Section IV: Human Performance Technology

Human Performance

A current peformance problem that my district is facing is low attendence. In the past couple of years the district made extra efforts in communicating the importance of student attendence to parents through the district's web site, flyers, formal and informal meetings, incentives, etc., and it made a positive impact. Student attendance across the district has improved considerably. However this year the district is focusing on staff attendance. The new superintendant has made staff attendance his primary focus and has put pressure on the principals to improve staff attendance on their campuses. Currently teachers have 10 days they can use for absences during the school year. Five are from the state and five are from the district that can be used for personal reasons such as personal or family illness, jury duty, death in the family, military service, etc. The superintendant has communicated that the district days are a priviledge and a possible consequence for continued low staff attendance could be the loss of the district days. My campus has the second worst staff attendance rate in the district. The breakdown of the campus staff is one principal, one Spec. Ed. coordinator, 18 teachers, two RNs, four LVNs, four food service employees, four custodians, and 82 instructional assistants. The campus is considered a speciality campus and provides a range of services to a diverse student population. Students range in age from 11 to 22 years and can have any of the following disabilities: medically-fragile with extensive health care support, have severe/profound, moderate, or high functioning intellecutal disabilities, and/or behavior disorders (Autism, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant, etc.) with most students having a combination of intellectual, emotional, and physical disorders. The new principal has really worked hard to boost morale. She realizes that employees have an increase of physical, mental, and emotional stress that goes with working with our student population. She holds weekly pep-rallies and recognizes individual efforts, presents a spirit stick for staff that go beyond what is expected, passes out jeans-day passes on radom days for employees that sign in on time, and also bi-monthly drawings for gift cards for employees that have not missed a day in a two-week period. She has also created leadership teams and IA forums where staff have input and have an opportunity to collaborate on how to improve working conditions and environment. The week before the Thanksgiving holiday she announced that she wants to have staff volleyball games with a final tournament game to conclude on the week before winter break. While she knows she can not enforce participation she has allotted 15 minutes at the end of the day so that everyone can participate and still leave on time. The principal is focusing on trying to get the staff more personable and cohesive. Professional staff is outnumbered by auxillary staff so she realizes the importance of having a team approach and fun at work.  

Performance Support Systems

Performance support systems provide functional support. Performance support helps learners recall what they learned through instruction or it can be instructional. Performance support can be print-based, electronic or personal.

For a person to perform job related tasks they have to be present in the working environment. I also feel a person needs to be in attendance for performance support systems to be effective. I do not think that a person who regularly misses work would voluntarily reach out and seek supports; personal, electronic, or otherwise. The person could be knowledgeable and capable of his job assignment but other factors may contribute to why he regularly misses work. I feel work ethic, whether positive or negative, is learned through up-bringing and/or education. A person who seeks employment only to get a paycheck is extrinsically motivated. Peformance supports such as rewards, recognition, and other incentives would be effective when they are in attendance.  

 

Management Systems

Low employee attendance could be because of lack of interest, lack of enthusiasm or burn out. Administrators and teacher-leaders may want to consider the following to increase employee morale:

• Get the employees involved by asking them for suggestions or resolutions on matters concerning the department. In most instances, employees are willing to impart their ideas on the issues of attendance and morale. Being asked to help in solving problems makes people feel they are a part of the solution.
• Find out from employees where they feel additional training is needed. Ongoing coaching should be provided. Allow them the opportunity to cross-train in different areas, train with a mentor, bring in professionals so they can have their questions answered, etc.
• Performance improvement plans (which include counseling, verbal/written warnings, etc.) should be implemented for persons with excessive tardies and/or high absences.
• When people are satisfied in their jobs and they consider themselves an essential part of the company, they are more apt to achieve regular attendance and report to work on time. Developing this kind of enduring employee confidence require constant and constructive communication with the employees and continuous acknowledgment.
• Communicate with their employees in such a way that they would become aware that their contributions matter. When given significance in what they do, they are more likely to feel a sense of delight and satisfaction in their work. An effective and exceptional way of doing that is by associating the work they do regularly to customer satisfaction and the company's accomplishments.
• Successes in the school should be celebrated. Look for means to convey to the entire staff the achievements of each individual.
• Create a fun and energetic work environment.

Informal Learning

My most recent experiences in informal learning has been as a student-teacher mentor and a student-librarian mentee. Whether I was the "teacher" or the "learner" both experiences allowed for on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, and socialization. Through working with a college student I learned what information and practices are currently being taught to college education students. I was fortunate to have two librarian mentors and with their guidance I was able to apply what I had read and learned about library procedures in real-world context. The knowledge could be codified and managed in different areas of the media center but the best learning is done through personal experience and on-the-job training. There are many situations that present themselves that are not textbook cases. I was not surprised by the following statistics in the graph shown.