individual Training Needs Assessment (ITNA) is an instrument that will identify priority training needs of individuals. The ITNA determines training needs by asking the worker to determine his/her current level of mastery of knowledge and skills that are needed for tasks he performs on the job. The supervisor should be involved in the needs assessment with the worker.

A worker will not feel comfortable in acknowledging that he/she needs additional knowledge and skill development in a particular area of their work, if he thinks that divulging that information will reflect badly upon him in performance evaluation.  What is the point of completing training needs assessments, if the worker cannot be honest about his knowledge and skill needs?

HERE ARE THE POINTS!

* It is the responsibility of the organization to train its workers in the knowledge and skills needed to do these difficult jobs.

* A worker is not expected to come into these difficult jobs having all the knowledge and skill they need. Even a college degree does not sufficiently prepare a worker for the intricacies of the work.

*Training Needs Assessment measures whether or not the worker has the ability (ie, the requisite knowledge and skills) to do tasks that are important to his specific job.

*Performance Evaluation measures whether or not the worker is actually doing it.

The central questions in performance evaluation are:

1) "Is the worker performing job tasks to expectations?", and
2) "If not, why not?"

One reason that the worker may not perform a job task adequately is because he/she does not know how to do it-does not have the knowledge and skills needed.

Other reasons for non-performance include "non-training barriers" to performance. These non-training barriers may include:
* Too many cases-he knows how to do it, but cannot get it all done!
* Personal issues---burnout, motivation issues, problems at home
* Inadequate supervision
* Negative result for performance---the best worker is given the largest load, and most difficult cases

Training will only help a performance problem if the worker does not know how to the job tasks. Training is the "golden key" to performance improvement only if the "lock" to the performance problem is a lack of knowledge and skill.

If the supervisor sends the worker to training as a panacea for a performance discrepancy, but the worker already knows how to do it, will the performance improve? No!

And then what will be the supervisor's attitude about the worth of the training system? "I sent my worker to training for you to "fix" them, and the performance issue is no better.....It was bad training, and this is not an effective training system!"

HOWEVER, IF the supervisor had completed an ITNA with the worker, and clearly understands how to analyze a performance discrepancy to determine if the cause is a deficiency of knowledge and skill or a non--training barrier to performance, THEN:
* Staff will not waste time in training sessions they do not need;
* Staff will attend training in knowledge and skills that they do need;
* The supervisor can realistically address the performance discrepancy with the worker, using appropriate strategies depending if the discrepancy be the result of a lack of knowledge and skill, or of a non-training barrier
to performance.

THE ORGANIZATION WILL BE SENDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE TO THE
RIGHT TRAINING

Training is a Management Intervention. The supervisor must make an accurate analysis of the reason behind the performance problem. If the worker does not know how to do essential tasks on his/her job description, then training is the appropriate intervention. HOWEVER, if there are non-training barriers that lead to the performance problem, then other management interventions must be applied.